New Zealand on a roll, but say they have a long way to go

New Zealand might have won 14 Tests in a row but Richie McCaw, the All Blacks captain, said his team are far from the finished article.

New Zealand might have won 14 Tests in a row but Richie McCaw, the All Blacks captain, said yesterday his team are far from the finished article as they look towards next year's World Cup on home soil. The All Blacks are on a winning streak stretching back to a narrow loss last year to South Africa, with McCaw not worried that they might be peaking too early ahead of next autumn when they try to lift the World Cup for the first time since 1987.

"We are confident. You only peak when you feel you can't get better," the openside flanker said. "We are happy with where we are at, but we are not kidding ourselves either. "We are playing well but we can still get better. There is a lot of potential to do that." Lithuania, the European minnows, hold the 18-win record established over five years before they slumped by 11 points to Ukraine in May in a World Cup qualifier.

To better this mark the All Blacks must defeat Australia in Sydney next month in their final Tri Nations match, and then in Hong Kong in the Bledisloe Cup, before facing England in London, Scotland in Edinburgh and Ireland in Dublin during a November tour of Europe. McCaw insisted the record was not the focus, it was simply winning. "I haven't really thought about it at all," he said. "We want to win every Test regardless. The record is not something that drives us."

The ultimate aim for New Zealand is to win the World Cup in front of their home fans, which was how the All Blacks won their only world title 23 years ago, an accolade McCaw is desperate to add to his resume, having failed to get his hands on the trophy so far. "It doesn't get me down," the 29-year-old said about not being on a winning World Cup team. Meanwhile, Butch James, Jannie du Plessis and Flip van der Merwe are all doubts for South Africa ahead of this week's final Tri Nations encounter against Australia in Bloemfontein. The trio sat out training yesterday but details of their injuries have not been revealed.

* Agencies