McCaw sends warning to All Blacks

Crusaders flanker Richie McCaw has warned his fellow All Blacks not to be complacent as the world’s number one side gear up for the World Cup later this year on home soil with a warm up match against Fiji.

The game, which marks the start of the All Blacks test season with the Tri Nations to come before their world cup campaign, will act as a fund raiser for the victims of the Christchurch Earthquake that forced McCaw’s side to play every one of their Super Rugby home games on the road last season, and the flanker believes New Zealand must have the right approach from the very first game if they are to win rugby’s ultimate prize for the first time since 1987.

“This week has certainly been about making sure we get our stuff sorted,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that when we tackle we get the physicality right, get the little things right at the breakdown, those sort of things.”

“They’ve got players that can play with the ball and if we make the game loose and allow them to chuck the ball around they’re certainly good ball players.”

“Everyone realises that this squad here is only here for the Tri-Nations, so everyone wants to make sure they’re involved later in the year, What we do now is going to hopefully set us up for later in the year and it would be silly not to acknowledge that, but we’ve got to make sure we get it right here first.

“This week has certainly been about making sure we get our stuff sorted,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that when we tackle we get the physicality right, get the little things right at the breakdown, those sort of things.” – Richie McCaw

McCaw admitted the World Cup was in the “back” of their minds, but was hopeful that the Earthquake relief effort could be pushed to the front of the general public’s mind with only 12,500 tickets sold for the game so far.

When it (the earthquake relief effort) is in front of everyone’s mind people want to do what they can, but when you’re not actually in the middle of it, when it goes off the front page, people forget about it and I can totally understand that,” he commented.

“It doesn’t take away the fact that there are people still struggling at home and they’re going to be for a long time.”

Keep checking back for all the latest news and views ahead of the Tri Nations, and keep an eye out for our special world cup features in the build up to the big event later this year. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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