Battle-ready TNZ are on the right heading

We all know in rugby that there is no substitute for match-fitness. Sailing is no different. You can have all the training in the world but nothing can prepare a team for the cut and thrust of an America’s Cup showdown like out-and-out matchracing. And while so much off the water has been weighted in the defenders’ favour, on the water this is the one area where a team has a clear advantage and will go a long way to carrying the Kiwis across the line.

Since Oracle parked up after the qualifying series, Team NZ have had 14 of the highest-pressure races they could ask for – honing their skills and testing the boat with their Cup future on the line every time they took to Bermuda’s Great Sound.

Yes, the defenders have had Team Japan to run training drills against.

But given how susceptible these catamarans are to collisions, there is no way Dean Barker would have pushed to the limit simply out of fear of damaging his Oracle overlords’ vessel.

Apart from perhaps the second win over New Zealand to claim the qualifying series and one-point head start for the Cup match, Sunday will be the first time Oracle will compete with something at stake.

It would be akin to the All Blacks heading into a World Cup final against England with nothing but a warmup game against Japan, while the English battled past Ireland and the Springboks.

Whereas Team NZ go into the first-to-seven series battle-hardened and well accustomed to overcoming adversity, Oracle are undercooked and underdone.

The Kiwis have shown the benefits of competing day in, day out. The last of the teams to arrive in Bermuda, they were short of racing heading into the regatta but have looked better and better each time they have hit the water. That is not the only thing they have going for them. Led by skipper Glenn Ashby and boom America’s Cup rookie ‘Pistol’ Peter Burling, the talent on board Aotearoa is undeniable. And should the forecast for the regatta of predominantly light winds, in which they have excelled, prove accurate, it could be the perfect storm for Team NZ.

The starts have been their biggest weakness but fears over how Burling will fare against Jimmy Spithill may be overstated.

Artemis skipper Nathan Outteridge is a master of the start box and the word out of Bermuda was that he consistently got the better of Spithill in training, as well as beating him in their two round-robin races.

Burling, meanwhile, showed he is a quick learner, twice out-smarting Outteridge in the pre-start on the final day of the challenger series, so make of that what you will.

Oracle are a formidable opponent, no one knows that better than Kiwi fans.

But with Ashby the only returning crew member from the spectacular collapse of 2013, this team does not carry the scars from that failed campaign.

They are a new group primed to make their own history. History we will all want to remember.

‘‘Whereas Team NZ go into the first-to-seven series battlehardened and well accustomed to overcoming adversity, Oracle are undercooked and underdone.’’ Marvin France ‘‘You’re inside the heads of four million New Zealanders, who are lapping up your every word. They’re terrified.’’ Andrew Voerman, on Jimmy Spithill