All Blacks aim for a Championship clean sweep
WITHanother southern hemisphere title locked away, world champions New Zealand would produce undeniable evidence of their current dominance by winning in South Africa in the final round of the Rugby Championship this weekend.
While there have been suggestions the All Blacks might lose some focus after putting 50 points past Argenti- na to convincingly wrap up the competition with a game against the Springboks to spare, the camp yesterday dispelled any thoughts of slowing down against their old rivals at the 94,000-seat Soccer City in Soweto.
A win in South Africa in its own right is highly prized, forwards Sam Kane and Sam Whitelock said.
“We’ve won the championship, but we’ve parked that now,” flanker Cane said. “We’re focused on winning over here. They’ve always been big Test matches and it’s always more rewarding, hearing from the older guys, to win over here because of the challenge.”
But for top-ranked New Zealand, yet another victory would also allow them to finish the inaugural fournation championship with six wins from six and a 16th consecutive Test victory – one off the best winning runs by a top- tier nation, which New Zealand and South Africa share.
“The challenge for us to play well this week and put a solid performance together is huge,” Whitelock said. “With the competition being new, it will be great to start it off with a clean sweep.”
“We talked about last week playing against the Argentinians at home and then coming to play the South Africans here,” Cane said. “They are probably the toughest two places to win in world rugby. If we can do that, we’ll be pretty happy.” – Sapa-AP