WebMail
My BigPond
Richie McCaw leads New Zealand into Sunday's (NZT) clash with England at Twickenham insisting the All Blacks will always prioritise results over entertainment.
Graham Henry's side has beaten Australia, Wales and Italy so far on tour but has grown frustrated at its inability to put opponents to the sword.
With New Zealand's football team qualifying for the World Cup, the All Blacks face competition for the hearts and minds of the nation's public.
An all-action performance against England would nudge the All Whites off the back pages, but McCaw insists scoring tries is secondary to winning.
'People enjoy watching entertaining rugby, they love to see lots of try scoring and we like to play like that,' he said.
'Sometimes it can be physical with not many opportunities but at the end of the day we want to win the game, that's all you can do.
'I love to come off the field having scored four or five tries because that usually means you have won the game.
'We don't want to chuck the ball about because it looks good, we want to win.'
All week the New Zealanders have voiced their respect for an injury-ravaged England team they expect to come out fighting in response to the heavy criticism they have endured this autumn.
Secretly they will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing a side desperately short on world-class talent, but McCaw today stuck to the party line.
'England will be a passionate bunch I'm sure, especially after the last few weeks,' he said.
'They're going to put us under pressure, that's exactly what we are anticipating.
'Is it a good time to play them? I'm not sure, it's always an enjoyable Test when we play England.
'Whenever you play an England team it is always pretty exciting.'
All eyes will be on the first battle between Jonny Wilkinson and Dan Carter in national colours and McCaw admits England's first five-eighths must be stopped at source.
'Jonny is an experienced fella and if you allow him to run with the ball you can end up under pressure,' he said.
'We don't want England to get the ball to him.'
