Bledisloe Cup Today Australia vs New Zealand 11:00 SS1BRISBANE - The world champion All Blacks will be knocking on the door of greatness if they can beat Australia to record a 17th successive test victory this weekend.For New Zealand skipper Richie McCaw, however, it is simply a case of maintaining the standards set by the men who have worn the famous black jersey before him.Should New Zealand prevail at Lang Park on Saturday, and few doubt they will, they would match the record for successive test wins by top tier nations held jointly by the All Blacks of the late 1960s and the South Africa team of 1997-98.The world record stands at 18 matches and is held by Lithuania but that mark is undermined by the fact that the Baltic nation did not face a single team that had played in a World Cup when they went unbeaten from 2006 and 2010.McCaw may be following in a long tradition of great All Black players but he is very much a modern athlete and so it was no surprise that when quizzed about the record on Friday, he preferred to talk about the process of winning.“That’s a byproduct of getting our preparation right this week and then performing right tomorrow night,” the 31-year-old flanker told reporters.“There’s a huge desire to play better, and if we do that job right, well then, those things take care of themselves.“I’m not saying it’s not been thought about a little bit, but the first thing is to back up a good performance from two weeks ago.”
