Old AB heads delighted

Richie McCaw and Brad Thorn recounted their delight in clinching the Tri-Nations with their last-gasp win over South Africa on Saturday.

McCaw was especially happy that his team appeared to have got over the problems of coping with being under heavy pressure, as they dug deep to shut out the noice of 90,000 fans and grab the win.

"It was an amazing stadium, the atmosphere was incredible with all that din, and you can either let that get on top of you or keep talking to each other," said McCaw.

"Sometimes you can feel really alone out there if things aren't going your way, but as rugby players, you want to test yourselves in these sort of situations. There's not much more pressure than playing the Springboks over here, but to come out of it on top shows great character," McCaw said.

Himself, he said he had continued almost to expect the win to come as long as New Zealand kept the ball in hand and looked to keep playing their own game.

"In the second half, we managed to get a bit of field position and I never really felt we were struggling," he said.

"I always felt the points would come, we just needed to get into the right places and you need guys that don't drop their lips, that keep their composure.

"But I'm very privileged and proud to lead an All Blacks team like this, there are guys all around who've played a helluva lot of test matches and that makes my job a lot easier."

Ultimately, the win could have been far more comfortable. South Africa made twice as many tackles as New Zealand and had Dan Cater not had an off-day with the boot there would have been no need for the last-gasp heroics from Ma'a Nonu and Israel Dagg.

"Defending the whole time does make it hard, which is why we like to keep ball in hand, we play best that way," said Thorn.

"There's a lot of belief in this team and we felt that something was building even from 20 minutes out. We felt we were getting close, we didn't need to say much, we just needed to persevere.

So that's that for titles this year, and only the World Cup now remains for the All Blacks to get into the trophy cabinet next year in New Zealand.

After their marvellous year, the All Blacks are now hot favourites, but they have been down that road before as well.

"From experience, I can tell you that you can only do anything about next year, next year," said Thorn.

"England played four years of poor rugby and then they made the last World Cup final. If you're getting excited 14 months out from the World Cup, then you're not basing it on anything real.

"The World Cup is a six-week block and the team that gets their momentum going then will do well."