New Zealand skipper Richie McCaw has demanded a positive reaction from his side when they face England on Saturday.
The All Blacks’ 15-Test winning streak came to an end in a 26-24 defeat to Australia in Hong Kong – and England may be set to pay dearly for that.
“We’re proud of what we’ve done over the last 12 months but there’s a week next week as well,” said McCaw.
“I guess the character of the team is how you get back on the horse. We’ve got a big Test match coming up that we need to make sure we prepare well for and take the lessons out of this game. If you’re a quality team, you’ve got to be able to do that.
“There’s always going to be hiccups along the way, we didn’t perform particularly well and we came second. Strength of character comes through in that situation. Win last week or not it’s about another game next week and that’s how you’ve got to approach it rather than think about streaks.
Lessons
“I think when we look at next week, we take the lessons out of today. Why we made mistakes, that’s what you look at leading into next week. The toughest test is always going to be next week because you don’t get ahead of yourself.
“We’ve got five days to prepare for a big Test match, everyone of them is like that and that’s the attitude we will all have.”
