Richie McCaw has home-nation clean sweep on his mind

NEW Zealand captain Richie McCaw has made no bones about the fact that his team will arrive in the UK next week determined to claim only a third-ever 'Grand Slam' sweep of the home nations, but he insisted too that he believes his team are eminently beatable.

The All Blacks returned to the top of the IRB World Rankings this year after a stunning clean sweep of the Tri-Nations, coming from behind in their final match to beat Australia last month in a game they looked destined to lose. That took their run of wins to 15 and leaves the possibility of the team, coached by Graham Henry, overtaking the historic record of 17 consecutive victories held jointly by 1960s All Blacks and Nick Mallet's South Africa of the Nineties, if they defeat Australia, England and Scotland.

McCaw's men meet their neighbours again this weekend in Hong Kong en route to London where they launch the four-Test series against England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and while the skipper acknowledged that a World Cup win in his homeland next year was the biggest prize his compatriots could envisage, that did not mean they would be taking the eye off the ball over the next five weeks.

"We have a definite goal on this tour," McCaw said, "and through the five Tests: to improve, because where we are this year won't be good enough next year. You talk about the importance of World Cups and four-year cycles, well, obviously they are important, but the All Blacks' attitude is that it's not acceptable to turn up and not perform this year or next, you've got to do it every week. Every team can be beaten; there's no doubt about that. If you don't turn up and get it dead right you can be beaten and you certainly don't go out there thinking you are a whole lot better than everyone else."