Wallaby captain George Smith says that he is adamant that Australia are finally ready to deliver an 80-minute performance against the All Blacks in Wellington this weekend.
Australia have not beaten the All Blacks since last year in Sydney but are the only team that have beaten a full strength Springbok team in a year.
Whilst Australia have not beaten the All Blacks in the last year their record playing New Zealand in New Zealand is even worse as their last victory came nine matches and eight years ago in Dunedin during Smith's first encounter with the All Blacks.
That day Australia won 23-15 but Smith is the only member of the 23-man Australian squad for the match to have ever played in a winning side against the All Blacks in New Zealand which indicates how young the make up of the squad is.
Smith, who will earn his 105th cap in the TriNations series wooden spoon clash on Saturday, acknowledged the dearth of success in New Zealand, but said he was focusing on moving on rather than dwelling on past defeats.
"History is meant to be broken, the boys haven't spoken about that (losing record) at all," Smith told AAP.
"Winning that game in 2001 against the All Blacks in Dunedin, it was a great win."
"Matt Burke scored a fantastic try and we retained the Bledisloe Cup and won that match.
"But my focus is definitely on this game rather than what's happened in the past."
The Wallabies have led New Zealand several times in this year's TriNations and have come frustratingly close to ending their current five-match losing streak against New Zealand but the All Blacks have always finished stronger and finished off the Wallabies at the death.
"The best teams sustain that pressure throughout the match and continue to not allow the opposition team to have any leeway in the way they perform," Smith said.
"That's still the mind frame the boys are going into the game (with), making sure they do sustain the pressure on the All Blacks."
With the TriNations title for 2009 already being handed to the Springboks the result of Saturday's clash will decide who will be placed last but Smith dismissed any suggestion Saturday's game would be a dead rubber
"It means a lot. These games against New Zealand aren't taken lightly and this game we don't want to lose," he said.
Smith and Wallabies coach Robbie Deans are both expecting to face an All Blacks team that will be fully fired up following the criticism handed out after they lost their fourth Test in eight matches.
"Without a doubt it will draw a response," Deans said.
"The fact it's their last outing of the Tri-Nations and it's at home, we are expecting the best from them, but we are really concentrating on bringing our best."
