New Zealand captain Sam Cane hopes their record defeat by South Africa might prove a blessing in disguise ahead of the World Cup in France where they will be one of the favourites.
The All Blacks suffered their heaviest test defeat in losing 35-7 at Twickenham to the Springboks in a warm-up game on Friday and have since moved onto their training camp in Germany.
“With a couple of days to settle I think we’ll look back and hopefully take the lessons we have from the game and implement them,” Cane told New Zealand television.
“Then I really hope that we can look back and say we’re glad it happened when it did. But only time will tell. It was a horrible feeling on Friday night and the next day.”
Cane suggested he and the rest of the squad would be putting in extra work to make up for the defeat.
“It’s pretty easy to focus on the work, particularly coming off the game we just had at the weekend,” he said.
The All Blacks play the opening game of the World Cup against hosts France in Paris on September 8 and the skipper said anticipation levels were rising.
“I think it’s probably natural. The build-up has been a long time coming. There is a lot riding on it, we know that, but we’re pretty excited by the challenge and we know that anything can happen.
“All our efforts are going into nailing this first game and we’ll reset and continue that path. It’s cool that it’s finally here,” he added.
