Springboks are beatable - McCaw

New Zealand captain Richie McCaw will lead his team into the first of two home Tests against South Africa next Saturday insisting the world champions are good but not unbeatable.

McCaw is not used to the feeling of having lost three successive Tests to South Africa, as happened last year, and there is a steely desire to turn those results around in this year's Tri Nations.

‘The Africans are a good team, but they are not a team that is unbeatable either. From our point of view we want to go out and play some good rugby,’ McCaw said.

New Zealand open their Tri Nations campaign with back-to-back Tests against the reigning champions in Auckland on 10 July and Wellington on 17 July.

‘We've got two home Tests and if we get two wins here it sets you off pretty well. If we don't it's tough to win the thing,’ McCaw continued.

‘I think we've got the ability. We just have to make sure we do it for long periods in the game.

‘They (South Africa) don't play as much rugby as we or the Australians do, but what they do, they do very well.

‘They like the set-piece and they like to build pressure and force you into mistakes. That's something that perhaps last year we didn't deal with that well.

‘Sometimes you have just got to put that pressure back on them and I think in the couple of games they lost last year teams got into them and unsettled them and were able to get their game going.

‘I think that's what we've got to make sure we do next week.’