Australia will be feeling the effects of a tough three weeks when they line out against the All Blacks in Sydney in the final Tri Nations Test next week.
New Zealand coach Graham Henry said playing a third Test match in a row would have some effect on the Australians.
"They're talking themselves up for this Test match in Bloemfontein. They should have won the last one quite frankly. They had the opportunities, they didn't execute on the opportunities and I can understand they think they can win in Bloemfontein and they may well do," Henry said.
They would be highly motivated to win their last two Tests of the campaign to get their ledger right.
"I think they'll be up for the Sydney Test match, I don't think there will be any doubt about that," he said.
Henry explained his rationale in not leaving some members of his squad in New Zealand to play some ITM Cup rugby instead of travelling to Sydney on Sunday.
Players like Benson Stanley and John Afoa who had not had a lot of rugby could have benefited from a game but Henry said he felt it was better all players be in Sydney and involved in the planning meetings that would be held on Sunday rather than arriving on the Monday and catching up on the plans.
Henry said there was also a factor of the All Blacks having returned from South Africa and attempting to play on the Saturday. There was a bit of recovery involved from the trip and the chance they wouldn't be 'quite there'.
Rotation was no longer an option and he explained that when it was involved there had been a very successful period with a lot of depth and the side hadn't experienced the sorts of losses that occurred in 2009. Losing four Tests in nine was not something the coaching group had gone through with the All Blacks before.
"What we wanted to try and do was re-establish a strong All Blacks side which I think we've done but 2006-2007 we had established a very strong All Blacks side which won virtually every game, dropped one a year, and we're in a different mindset," he said.
The earlier phase, with an established team, allowed them to bring in players, give them an opportunity, so that if they lost players in the Rugby World Cup they had back-up players with experience.
And he admitted the side had better than anticipated when starting out on the 2009 campaign.
The seeds for the 14-Test unbeaten run had been sown on last year's Northern tour with the most significant impact achieved in Marseille when beating France.
"That was, quite frankly, beyond my expectation at the time. I thought we played soundly in the Test matches up until then without having any brilliance and I think that set the standard for this year," he said.
Another factor was the consistency of availability, especially among the core leadership group of Richie McCaw, Dan Carter, Conrad Smith, Mils Muliaina and Keven Mealamu, who had played all the matches this year.