All Blacks captain Richie McCaw was satisfied with the way his side got the job done against a weak Springbok team, but warned that they will have to improve on a performance which he described as 'patchy'.

The New Zealanders made great use of the many opportunities handed to them by a Springbok side that did not protect their possession well enough and missed far too many tackles to be competitive at the Westpac Stadium, and the All Black skipper was pleased that his team was able to improve on their performance against Fiji last week.

He commented: "We knew we would have to take a step up from last week (against Fiji), we knew we would have to against the Boks and the physicality also went up a notch. Our set-piece was good and we managed to give our backs a good platform to play from."

McCaw is happy that his side are steadily improving every week as they build towards a World Cup campaign on home soil for which they are the clear favourites, but noted that there will be a fair amount for them to work on this week as they get set to face a more intimidating Wallaby team in Auckland.

"It was a good start, there is still a bit to work on I guess but that is understandable at this time of year. Compared to where we were last week, which I guess was understandable, it was a big step up," he said.

The key for the All Black skipper was the attitude and intensity that his players managed to maintain throughout their 40-7 rout of the Springboks, but he remains convinced that they are capable of getting even better.

He said: "Only you can decide if you are going to bring that, and the excitement of the guys around you - just looking at their body language they were getting off the ground quickly and those are the little things that only you can decide to bring, and I think right across the board we had that tonight.

"I thought that we played pretty well in patches, there is still a bit to work on but the intensity was there and there are a lot of good signs that what we worked on during the week came through," added McCaw.

The All Blacks dominated the set-pieces and the tackle area but the most devastating aspect of their game was the way they finished off the opportunities that were regularly served up to them by the beleaguered Boks.

"That is the key to rugby these days, you don't get a whole lot of opportunities and you have got to take them so for the most part we did pretty well there. We have got to keep working on things but for the most part we are happy with where we got to," McCaw explained.