Those dastardly Kiwis must be getting paranoid about Australia's preparations for this year's Rugby World Cup.

Top Australian players Stephen Larkham and Matthew Burke have rebutted the suggestion of former All Black front rower Norm Hewitt that the Wallabies were keeping their powder dry and "playing dead" through the Super 12 tournament.

Writing in the Sunday News in New Zealand, Hewitt claimed Australia and South Africa were "faking it - trying not to get injured or too hyper at the start of a long season".

"They are only putting in 90 per cent, while Kiwi players are putting in 100."

New Zealand teams currently occupy the top three and four of the top five spots heading into this weekend's last round of the Super 12. Of Australian sides, the Brumbies are fourth, the Waratahs sixth and the Reds eighth.

Australian teams lost eight of ten games against New Zealand opposition prior to last weekend when the Brumbies toppled the Hurricanes in Wellington and the Waratahs defeated the Highlanders in Dunedin.

Experienced Wallaby backs Burke and Larkham suggested the Australians weren't foxing and rejected Hewitt's assertion, but for different reasons.

ACT five-eighth Larkham suggested the erratic form of the Australian teams was probably due to an infusion of new faces.

"It's not so much (a case of) holding back. I think a lot of the New Zealand sides have had good combinations going for a number of years and they have really picked up on that in the beginning of the season," Larkham said.

"The Australian sides have had new combinations that they have had to try and deal with and it's taken a little bit of time."

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