Superstar five-eighth Dan Carter has warned the Wallabies there'll be no let-ups from the relentless All Blacks in Saturday night's Bledisloe Cup showdown in Tokyo.

The All Blacks have already secured trans-Tasman bragging rights for a seventh successive year with a hat-trick of Tri Nations triumphs over the Wallabies in Australia and New Zealand.

But, in an ominous warning to the Wallabies, Carter on Thursday declared the All Blacks ready to deliver the Japanese audience an even greater show of excellence than they displayed in last month's 33-6 hammering in Wellington.

"The way we played in the last Test against them in Wellington is the standard that we want to get to and improve from," Carter told AAP.

"So we've got a challenge to do that this weekend, which is not going to be easy, but we'll be doing everything we can to play to that level, if not more."

Carter said the All Blacks were able to twist the knife into the Wallabies in their last outing after growing in confidence through four straight previous come-from-behind victories over Australia.

"Whenever you can win a tight encounter, it shows that you've got great self-belief within the side," he said.

"You may be down on certain occasions but to come through and win the close ones really does build a team and we've managed to do that a couple of times this year."

Despite his own side's lofty ambitions, Carter knows the Wallabies will be hurting and as tough to knock over as ever.

"They'll be pretty fired up. It's been a tough season for them, especially against us," he said.

"They'll be looking to put one back on us and also get their (spring) tour off to a good start.

"They've picked a lot of ball carriers so we're expecting them to play some running style of rugby against us, so we'll have to be on our game to counter that.

"It's pretty vital that we get our tour off to a good start too and there's no better way of doing that than beating the Wallabies, arch rivals of ours and a quality side."

Carter expected the Test would again most likely be won and lost in the rucks.

"The battle of the breakdown is pretty important in terms of securing the ball and turnovers and we did that extremely well in Wellington," he said.

"We've got a couple of guys in Richie (McCaw) and Adam Thomson who are outstanding at that job in getting in over the ball and forcing turnovers, so it's an area that we'll be really looking to progress in and doing our best in moving forward from the Wellington Test."

Like All Blacks coach Graham Henry, Carter expressed surprised that Australia's most-capped forward, 105-Test flanker George Smith, had been relegated to the bench.

"He's a world-class player and he's a real menace at the breakdowns," Carter said.

"They've obviously gone into this game wanting to pick strong ball-carriers in terms of (Wycliff) Palu and (Rocky) Elsom, so if it's better for the way they want to play by having him on the bench, then that's fine."

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