Richie McCaw has backed the All Blacks coaching team and expressed an interest in captaining the side again in the future.

The 26-year-old skipper urged New Zealand rugby not to start from scratch after the disappointing World Cup exit.

McCaw, who has re-signed for two years with the New Zealand Rugby Union, paid tribute to coaches Graham Henry, Steve Hansen and Wayne Smith for their four years' service.

He said the All Blacks had come a long way from "the first Tri-Nations after they took over where we had a bit of a shaky start to where we got to with the depth of players and some of the rugby we were playing.

"A helluva lot of that comes back to the coaches and the vision of how they were going to get this team running.

"All three of them have got different strengths they bring to this team and they work really well together."

McCaw has worked closely with the coaching team during their tenure, but in particular these last two years after taking over the leadership from Tana Umaga.

"As a captain, you always know there's not going to be anything left out and (the coaches) will all contribute and have the right say.

"They've had a vision of how they want this team to go and they've allowed players to lead it, really. When you're leading it you feel like you're doing it yourself you buy into it a lot more and take the team by the scruff of the neck.

"That's what these coaches have allowed to happen for the last four years and that's a great testament to them."

McCaw said while some current All Blacks were leaving for overseas, a lot would be around next year "regardless of who's there and who's not (as coaches)".

"A lot of things that have happened in the last three years hasn't suddenly become no good because we've lost one game. A lot of good things have happened, the way guys get introduced to how things go.

"You'd hate to see that start from scratch now. Sure there may be things you tweak as time goes on. But there's a lot of things that happen now that you'd like to carry on because they work pretty well."

McCaw said it was "a huge honour and privilege" to be All Blacks captain.

"If time goes on, if I'm still wanted as captain, I'd enjoy doing that, but we'll see what happens when we get back and next year starts up. It'll be someone else's decision; we'll just wait and see."

McCaw said the All Blacks' 20-18 loss to France was like "a bad dream" - one he hoped he would "wake up from".

It was McCaw's second unsuccessful World Cup campaign after the 2003 semifinal loss to Australia in Sydney.

But he said yesterday's feeling was different.

"In '03 it felt like we didn't fire a shot. Last night we were firing shots, they may not have been hitting the target all the time, but we were giving it a go right to the end.

"The guys actually believed we could have got up and we could do something to get out of that game but it wasn't to be."