Hamish Bond and Eric Murray, the red-hot favourites, are confident of winning their third world pairs title in a row in Bled, Slovenia.
"We know we have the speed but it is about turning up on the day," Bond told the Otago Daily Times from Europe. "There are plenty of favourites who have gone down on the day."
Bond sees it as a game of probabilities.
"We are trying to stack the odds in our favour," he said. "We have trained harder this year and are fitter and faster."
New Zealand rowers do not have as much international racing as crews in Europe and make up for it by having tough time trials among themselves.
The training partners for Bond and Murray have been the women's quadruple sculls and the heavyweight and lightweight double sculls.
"Our times have been as good as they have ever been. We can't be over-confident but the signs are good," Bond said.
The main opposition will come from the Great Britain pair of Peter Reed and Andrew Triggs-Hodge. The Brits ran the New Zealanders close at Lake Karapiro last year, and have won gold medals at the Olympics and world championships in the past.
"It is the top rivalry in world rowing circles at the moment," Bond said. "It has brought more interest to our event.
"We have come out on top every time but there are expectations from English supporters that they will tip us over."
The Canadians, who were second at the Olympics in 2008, have come back as well.
'We want to get out in front and dominate the other crews physically and psychologically. We can influence how the crews row by exerting pressure on them," Bond said.
Bond and Murray learn the most from hard races.
"I don't think it will be any easier physically," Bond said. "But we are accustomed to racing and pushing ourselves to the limits.
"You know what you are feeling during a race and what your capabilities are. You never want to go into a race thinking it is going to be easy."
Bond had some doubts before the World Cup wins in Hamburg and Lucerne.
"It is a long period between drinks," Bond said. "There is nine months when we don't have any international racing. We are never quite sure how we will stack up when we get back overseas."
In Lucerne, Bond and Murray beat the crews they will race against at Bled next week.
"We knew we were going well when we trained in New Zealand," Bond said. "We were about five seconds better than last year. We know that other crews will need a big improvement."
The Lucerne regatta gave Bond and Murray a gauge on their competition.
"But we probably learnt more about our own racing," Bond said. "Each race adds to our experience. We just targeted a few things we wanted to focus on."
Bond and Murray have spent the past seven weeks training with the New Zealand squad in Belgium.
They learnt from last year's world championships when they fell into the trap of concentrating more on their opponents than their own performance.
"We were more worried about beating the opposition than going as fast as we could," he said. "We always need to keep looking forward."
They have made a few changes since last year's world championships.
"We made a few subtle changes to the set-up of the boat to make it go faster," Bond said. "We now feel more comfortable in the boat and it is easier to improve our technique."
Bond and Murray trained in Belgium for seven weeks before moving to Bled.
"The weather hasn't been great but all we want is good food, good water to row on and a decent sleep."
Bond has one eye on next year's Olympic Games in London.
"We have confidence in our ability but know that we are not infallible," Bond said. "If we lost a race, it would be open slather and everyone would know that we would be ripe for the picking."
Bond did not feel much pressure at their training base in Belgium.
"Everyone gets on together and we are working well as a team. We want to come out on top in our internal racing because it gives us bragging rights the next couple of weeks."
He admits there will be some pressure when all the teams come together at Bled.
"But at the end of the day, we must have faith in our abilities. There is no reason to change what we have been doing recently."
