The All Blacks have knuckled down to the Rugby World Cup nitty-gritty with an intense training session at Lensbury in south-west London, the defending champions ramping up preparations with a physical hit-out that left them counting the bruises.

The players had been hanging out for some contact after they had been busy with promotional activities over the previous four days, utility back Colin Slade said.

"For a couple of days here we've been doing promotional stuff," Slade said.

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"The boys haven't been able to touch a rugby ball for a couple of days so the boys were a bit itchy. Today was a bit about physicality. There was a bit of contact out there and it was good to get that out of the system."

Slade has grim memories of the All Blacks' last meeting against Argentina at the Rugby World Cup, a match the New Zealanders won 33-10 after Argentina led 7-6 midway through the first half. Slade's World Cup was cut short when he aggravated a groin injury half-an-hour into the 2011 quarter-final.

"They came out firing and they got on top of us early, and for me personally it wasn't the funnest night at the office," he said.

Slade said the All Blacks had battled hard to work their way back into that game, and he expected that a similar attitude would be essential at Wembley on Sunday. "We talked about hanging in there and finishing off well towards the end of the game, and if that's what it takes this game, we're more than ready for it."

The All Blacks have already beaten Argentina this year, their emphatic 39-18 win in the Rugby Championship two months ago coming over a side missing some key players.

But Slade, who sat on the reserves bench for that match, says the All Blacks saw enough to know what to expect from the Pumas. "They're going to come out firing, we're expecting that, and we just need to be able to handle that."