His stance begs the question if he wants to avoid setting his side up for a fall should he talk up a No.2 ranking and they lose at Cape Town, or is wary of a public backlash for such a loss following the mounting scrutiny the team is facing?

Whatever the real answer is, McKenzie's reluctance is at odds with the mindset of a coach who is reputed for his supposed penchant to setting milestones en route to greater glory – in the Wallabies' case, that being victory in next year's World Cup.

That is not to say he will not use a potential No.2 ranking as a motivational tool within the inner sanctum of the Wallabies, who assembled in Sydney on Friday for a weekend training camp before flying to South Africa on Monday on a two-week tour that includes a second Test against the Pumas at Mendoza in Argentina.

But asked on Friday how important securing the No.2 ranking would be, McKenzie spoke only of making improvement and being prepared to take risks in selection to gain it, alluding to some of his publicly questioned selections so far.

"In high-performance business you try to be the best your can," McKenzie said.

"You are not going to sit there and double air punch if you are No.3, 4 or 5. You are going to try to do better. People have to recognise that to get to No.2 – No. 2 and No.1 are always improving – so to get ahead you have to take risks.

"Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards. Sometimes you have to make decisions that have a bit more risk in them. If you are just going to make pragmatic and conservative decisions all the time, it is hard to see how you are going to jump ahead of two and how do you catch one.

"You don't want to catch one. You have to get ahead of one. And to catch one is difficult because one is always improving … theoretically.

"So you are going to take more risks … chance your arm around more selections, or some of the ideas you take into a game. Maybe you don't get it right, but if you take the pragmatic or conservative approach all the time it's hard to see how you are going to catch up."

Then, when reminded that a No.2 ranking for the Wallabies still beckoned next Saturday, McKenzie just said: "Yeah, well I'm not going to answer that question.

"All I will say is how did we suddenly put ourselves in a position to be No.2? How does that happen? Tell me how that happens … "

Told it is from getting closer to No.2 by moving up the rankings, McKenzie said:

"Right … and how does that happen? [It is] through consistency, through being able to win games and being able to win away from home and things like that."

Which if the Wallabies do against the Springboks in Cape Town means they will move up to No.2 – albeit a distant second to the All Blacks.