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Richie McCaw

I think the whole world thinks he should be eased out now :)

I am so torn on this, love watching him play, he is just a demon, however with an eye on the world cup we need to think about this. I hope he becomes the most capped player ever, he does deserve that accolade as well.

Not sure how he avoids more frequent sin binning to be honest.

There was one occasion on Saturday when his decision to come in from the side and prevent quick ball was just such that there was absolutely no grounds for defence. It would have been a yellow It had been 15 metres further up the field and I do wonder whether the referee should have been a bit more brazen in response. It would have been no more brazen a thing to do than mccaws decision to stop the phase dead by infringeing.

Seriously dude, can't you stop the whinging for just a minute to applaud the record?


The best example of an incident where we stuck to the law occurred against Australia in 2010 when we won 49-28.

- Early in the game, Drew Mitchell was erroneously given a yellow card for an off the ball tackle. @12:30 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dYYYbIUt4U)
- Later, the All Blacks were marched 10 metres for not allowing Australia to take a quick tap. (from the start https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_p5cr8htu0)
- Rocky Elsom shouted at the referee (Joubert) who said he would watch it for the remainder of the game.
- @1:40 Australia do the same thing and are marched 10 metres. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_p5cr8htu0)
- Genia stops a quick tap from being taken @ 3:40 in the same video. Now Joubert gives a firm warning and says next time it will be yellow. Mitchell is still off the field. Richie can be seen giving a clear message to his team not to infringe any more, Elsom says nothing.
- at 14 minutes in the same video, Ashley-Cooper is bundled into touch and Mitchell prevents C.Smith from taking quick throw when it wasn't even on. Mitchell is given a second yellow card.

The lessons to take out of it were:

-Elsom was a poor captain who spoke disrespectfully to the referee and probably did not pass the message on to Mitchell who was off the field when the warning was given.
- Richie heard the message after his team were marched 10 earlier in the game and they never prevented quick taps again. He also spoke to the referee with respect.

Yup, very smart rugby player, knows where the line in the sand is and while he pushes it all game he knows when enough is enough and communicates with the team.

Richie will probably be regarded as the greatest player of all time in a few years. Its always hard to judge a active player. For NZ I think he has surpassed Fitzpatrick, Lomu and Michael Jones. Colin Meads will always be regarded as the greatest and its impossible to compare generations but McCaws consistency at the very highest level is something Meads never achieved. I can only go by old reports and books but Meads was dropped a few times in his career and the Lions and the Boks used to get the better of us back then.
Yes, he is not the player he was but nobody in the world is better - Warburton, Hooper, Robshaw - no

For me is pretty much it already, for many reasons.

However I still rate Brian O'Driscoll and George Gregan right up there. BoD is awesome :)
 
Mccaw is a living legend plain and simple. This is a man who turned down a knighthood to avoid the awkwardness of refs calling him sir Richie. The sheer amount of harassment he has recieved on the field i.e. greyling, heaslip, rougiere, tiquri on the top of my head, but yet he never reacts (except on cooper). He takes his payback out on the field. lets not forget playing through the world cup with a broken foot. I couldn't imagine a better leader for the all blacks
 
I recently wrote an essay on how McCaw was a modern day messiah. Kind of speaks for itself. While I do think he's on the slide, that doesn't change what's he's accomplished so far.
 
he does some pretty cynical penalties does McCaw and the refs will just give him endless warnings, still cant believe he was world player of the year in 2009 when he got trumped by Heinrich Brussouw in the tri nations and had a fairly average year over all

Waaaaaa... get over it mate.

Every year the player of the year could easily go to someone else.
 
Hmmmm! Not sure I believe that.

I watched the 2nd half of the 3rd test last night and around the 65-70 min mark he tackled Manu and stayed down for a while, at least by McCaws standards, I wonder if he did it then. Because he played awesome in the third test and did not look uncomfortable at all.
 
last year there was only going to be one winner, 2009 was a political gesture to the all blacks
 
I watched the 2nd half of the 3rd test last night and around the 65-70 min mark he tackled Manu and stayed down for a while, at least by McCaws standards, I wonder if he did it then. Because he played awesome in the third test and did not look uncomfortable at all.

that would make sense.

I don't doubt for one second that McCaw is tough as nails, but i don't believe anyone played a full test match with a "broken" rib, though broken is often used things like a hairline/stress fracture.

It's also pretty dangerous.
 
Mccaw is a living legend plain and simple. This is a man who turned down a knighthood to avoid the awkwardness of refs calling him sir Richie. The sheer amount of harassment he has recieved on the field i.e. greyling, heaslip, rougiere, tiquri on the top of my head, but yet he never reacts (except on cooper). He takes his payback out on the field. lets not forget playing through the world cup with a broken foot. I couldn't imagine a better leader for the all blacks


No player has been the victim of as many violent cheap shots and attacks to his head as McCaw.

Spear Tackled (Lote Tuqiri)
Spear Tackled (Phil Waugh)
Kneed in the head (Jamie Heaslip)
Forearm to the Face (Dean Greyling)
Kneed in the head (Quade Cooper)
Elbow to the Head (Dylan Hartley)
Head Butted (Scott Higginbotham)
Coat hangared (Andy Powell)
Head Stamped (Ali Williams)
 
no doubt he's had a few cheap shots, you missed the eye gouging by the Frenchmen as well but some of those instances are blown over the top I think and are highlighted quickly because its McCaw, some of those knees to the head are quite tame and happen a lot in games but the media and sky television are quick to highlight them as another cheap shot, George Smith had jerry Collins trying to rip his scalp off and Steve Hansen defended jerry by saying it was part of the game and George is asking for trouble by having dread locks
 
no doubt he's had a few cheap shots, you missed the eye gouging by the Frenchmen as well but some of those instances are blown over the top I think and are highlighted quickly because its McCaw, some of those knees to the head are quite tame and happen a lot in games but the media and sky television are quick to highlight them as another cheap shot, George Smith had jerry Collins trying to rip his scalp off and Steve Hansen defended jerry by saying it was part of the game and George is asking for trouble by having dread locks


None the less, I can't hear this song on the radio without thinking of Ritchie...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-zK1S5Dws
 
I played a match with a fracture in my foot so I can believe McCaw could at least do the same. I was ****ed afterwards though. Like only 20minutes after I had the worst pain I've ever experienced.
 
I played a match with a fracture in my foot so I can believe McCaw could at least do the same. I was ****ed afterwards though. Like only 20minutes after I had the worst pain I've ever experienced.

foot yes, ribs unlikely. Really dangerous as well if it splinters or properly breaks. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway.

Cheeky little story about Richie, to show what a nice guy he is.

Last November one of the guys I coach got a call on the Friday afternoon, his mate needrd him to pick up and deliver a couple of drumsticks to a mate who's in town for the weekend. So he agrees and sets off on the most random of odysseys across Paris. About 4 hours later he's finally got these drumsticks is totally p*ssed at his mate for getting him to do this annoying task and storms into this hotel and asks reception to call the bloke in room XXXX.

He's stood there and they say "oh, you can go up" so he jumps in the lift. All the time he's thinking "I recognise that guy, and that guy and that guy", then he realises it's the All Blacks Hotel (it's the night before the French test) and when he finally knocks on the door it's opened by none other than Richie McCaw.

He kind of stutters "er, Trevor asked me to drop these off", and McCaw says thanks and then proceeds to chat to him in the corridor for about 30 minutes about Paris, Living in France and Rugby etc... asks if he's heard of the All Blacks and what not and my mate tells him he plays rugby and has a game tomorrow and that "no one will believe he's just met Richie McCaw".

Anyway he laughs says thanks and heads off to a meeting. Our guy goes home, then about an hour later he gets a text message, by way of his mate, from Richie McCaw saying thanks and with a photo of him stood in the corridor holding the Drumsticks up - basically, so he could prove to his team mates that he'd met him, McCaw'd got his number from their mutual friend and texted him.

It's a daft little story, but that guys was made up for days at having met him and the fact he had his number and sent him a photo etc.... he's not the kind of guy you easily impress either, but little things like that really make a difference.

Nah, Fitzy lives in the UK now and he needs a certain level of 'brown nosing' to keep his job. Not pommy bashing but even the UK rugby media refer to Robshaw as 'filling in' until a proper 7 comes along.

our national captain is filling in? FLOL!!! give it a rest.
 
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Nah, Fitzy lives in the UK now and he needs a certain level of 'brown nosing' to keep his job..

Its known in the trade as "pandering to your readers". In order to understand what the papers are saying you have to understand who the reads the papers; and that reminds me, its an oldie but a goodie


Enjoy

 
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Nah, Fitzy lives in the UK now and he needs a certain level of 'brown nosing' to keep his job. Not pommy bashing but even the UK rugby media refer to Robshaw as 'filling in' until a proper 7 comes along.

Idiot ......

Go back to your armchair NH rugby is finished till September so you can stop talking about things you know nothing about
 
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