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