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George Smith's no cleanskin either, says McCaw

20th August, 2009
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All Blacks captain Richie McCaw has fended off allegations he’s a serial cheat as trans Tasman hostilities continue ahead of Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup blockbuster with the Wallabies at ANZ Stadium.

The champion flanker awoke on Thursday to headlines of “McCaw an outlaw” in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, with the story accompanied by six photos of McCaw illegally positioned at or near a ruck.

The provocative report claimed TV footage showed McCaw entering the ruck from the side seven times, and contesting kicks while offside on three occasions, during New Zealand’s 22-16 win over Australia in Auckland last month.

None of the offences drew a penalty from South African referee Craig Joubert.

The sub heading for the article was: “Captain Outrageous offside again, but seldom with referees”.

While insisting such accusations no longer fazed him, McCaw denied he was international rugby’s so-called Mr Untouchable with match officials.

“Mate, it happens every year so you get a bit used to it,” McCaw said on Thursday.

“Hopefully (I’m) not putting too much pressure on the ref, but I reckon he gets me just as much as everybody else, if not more.”

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There is a widely held view among rugby fans that all flankers flaunt the rules and that McCaw just happens to do it better than the rest, including his long-time Wallabies rivals George Smith and Phil Waugh.

“Exactly, they’re real clean too,” McCaw sarcastically remarked when it was suggested Smith and Waugh also pushed the boundaries.

McCaw was more concerned about the All Blacks being a precarious one from three in the annual Tri Nations tournament after losing back-to-back Tests in South Africa.

The Wallabies, though, are none from two following their two away defeats and equally desperate to win on Saturday to stay in contention for both Bledisloe Cup and Tri Nations honours.

“I suppose we’ll bash each other this weekend and then the following week we’ll be hoping Australia knocks off Africa,” McCaw said.

“Because we need to do that if we’re both going to stay in the hunt.”

McCaw was unaware the All Blacks had only won three of nine Tests against the Wallabies at Sydney’s Olympic stadium.

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“That’s not real good,” he said. “It’s always a tough match, as results have shown over the years.

“But you don’t worry too much about history.

“It’s a pretty cool stadium to play at when you get 80,000 there watching, which is hopefully what they’ll get.”

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