Why Richie McCaw is a great captain
Roar Pro By ozxile, 10 Aug 2011 ozxile is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- All Blacks, Brian O'Driscoll, Jon Smit, Richie McCaw, Rocky Elsom, Rugby Union, Rugby World Cup, wallabies
Related coverage
- Rugby Union news
- Wallabies news
- Rugby World Cup 2011 news
- New Zealand All Blacks news
- Rugby 2011 news
In the last ten months much has been written about the incumbent Wallaby captain’s deficiencies. Much of it is along the lines of ‘…he couldn’t lead a team to the bathroom… we need someone like Richie McCaw!’
It is not hard to agree with this sentiment, but McCaw is a one-off so there is no place to go there.
In the heated rhetoric several names have been mooted as alternatives to the incumbent. There may be a suitable candidate among them. They all have their merits, but are they really like Richie?
No, of course not you say, that’s not what we meant. So if that isn’t what you meant, what is it? What makes Richie a great captain – one of the best ever?
There are six criteria that a player must satisfy to be a viable captain candidate:
1. Intellectual and practical intelligence (a quick, analytical, creative, action-oriented thinker)
2. Rugby specific intelligence/nous (knows all the parts; sees and understands the game as a complex system; constantly and instinctively assesses status quo (time = t) and project forward to t+1)
3. Excellent communication skills (verbal and body language)
4. An even temperament (an island of calm when all emotions are screaming fight/flight – bleeds ice-cold blood)
5. The ability to lead by example (if not consider coaching)
6. The boots must fit (when the boots don’t fit their own game suffers and no one wins – captaincy is innate)
Based on my observations, Richie McCaw, Brian O’Driscoll, and Jon Smit are the only truly superior player/captains currently on offer in elite world rugby.
While all three are getting near to their use-by dates as first-choice players, the presence of each in a match makes a palpable difference to their respective teams – even before the match begins.
Without going into the subtleties, all three have the capacity to temper and redirect the disruptive and unproductive energy spikes that occur when both good and bad things happen to them and their teammates.
If you doubt, or don’t understand this, a master class on captaincy is on offer every time the All Blacks play. First, don’t try to find Richie – when the play stops look where his teammates are looking.
He will be there. Will he be talking? Not necessarily. Will he be communicating with them? Absolutely – his body language and demeanor alone are worth thousands of words.
If Richie is on the pitch and Richie is ok, the All Blacks are ok. Richie is always ok.
Opposing teams/coaches/fans complain that Richie has too much on the refs. Rubbish. Richie is just being himself. He communicates through his body language and talks with the refs just as he communicates and talks with his teammates.
Notice I said ‘talks with’ not ‘talks to’. There is a huge difference and the result is effective communication – not just delivering messages.
McCaw, O’Driscoll and Smit have all six of the criteria well covered. That is clear whenever they take the pitch. So, if they (particularly Richie) are the models, what have we (Wallabies) got right now if we rate the four on each criterion from 0 – 10?
On this scale, 0 = Fail; 5 = Adequate; 10 = Superior (team will follow him through fire)?
Capts: Elsom (RE)– McCaw (RM)– O’Driscoll (BD)– Smit (JS)
1. Intel. RE (8) – RM (9) – BD (8) – JS (8)
2. Nous. RE (4) – RM (9) – BD (9) – JS (9)
3. Comm. RE (0) – RM (10) – BD (10) – JS (10)
4. Temp. RE (0) – RM (10) – BD (9) – JS (9)
5. L’Ex. RE (6) – RM (10) – BD (10) – JS (9)
6. Boots. RE (0) – RM (10) – BD (10) – JS (10)
TOTALS: RE(18/60 )– RM(58/60) – BD(56/60) – JS(54/60)
Nobody (here) is perfect (John ‘Perfect’ Eales for a 60/60?).
Fiddle the numbers if you will, but it appears Australia could do significantly better. All Black and Bok fans should be happy with the status quo. Wallaby partisans, how does your preferred alternative to the incumbent stack up?
Recommend this story.
The Turkey 10
The Turkey 10 teams have now been selected, as Wild Turkey Bourbon's sport sponsorship kicks into the next exciting phase.
Choose which side you're going to support and get in the running to win $2,500!
Simply visit Wild Turkey Australia on Facebook for your chance to win.
Find out more.
The Crowd Says (32) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- All Blacks, Brian O'Driscoll, Jon Smit, Richie McCaw, Rocky Elsom, Rugby Union, Rugby World Cup, wallabies
August 10th 2011 @ 7:59am
warrenexpatinnz said | August 10th 2011 @ 7:59am | Report comment
McCaw was slammed in the post 2007 RWC review and his performance as captain on the day was poor. He is now the worlds leading rugby captain and handles his playing duties and captains role bloody well. Elsom has been Captain for two seasons (playing) so in all fairness Richie has had some steep learning curves over a good amount of time.
Would be nice to afford our Wallaby Captain the same.
August 10th 2011 @ 8:04am
ozxile said | August 10th 2011 @ 8:04am | Report comment
Warren: So rate him yourself if if you think this is wrong. Perhaps others agree with you.
August 10th 2011 @ 9:22am
warrenexpatinnz said | August 10th 2011 @ 9:22am | Report comment
Ozxile I have never been one for rating a player, using a formula to do so. It is also like using the game day stats to judge.
Elsom was shown as having four missed tackles, but what this doesn’t say was;
: A tackle were he gave an effort that should have brought down an elephant (low boot lace tackle) but somehow the guy got through
: Missed a tackle after scrambling to get back onside and when making the tackle was off balance as had just got behind the last feet on the goal line
McCaw is a great captain as he has grown over time, had a coach that has defended and protected him and had a team which has always been solid to great.
August 10th 2011 @ 10:25am
ozxile said | August 10th 2011 @ 10:25am | Report comment
Warren: Where did I make a reference to game day stats?
You are avoiding the issue. Such ratings are never going to be ‘objective’. The point of this post was to suggest just the opposite. Unless you develop and consistently apply some kind of criteria moaning about how poor someone is as a captain (or a player) on the basis of his last match is meaningless. It is not clear why, but you appear to be overly concerned with suggesting a defense for Rocky’s captaincy on grounds where my subjective rating (without reference to any particular match) gave him a decent mark (one of the few).
How well he plays is probably the least important (not unimportant) of the criteria anyway. Switch to one of the other criteria such as communication. One smile or one frown means nothing. However, if you must, how often have you seen him smile, speak to teammates or the ref when he wasn’t irritated about something, or display body language that conveyed something positive? Great communicator? Hardly.
Pardon the reference – I have no reason to assume you are schizophrenic, so if you rate these four on the six criteria it is somewhat likely your rankings are going to give similar relative results. Your relative rankings are meaningful – even if you do not want to think about it that way or admit it. You can validly argue that there is always going to be a seventh (7th) X-factor criterion. However, that is unlikely to make up for a bunch of other shortcomings.
The focus of the post is on why Richie and the others are great captains. However, if you accept that the criteria at least have some intuitively validity, no matter how you ‘rate’ the four individually you will end up with Rocky well behind the other three.
Finally, following on your comment about Richie, whatever happens in 2011 Rocky won’t be around long enough for the makeover.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:08am
AdamS said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:08am | Report comment
Smit is a terrible Captain as evidenced by the fact that he is still there, well past his use by date as a player. A good Capt. would have retired.
Rocky is a work in progress.
August 10th 2011 @ 9:09pm
guinness14 said | August 10th 2011 @ 9:09pm | Report comment
warrenexpatinnz, I agree RM is a good captain. I think the difference between him and RE is from the begining when he became the AB he was good. Reackon he as born to lead. No one needs to protect this guy, he’s man enough to stand up to what ever is thrown at him.
August 10th 2011 @ 9:45am
Samvandamn said | August 10th 2011 @ 9:45am | Report comment
Mate the only reason he got slammed for was for not taking the drop goal option.
Dont make up stories, he was an outstanding captain before that ill-fated match.
The whole team were playing disjointed rugby due to lack of cohesion brought on by the dreaded rotation policy that Graham Henry was employing at the time.
Which is quite ironic seeing this year he is doing almost the opposite with a lot less experimentation that the Wallabies and Boks.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:54am
Lion Red said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:54am | Report comment
Have to agree with Warren. When Richies took over the captaincy from Tana he was very green and had alot to learn on the international stage and did not have the full support of the NZ public. However over time he has grown to become a fine leader, I feel Rocky Elsom has been made the scape goat for the Wallabies poor performances but I feel that his tight 5 does not give him the platform to excel in his natural game as a damaging ball playing blindside.
August 10th 2011 @ 1:57pm
ozxile said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:57pm | Report comment
Lion R: This is about being a captain. Perhaps if he wasn’t ‘mildly distracted’ by this nuisance responsibility he would be in better form? I’m inclined to think so. He wasn’t burdened by such when he was tearing things up for Leinster. We can only hope he’ll find that kind of form in the next month.
August 10th 2011 @ 5:25pm
warrenexpatinnz said | August 10th 2011 @ 5:25pm | Report comment
Far better verbalized than I did Lion Red, well put.
August 10th 2011 @ 10:14am
Simon said | August 10th 2011 @ 10:14am | Report comment
I watched the Crusaders vs. the Force this year, and mid-way through the 2nd half, McCaw was yellow carded. The Crusaders managed to see out the 10 minutes with minimal damage to the scoreboard, and when McCaw returned the lift in the Crusaders moral and energy was very noticeable. In hindsight, it probably would have better for the Force if McCaw hadn’t been carded.
The point of the story is – he has a dramatic positive effect on those playing with him.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:06am
AdamS said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:06am | Report comment
“McCaw was yellow carded.”
Crikey, wonder if the Ref put it up on ebay as a collectable after the game??
August 10th 2011 @ 1:24pm
jeremy said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:24pm | Report comment
ha ha – huge fan of Richie McCaw and will agree this comment is 100% true.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:00am
Mark said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:00am | Report comment
Can’t be great if your a McCheat.
–
Comment left via The Roar’s iPhone app. Download The Roar’s iPhone App in the App Store here.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:06am
Simon said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:06am | Report comment
Pocock was penalised 4 times on Saturday. It’s a shame I now have to regard him as a cheat, as I otherwise used to consider him a very fine player.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:08am
ohtani's jacket said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:08am | Report comment
Maybe we can give him a moronic nickname like Pocheat.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:31am
Simon said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:31am | Report comment
And remind me to email Marto, Kearnsie and Poido (does he still commentate on free-to-air?) to let them know that they now have two No.7′s to complain about ad nauseam
August 10th 2011 @ 11:49am
kaha said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:49am | Report comment
simon don’t get me going on kearns commentary or complainatary. You can hear the dissapointment in his voice when he complains about an infringement and the ref picks it up as well; This means he can’t keep moaning on about it. Also did I hear right when mccaw got penalised kearns said that is the first time mccaw has ever been penalised and marto said thats not true thats just being nasty.
August 10th 2011 @ 1:54pm
darwin stubby said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:54pm | Report comment
every now and then a comment comes along that makes wish you weren’t drinking coffee whilst reading your screen … this was one of them … quality call
August 10th 2011 @ 1:25pm
jeremy said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
The IRB players association would disagree with you there Mark.
McCaw holds three IRB Player of The Year awards, that pretty much defines greatness, recognition from your peers.
August 10th 2011 @ 11:46am
Tissot Time said | August 10th 2011 @ 11:46am | Report comment
I have posted elsewhere before about leadership, the importance of communication, ownership and role of the players and team around you.
“The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of wolf is the pack” Kipling
August 10th 2011 @ 12:45pm
Joshy Homes said | August 10th 2011 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
Got to win the world cup to be a great captain. sorry.
August 10th 2011 @ 2:00pm
darwin stubby said | August 10th 2011 @ 2:00pm | Report comment
What a stupid statement …. so prior to 1987 there were no great captains ? …
August 10th 2011 @ 1:13pm
Who Needs Melon said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:13pm | Report comment
You’re criteria on a good captain rang some bells…
http://www.theroar.com.au/2011/06/25/who-should-captain-the-wallabies/
Just for the sake of it, how would you rate some of the other potentials for Wallaby captain? I’m not sure I agree with your ratings of Elsom but this is all very subjective so I’ve just left them as is.
Elsom (RE)– Horwill (JH)– Genia (WG)– Pocock (DP)
1. Intel. RE (8) – JH (8) – WG (9) – DP (9)
2. Nous. RE (4) – JH (6) – WG (9) – DP (8)
3. Comm. RE (0) – JH (8) – WG (8) – DP (8)
4. Temp. RE (0) – JH (8) – WG (9) – DP (9)
5. L’Ex. RE (6) – JH (7) – WG (8) – DP (9)
6. Boots. RE (0) – JH (10) – WG (10) – DP (8)
TOTALS: RE(18/60 )– JH(47/60) – WG(53/60) – DP(51/60)
August 10th 2011 @ 1:48pm
ozxile said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
WHM: I appreciate the indulgence of having a go at this. It doesn’t really answer the question but it does provide a structured perspective. It would be interesting to now see what others think of your assessment. I had not given the alternative much thought but cannot find fault with your assessment. JH in 3rd will probably give a few Roarers a mild rash.
Without meaning to argue the point, I find your score of 9 on Rugby Nous for Genia interesting. I recall reading somewhere that he did not play rugby (contrast to JH and DP) until he went to high school (BBC in Brisbane?). Not sure where he was before then, but there is relatively little rugby played in PNG. Before going to boarding school I’d never seen it.
August 10th 2011 @ 1:24pm
Who Needs Melon said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:24pm | Report comment
PS. Yes, Richie is a great captain. I heard he has now captained both the youngest ever and oldest ever All Blacks. His win/loss record and longevity have to be right up there and NZ have had a lot of great captains over time. And it’s not just that he has been in the team at the right time – he does have a real presence on the field. And off the field I think the guy oozes class too.
I also agree with Joshy above though: Winning the World Cup would have to put him in the realms of one of the (if not THE) greatest of All Blacks captains, wouldn’t it?
August 10th 2011 @ 1:35pm
ozxile said | August 10th 2011 @ 1:35pm | Report comment
WNM: I didn’t say he is THE greatest. I’d say he will be regarded as THE greatest by AB fans (after receiving his Knighthood) if he there when they eventually break the drought.
Joshy H: It is a bit rough to have to win it all to be considered great. He only get to play one position after all.
August 10th 2011 @ 4:40pm
johnny-boy said | August 10th 2011 @ 4:40pm | Report comment
I’ve never thought McCaw was a great captain. Good maybe and cunning with the Refs but I agree with Mark, if you rely so very heavily on pushing the laws of the game beyond the limits of what is reasonable, to put it nicely, I think it reflects very poorly on your level of sportsmanship and the quality of your wins. By all means go hard and fast and to the limit but to base your game almost totally around trying to get an illegal edge all the time shows a lack of belief in your own fair dinkum ability. And I concede it has started to creep in to the Reds game a bit this year and it will bring them unstuck like it has the All Blacks at world cups one day if they are not careful. The ridiculous forward passes Genia and Cooper were trying to pull at Eden Park is a good example. When the pressure comes on and you don’t naturally trust your legal ability you try pushing your pushing and it all comes unstuck quickly. Witness McCaw in first Reds game too. Whether you agree with the penalty or not it cost his union a million bucks. This is the main reason why I dont think the All Blacks will win the world cup because they havent yet learnt to back themselves thru fair play. When the pressure comes on and their pushing beyond the laws isnt working they look terrified. If the Wallabies could just start slow and steady and just repel for even half and hour, especially if they had Matt Taylor as defence coach, they would find the rest of the game a hell of a lot easier. Just a theory.
August 10th 2011 @ 7:10pm
Matt in Norway said | August 10th 2011 @ 7:10pm | Report comment
Johnny Boy, are you really Phil Kearns? 3 IRB player of the year awards champ, count them, 1, 2, 3… You don’t get these awards for displaying a poor level of sportsmanship. To go on and suggest the quality of the AB’s wins under McCaw are somewhat tainted is as equally ridiculous as the rest of your statement concerning the AB’s. “AB’s not having learnt yet to back themselves through fair play”? AB’s looking terrified? What is going on in your head man? Take off your spectacular Phil Kearns-Vision Goggles ™ mate, most of your comments are insightful and well thought out, I enjoy reading them, but there have been a few lately that just give me the sh**s, you seem to understand the game well but have a warped perception of a few key areas.
Come on champ, credit where it is due, like it or not, McCaw is seen by the majority as one of the great captains of our modern era. Admittedly I would take Mr Eales any day, but Richie has served us very well as a player, captain and as an ambassador for the game, you can’t ask much more of the man (well, maybe a WC).
August 10th 2011 @ 7:22pm
johnny-boy said | August 10th 2011 @ 7:22pm | Report comment
I’m not here to please you Matt. I’m just offering my opinion and some of them probably are s……… Most probably the ones born of frustration with Deans and the bagging we have to cop from kiwis from being cruelled having to put up with one of their idiot coaches stuffing our team up. Richie McCaw would be lucky to get to tie Buck Shelford shoelaces although Eales and Smit might (crikey I hope the saffas arent awake tonight)
August 10th 2011 @ 9:24pm
guinness14 said | August 10th 2011 @ 9:24pm | Report comment
Only whingers would say something like our All Blacks cheat and push things to the extreme. These guys are smart, they and their captain know the rule book inside out, so quit harping on. I’m going to say it, we have been the Number one International Team in the world for( HOW LONG) that has only held the Ellis Cup once.
August 10th 2011 @ 7:08pm
Christorm said | August 10th 2011 @ 7:08pm | Report comment
@ Johnny- boy… What the hell have you been smoking?!! It’s every teams objective to bend & manipulate the rules to their advantage.
Especially a player with a the number 7 on their back! On the odd occasion McCaw may have cost his team a game, but he has surely won his team many, many more with this mindset.
This ain’t the monastery, no points for being honest. It bloody Rugby! It’s only a sin if the Ref catches you.
Go watch another sport you clueless CHUMP! Pffttt… Really?!!!
–
Comment left via The Roar’s iPhone app. Download The Roar’s iPhone App in the App Store here.