Meads and McCaw: True giants of the game

Different generations spawn men and women of colossal status – it might not only be limited to sport.

There are musicians, artists, statesmen and women – and of course sportsmen and women, among them, who will stand as giants for many generations to come.

As this forum covers sport, it is the former category I would like to touch on here as it regards two luminaries in New Zealand and world rugby.

Let me also add that I am no expert when it comes to all the exploits and accomplishments on and off the field of one Colin Meads and Richie McCaw. I should leave it to New Zealanders themselves to expand on these players’ influence and impact on world rugby – and society in the main.

However, so in awe am I of these two great men of rugby, that I would like to honour them on this platform – especially now that McCaw is set to beat the 43-year Test record for matches played of his counterpart, Meads.

We know that Meads played 133 games for the All Blacks. McCaw is about to play his 134th on Saturday at Ellis Park against the Springboks. This is not a comparative exercise – as to who was the better player – it is rather about their influence on my standing as a die-hard All Black fan.

Trying to make comparisons would not be fair on either great.

I’ve never seen Meads play – all I know is that I had an opportunity to see him for a fleeting moment in South Africa in 1970, and was the first All Black I ever heard of.

Meads on his tour with the All Blacks to South Africa in the 1970s, stood out like a beacon.

The rock, the pillar, every All Black fan looked up to – especially among most non-whites in South Africa – who had hoped the Kiwis would give the Boks the beating of their lives.

Many of us were subservient to the apartheid laws of the time and loved to see the Boks being put to the sword by the “foreigners”.

I remember as an eight-year-old being lifted on the shoulders of my father at the airport in Port Elizabeth as the crowd gathered to see their heroes. Meads was the first All Black I picked out among the throng of players.

Right there and then my association as a fan began with the All Blacks.

That association intensified, and as a thirteen-year-old in 1976, me and many others were overawed by the talents and presence of player like Syd Going, Andy Leslie, Grant Batty, Billy Bush, Lawrie Mains, Bruce Robertson, Bryan Williams and the like.

In 1970, ‘Pinetree’ was already in his mid-30s when they toured South Africa and history tells us that the Boks overcame their arch-rivals 3-1 on that tour.

A broken arm suffered by Meads in a mid-week game against Eastern Transvaal did not help the Kiwis’ cause in that series. Meads had apparently emerged from a ruck only six minutes into the game against the Transvalers, had someone checked it out only to be told that the injury was not severe and could continue the game.

That broken arm is still stuff of legend.

According to the Mclook rugby collection, this was also the dirtiest match of the tour and it is believed that Eastern Transvaal had taken the words of Doc Craven seriously, that the matches involving the “dirt-trackers” would be used to soften the Kiwis for the Boks.

Meads, slightly incapacitated after the Eastern Transvaal incident, did not fire on all cylinders in the last two Tests of that series.

Interestingly, they played 24 matches on tour – losing three of them, the defeats all coming in the Tests. Meads was to retire soon after that in 1971.

Meads very much embodied the culture of new New Zealand rugby. Uncompromising, and driven on the field of play, he was genial and an ambassador and statesman off it. I believe, from what I have heard, that Meads was no dirty player at all. He only gave it his all and fell into the category of a robust player of immeasurable skills and talent, who wouldn’t give an inch. He took no prisoners, as we would say today.

In 1967 though against Scotland at Murrayfield, he was sent off by Irish referee Kevin Kelleher for dangerous play and had the distinction of being only the second All Black to be suspended in a Test match. In Australia he is notorious for having ended the career of Ken Catchpole wrenching his leg while he was pinned down, causing him serious injury, or so the story goes.

Meads captained the All Blacks in 11 matches, including four Tests and played 361 first-class matches during a brilliant career, stretching from 1957 to 1971. He also became a national selector at some point.

Unfortunately many viewed his role with the New Zealand cavaliers tour to SA in the 1980s as unfortunate, but that was Meads. Not interested in the politics of sport, all he was meant to do was carry out what he loved and what he did best – bringing the game of rugby to the people.

Richie McCaw was first named as All Blacks captain at the age of 23 in a Test against Wales in 2004. Following his elevation to the Test team three years earlier, when his selection to the All Blacks’ squad was met with raised eyebrows, that decision to award him the captain’s armband could not have been met with a different reception either.

After only eight minutes of Super Rugby he received the nod for the All Blacks’ end of year tour in 2001, proving his critics wrong by winning the man-of-the-match award – and the rest is history.

That McCaw is still playing at the highest level after 13 seasons is a feat in itself. Of course, now in his mid-30s it’s anyone’s guess when the man who flies fighter jets and gliders in his spare time is going to call it quits.

Trying to capture in words what this giant has given to the sport of rugby would not do his contribution justice. It goes beyond the praise fans like me, heap on him around coffee tables, in pubs and the family dinner table. Surely McCaw’s contribution is also about national pride, the honour of the silver fern, the All Black jersey, team culture, leadership, a winning mentality and showing humility despite successes.

McCaw encapsulates all that is a rugby player, whether he is representing club, franchise or country.

I believe, based on his accolades, McCaw can be described as the world’s best openside flanker of his generation. Wikipedia shows his list of achievements include leading the All Blacks 87 times (most Tests) and winning the IRB Player of the Year Award three times. The fact that he got the World Cup bogey off his chest, after the All Blacks beat France in the 2011 final – only just – in my book, put McCaw up among the best, if not the best rugby player of all time.

However it was not always a smooth ride for McCaw, who came in for criticism after the All Blacks were bundled out of the 2007 World Cup in France. He has also suffered his fair share of injury problems, among them concussion. Fortunately, except for a sabbatical last season, McCaw was never too long on the sidelines.

McCaw’s endurance shone through when he most of the 2011 World Cup with a broken foot – also stuff of legend. He must have felt the pressure from New Zealand’s rugby-loving public, as captain and leader of the All Black troops in the trenches at the 2011 World Cup in his home country. They were charged with changing the course of history, and McCaw was the general given the job of masterminding World Cup success.

I’m sure the whole of New Zealand were desperate for victory on home soil. Despite the pressure, the Captain Marvel faced up to the challenge and that his team finally came out on top, proved that McCaw is the man for the moment.

That the All Blacks have won the Rugby Championship the third time in a row, is enough evidence that winning titles is never far off the agenda.

He won seven Tri-Nations titles with the All Blacks – and the Bledisloe Cup eight times and secured thee Grand Slam victories. McCaw played his 100th Super Rugby match in 2010; he became the first All Black to play 100 matches in a World Cup pool game in 2011 and in 2012 in Soweto, became the first rugby union player to win 100 Tests, while only losing 12.

McCaw’s leadership of the Crusaders in the Super Rugby also speaks volumes. Putting in as much effort, energy and heart as he does for his country, McCaw’s Crusaders have appeared in nine semi-finals and were champs four times. He has also performed with distinction for Canterbury in the NPC.

Now Richie McCaw stands on threshhold of beating the legendary Meads in terms of matches played for the All Blacks at Ellis Park.

It would be unfair to compare the two giants of New Zealand rugby, except to say that they encapsulate what the All Black jersey is all about. When McCaw finally rides off in to the sunset from rugby’s field of dreams, I am sure he will remain locked in the hearts and minds of rugby fans the world over for generations to come– just as Meads is today, 43 years after his final Test.

Will there ever be another of his generation? Well, an icon followed Meads, more than two decades after “Pinetree” left the stage. We’ll have to wait and see.