Richetty what? It's Richie McCaw, show some respect

On Tuesday afternoon, around 3:00pm, a co-worker and fellow rugby fan asked me if I read the Daily Telegraph’s morning article about Richie McCaw and the Rugby World cup final.

Happy to have heard the news that McCaw would not be cited by World Rugby for foul play after New Zealand’s recent victory over South Africa, I was keen to have a read.

As an aside, the decision by World Rugby not to cite McCaw was the correct one. Allegations of foul play were drummed up by the notoriously divisive English rugby media, as Roar sage Spiro Zavos has explained better than I am capable of doing.

It suffices to say the intent of this accusation appears to be revenge for an embarrassing pre-finals exit from the World Cup by hitting a southern hemisphere superpower, the All Blacks, where it would hurt the most.

With that said, I went on to ask my colleague about the article and whether or not it was worth a look. A disgusted look came across his face as he recounted the poor taste of what he had read that morning; he told me that the Telegraph was, not ironically, accusing McCaw of being a cheat and in the process had labeled him the ‘Richetty Grub’.

Surely not! I thought. It seemed inconceivable to me that in lead up to the swan-song of the great man that anyone would scrape the bottom of the proverbial barrel in search of a cheap headline.

How very wrong I was.

While he would go on to compliment McCaw’s achievements, Jamie Pandaram’s article started as follows:

Australian players will be on high alert on Sunday morning amid reports of Richetty grub sightings leading into the Rugby World Cup final against the All Blacks in London.

The Richetty grub, aka Richie McCaw, hails from Oamaru in New Zealand and is known for its dubious breakdown tactics, electrical tape around its large head and smug grin on its face.

Adept at using its knees and elbows freely on a rugby field, it has been officially registered as a pest in Australia.

For more than a decade it has proven a mortal enemy to the Wallabies.

Whether it’s coming in illegally from the side, rolling away from the maul the wrong way to disrupt the halfback’s passing, or holding on to the tackled player too long, the Richetty grub is the master of the dark arts of breakdown cheating.

Let’s not be naïve. Without doubt, McCaw’s ability to bend the laws of rugby to his will is the stuff of legend; a topic so old that it has become cliché.

I’m not an alcoholic, I only drink when McCaw is offside – heard that one? Yeah, so has everybody else.

But let’s get a couple of things straight. He is not a cheat and he most certainly is not a dirty player, as the text quoted above implies. What McCaw is, simply put and beyond any semblance of doubt, is the single finest rugby player to have ever laced up a pair of boots.

After a stellar amateur career, Richard Hugh ‘Richie’ McCaw joined the Canterbury Crusaders in 2001, they would go on to take the Super Rugby (then Super 12) title the following year. He would ascend to the captaincy in 2004 which he would hold until 2012, along the way capturing the championship in 2005, 2006 and 2008.

On the way to winning four titles during McCaw’s tenure from 2002 to 2015, the Crusaders would reach a staggering eight finals. In the same timeframe, McCaw would amass 145 caps for the Crusaders as well as being named in their 1995-2006 team of the decade.

McCaw would earn his place among rugby’s elite shortly thereafter, being selected for the Crusaders and donning the mythical black New Zealand jersey under coach kiwi John Mitchell the very same year.

During McCaw’s international career, the All Blacks won the Rugby Championship (and its predecessor the Tri-Nations) on 10 occasions, the Bledisloe Cup 13 times and completed the Grand Slam – a feat which Australia have done only once and not since 1984 – on three occasions.

Most importantly, in 2011 McCaw’s All Blacks were able to re-capture the William Webb Ellis trophy for the first time since 1987. This ended a 24-year drought for the team who were invariably pre-tournament favourites and became known for choking under the incredible pressure that their home nation’s love of rugby placed upon them.

In 2013 McCaw and the All Blacks would do the unthinkable. They achieved the fabled ‘perfect year’, by winning 14 Test matches from 14 attempts.

Now they have reached their second consecutive World Cup final and are in prime position to capture back-to-back titles, a feat that has never been achieved.

All in all, McCaw would go on to play for the All Blacks an utterly astounding 147 times (148 after Sunday), and his team won 88 per cent of all the Tests in which he played.

He captained the All Blacks on 109 of those occasions and in the process became the first player ever to taste victory in 100 Test matches. McCaw has only felt the sting of defeat on 12 occasions

And as a result, the magnificent McCaw won the IRB Player of the Year a record three times, from a record eight nominations.

Are you starting to get the point?

Not only was McCaw instrumental in the achievements of both the Crusaders and All Blacks over the past 15 or so years, playing nearly 300 games along the way, he achieved all of this playing the most difficult and competitive position on the paddock – openside breakaway.

No other position requires so much of a player in terms of strength, speed, ability to read the game and cunning. It is the hero position, the one that every kid wants to play when he is 10 years old, the one that can win or lose a match on any given Saturday.

McCaw not only made the All Black No. 7 jersey his own, he completely redefined the way the position is played. His “dubious breakdown tactics” are now the gold standard and the mould from other greats players like Sam Warburton of Wales and Australia’s own David Pocock are cast.

To say all of that another way, while playing the most difficult position in the most dominant team in history, McCaw earned more Test caps than any other player has earned for any team. On the way to this achievement he captained that team 109 times, more than anyone other than a handful of the elite have even played, winning close to 90 per cent of his games.

When asked by the International Rugby Board (now World Rugby) about what his role as an openside flanker entails, McCaw gave a typically humble answer:

“My main role as a flanker is, defensively, to tie in with the back line to ensure that the defence works well. On attack I think my primary role at first phase is to look after our ball. You attack the back line and I’m usually the first person there to make sure we secure that ball. Thirdly I put pressure on break downs and make sure I disturb their ball and try to turn their ball over.”

By virtue of his achievements, McCaw is rugby royalty. It was once said he is assured of a place on rugby’s Mount Rushmore and whether or not Pandaram was trying to be clever with his comments, on the eve of what appears to be McCaw’s final match it would seem to me that he deserves more respect than has been shown.

Pandaram’s article closes with the following statement: “Win or lose, Australian fans will be delighted to finally see the back of ‘seven black’ ”.

Bollocks!

While the All Blacks will clearly be a lesser team without him, and in that respect we may breathe a sigh of relief when his name is absent from the team sheet in future matches, the game will be less for having lost him.

This is, after all, rugby union. The contest has always been more important than the outcome and every fan, every ex-player, every true rugby person who ever watched McCaw play will tell you that they have witnessed something very special indeed.

My favourite memory of McCaw, though if I’m honest I can’t remember the specifics, happened just recently. Having missed the entire Super Rugby season through injury and played only a handful of minutes in club rugby McCaw was called up to play for the All Blacks.

Terms like ‘spent force’ and ‘match fitness’ were thrown around, but not only did he make the grade, he played one of the greatest individual performances I have ever witnessed and won man of the match.

Such is his ability to read the play; such is his affinity for the game of rugby.

Prior to the announcement by World Rugby that McCaw would not be cited this week, in all of the discussions I had with fellow supporters this week not once did I come across excitement at the prospect that McCaw may be absent this week. Quite the opposite, as it turns out.

Win, lose or draw, with the retirement of Tony Woodcock, Kevin Mealamu, Ma Nonu, Conrad Smith, Dan Carter and the great man on the horizon, New Zealand rugby may never look the same again.

Australia wants to know that if we beat the All Blacks this time, we’re beating them at their best. Without Richie McCaw the 2015 World Cup final would be a lesser event, in fact it would be truly tragic if after 15 years and all he has done for the game he was denied the right to run onto the pitch for that one final battle – his last hoorah.

To that end, as I check the fridge for a third time to make sure I actually am out of beer, I want to give a voice to the rugby fans of Australia.

We’re not interested in tabloid news. We’re not interested in those headlines. We’re not interested in your fictitious villain, the so-called “Richetty Grub”.

Most of all, we don’t need you to create a storyline for the 2015 Rugby World Cup for us, because it already has one.

Around 2am on Sunday morning, Australian Eastern Standard Time, the final incarnation of the greatest rugby team to have ever played the game in its 120 year history will walk out into a field led by the great McCaw.

When they get there, their Anzac rivals the Wallabies, led by inspirational captain Stephen Moore will be waiting for them. Unfathomable just twelve months ago, they started at sixth in the world and have made it all the way. With enigma-extraordinaire Michael Cheika in the coaches box the Wallabies can win this.

Make no mistake, the Wallabies can win this.

The particular field that will host this contest is a little place just South of the Thames River called Twickenham.

Under normal circumstances, these two great teams would never play here. However, thanks to an inconceivable series of unlikely events they will – and it just so happens to be the most significant rugby ground in the very country where the sport was invented; the game’s ‘spiritual home’.

When the best referee in the world, the openly gay Nigel Owens, blows the whistle, McCaw’s All Blacks and Moore’s Wallabies will put their hearts and souls on the line and more or less try to kill each other within the rules of the game for 80 minutes. At the end of that time, one of them will prevail, but rugby will be the winner.

When it’s all said and done, they’ll shake hands and have a beer together.

And though we may be a far cry from the amateur days and corporate influence has sought to the ways of old, the spirit of rugby has stood the test of time.

It has stood because those who play know just how important the spirit of rugby is.

And that’s what’s so great about our game. For all the statistics I have thrown at you in this rant it’s not a game of numbers, or headlines, it’s a game of people. Sportsmanship comes first, everything else is secondary.

With that I’ll say nothing more than enjoy the rugby. On the eve of his final game, his masterpiece, leave you with some words from McCaw himself after his final game of Super Rugby against the Brumbies:

“To finish off tonight, with a performance like that against the old rival [you know] it brings a real good smile and some great memories. And more than likely this will be the last one for me as well but we’ll decided that down the track. I just wanted to play tonight with a smile.”

100 per cent of my support is with the Wallabies, but whatever the outcome on Sunday morning I’ll be smiling because out great game, against all odds and the professional era, is greater than ever.

Go All Blacks. Go Wallabies. Most of all, go rugby!