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'He was the best there's been': Richie McCaw rates the Wallabies' openside flankers he played against

Richie McCaw of the All Blacks and David Pocock of the Wallabies run off for half time during the Tri-Nations Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies at Eden Park on August 6, 2011 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Former All Blacks captain and openside flanker Richie McCaw has opened up on the Australian opposites he faced during his storied career in Bledisloe battles.

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The 148-Test veteran faced the Wallabies at the peak of their powers in the early stage of his career, coming up against the likes of George Smith at a time when they held the Bledisloe Cup.

After his debut in 2001 on the end of year tour, McCaw was a part of the 2002 All Blacks side that lost to the Wallabies on a late penalty goal by Matt Burke which levelled the series 1-all.

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As his career moved on, McCaw faced a number of opensides including Phil Waugh, Michael Hooper and David Pocock.

“You got to play against them fairly regularly and absolutely understood what you were up against,” McCaw told The All Blacks podcast.

“A guy like a George Smith, I first played, I think it was U19s, and I didn’t know he was, but I remember thinking after the game ‘Man, that guy knows what he’s doing’.

“And then it was that next year, he was playing for the Brumbies and played against the British & Irish Lions, a year later. He was a smart footballer, like he knew where to be and how to have an impact fairly regularly. And you had to be aware of what he could do. We had some good battles over the years, for a long time with him.

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“Then there was this Phil Waugh who was a slightly different player, but more confrontational. But, again, you knew what you’re going to get there.If you were a bit slow to the first phase break down, or whatever, they’d get in there and disrupt it. So you’d be pretty aware of that.”

McCaw had high praise for David Pocock who debuted in 2008 and played either at No 7 or No 8 throughout the rest of his career.

He said Pocock was “the best there’s been” over the ball at the breakdown and “impossible to move”.

“Then the latter years, David Pocock was, he was the best there’s been, probably still has been, able to contest the ball on the ground,” McCaw said.

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“And if you gave him even just a split second to get in there, he was almost impossible to move.

“And we did spend a bit of time on how do you limit his his ability to influence those sort of things? And to answer your question, you certainly knew who you were up against, and had to.

“But you didn’t want to get so focused on opposition player because if your whole team’s on top, you know, it limits their influence like that.

“But there’s a few little things that you had to just be aware of that, they can make the day, make your team’s day, a lot harder.”

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Comments

3 Comments
L
LB 62 days ago

Imagine a southern XV of Pocock at 6, McCaw at 7 and Kwagga Smith at 8 or off the bench no mercy

D
DS 62 days ago

Plenty of great 7s. Some brilliant tacklers and ball stealers. Others great links in the backline and / or always there at the breakdown. Some the best cheats!

W
Willie 62 days ago

If it's not caught it's not cheating

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JW 2 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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