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'Look at the stats': Wayne Barnes' verdict on whether Richie McCaw was a serial cheat
By Ben Smith
Retired referee Wayne Barnes has offered his perspective on whether former All Black captain Richie McCaw is a “serial cheat” in his autobiography Throwing the Book.
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For most of Barnes career the All Blacks were the dominant team in Test rugby, but their winning record with the English whistle-blower was lower.
In the 26 Tests he officiated with New Zealand, they won 65.3 per cent which was below their usual standard at the time. Through the 2010s the All Blacks had a winning rate around 90 per cent.
For most of that time, Richie McCaw was the man Barnes dealt with as New Zealand’s captain, who played 148 Tests for the All Blacks.
“One captain people imagine must have got up refs’ noses was All Blacks great Richie McCaw, because he was widely accused of being a serial cheat,” Barnes wrote.
“The list of opposition coaches and players who called him a cheat was long, and included France number eight Imanol Harinordoquy, who claimed that McCaw played the whole of the 2011 World Cup final offside.
“But I always thought the argument that McCaw was allowed to get away with murder was lazy.”
Barnes called McCaw a “wily” player where the “cheat” narrative didn’t stack up based on how often McCaw was pinged.
“If you look at the stats, McCaw gave away more penalties than most international back rows, so the argument that referees were keeping a proper eye on him doesn’t stand up,” he wrote.
“Neither does the argument that he intimidated referees, because he hardly spoke.
“So, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Richie McCaw was fine by me. A good skipper is a wily skipper, and McCaw was as wily as they come.”
McCaw was yellow carded just three times in his career, the last of which was by Barnes in the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The All Blacks captain was sent to the sin bin for a foot trip on a retreating Argentinian player after the whistle during their clash with Los Pumas.
Thanks Wayne, McCaw did know more of the laws around the ruck than any other forward in the world and got pinged on 50/50s because of it. Studied law changes and tweaks what looked technically correct in slow motion was pinged in real time. The warratahs SR final was a great example.
I’m a Bok supporter through and through. McCaw would have been on my team sheet every day of the week. What a legend, even if he pushed the envelope, all loose forwards live and play on the dark side. I dare anyone to disagree.
Invertebrate Springbok fans label the GOAT ‘a cheat’. Lets wait for the shock to wear off.
Gave up more penalties than any other back rower and yet was only yellow carded 3 times. Something doesn’t stack up. He was born offside, a cheat through and through, and also the best back rower there has ever been.
Wayne Barnes is just deflecting from the fact he purposely cost the All Blacks 2 world cups with proven poor decisions at worst most likely paid off hence the retirement after this time. Anymore and it would be to obvious. I really would like an investigation into his bank accounts post world cups!
Given how utterly poor Barnes was this past RWC, not sure he should be making judgements on anything to do with rugby - now or going forward n
McCaw's knowledge of the game was so finely tuned that the uneducated rugby fan would just pass it off as “cheating”. The truth is that he would get penalized more often than most back rowers because he was always testing the referee to see what he could get away with. Once the ref blew the whistle and stuck his arm out, Richie knew what kind of customer he was dealing with. To him, giving away a penalty was a small price to pay for knowing what he could and couldn’t get away with.
Ok. That makes sense.
He was obviously not a cheat because “McCaw gave away more penalties than most international back rows”.
Everyone knows that the guy caught speeding the most times is the one that never exceeds the speed limit.
Had no idea the list was so long