'Put me in the same bracket as Richie McCaw? That is a compliment'

Former Scotland Ryan Wilson believes Peter O’Mahony’s sledge of All Blacks captain Sam Cane last weekend was in fact a compliment.

Ireland recorded a historic win over the All Blacks on New Zealand soil, but the Munster backrows’ jibe was an amusing subplot to the affair, partly as it captured the spirit of a combative Irish side that was prepared to go toe-to-toe for every inch of turf.

During what the NZ media have dubbed the ‘Disaster in Dunedin’, the ref mic picked up O’Mahony asking Cane: “Who do you think you are? You’re a shit Richie McCaw pal.”

Stephen Ferris, have New Zealand rugby lost their aura? | RugbyPass Offload | EP 42

Stephen Ferris, have New Zealand rugby lost their aura? | RugbyPass Offload | EP 42

Wilson was asked on the Offload Podcast what he made of the verbal dig and would he take it as a compliment to be compared to Richie McCaw, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest rugby players of all time.

“Yeah,” laughed Wilson. “Put me in the same bracket as Richie McCaw? Yeah. F*** yeah. Thanks mate, appreciate it.

“I want to know what he said back to him but. That’s quite funny. You’ve got to have stuff like that out on the pitch though, we always talk about it.

“That is a compliment. Being put in the same bracket as Richie McCaw. I’m sure Sam Cane appreciated it.”

Wilson was right, with the Chiefs loose forward admitting that he enjoyed the snipe from the Irish veteran.

“It’s just good rugby banter,” Cane told reporters this week in training. “It’s all part of the game, I don’t mind it. It’s good stuff.”

Co-host on the podcast, Bristol prop Max Lahiff, recalled a recent bit of sledging from Ellis Genge that amused him, even if it did come at his own expense.

“I got yellow carded once at Welford Road. We were struggling in the scrums a bit, but I got yellow carded for nine out off the ball. I was scrummaging against Gengey and he was coming past the touch line, seeing me in the sin bin in a break of play and goes: ‘You don’t want to come on lad because you’re on roller blades out here’ and then he just walked off.

“My whole bench just started laughing in hysterics at me. ‘He’s absolutely done you there’. I didn’t even have time to give him a comeback because he’s disappeared. That was good. I did chuckle at that to be fair”.