For today the All Blacks’ peerless captain is poised to equal Brian O’Driscoll’s world record of 141 Test appearances, a feat of almost unthinkable longevity for a forward.
“I’m just happy that I’m still around,” said the 34 year-old, understated as ever, as he prepared to confront Australia in the Rugby Championship decider here. “I’m certainly proud that I can still foot it after all these years.”
It is astonishing, this degree of self-effacement, when one considers McCaw’s career. In a reflection of the credo that has sustained him throughout 14 years of wearing sport’s most iconic jersey, he explained how any thoughts of his own achievements were for retirement, which he has heavily suggested could come after the World Cup in England.
Preparing for two Bledisloe Cup Tests in eight days, he said: “I have always felt that it is not just a case of racking up numbers, but what you actually do when you’re on the field. I hope, in these matches, that I play as well as I ever have.”
The portents could scarcely be more auspicious. New Zealand have held the Bledisloe Cup for a decade and McCaw, who has an 89 per cent winning record in Tests, has no intention of relinquishing it during the last days of his watch. His debut for the All Blacks coincided with the end of a period of Australian dominance of the trophy and he recognises, with the prospect of a febrile 80,000-strong crowd at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium today, its enduring significance.
“I would love nothing better than to keep the Bledisloe in the cupboard,” he argued. “I still remember when we didn’t have it, and the Wallabies will be desperate to put their hands on it again. This is what makes a great occasion, that it means so much to both teams for different reasons. I never want to give it back. That’s the motivator every time. If I do hang up the boots and we still have it, I’ll be happy.”
The very fact that McCaw tempers talk of retiring with the word “if” underlines how much of a wrench it will be to walk away later this year, when he hopes to have become the first captain ever to guide his nation to back-to-back World Cups. He almost had to be begged to go on a sabbatical, for his own good, when Steve Hansen took over as head coach in 2011, and is so consumed by the pursuit of history that the notion of a life beyond the All Blacks remains unconscionable.
But retire he will, given the sheer accumulation of batterings his body has taken. As he reflected yesterday at Sydney’s Olympic Park, he disclosed that his hand had been hurt in training by a prop he diplomatically refused to name. The battle in the pack today, he acknowledges, will be no less ferocious. So precarious is this year’s Rugby Championship, where Australia clutch a tantalising chance to win a first southern-hemisphere title since 2011 with victory over the All Blacks, that coach Michael Cheika has combined specialist opensides David Pocock and Michael Hooper to form the most dangerous Wallabies back row in recent memory.
Their partnership proved such a success in the second halves of Australia’s victories over South Africa and Argentina that Cheika is relying on the pair to be a crucial weapon in giving McCaw the runaround and denying New Zealand their fourth consecutive title. Where the Wallabies look more vulnerable is at inside centre, where Matt Giteau is giving away a weight disadvantage of over four stone to the human battering ram that is Sonny Bill Williams.
The stakes for Australia, who harbour the scalding memory of a 29-28 defeat in the previous Bledisloe Test in Brisbane last October could hardly be greater. On only three occasions since 1996 have Australia lifted the trophy.
But any assumption that Hansen might be anxious, with both teams level on nine points, would be premature. For the starting XV that he will field here is not as strong as the version that Hansen is likely to unleash at the World Cup. Even Williams, the cross-code marvel who has never played better in union, risks being edged out by Ma’a Nonu, while Nehe Milner-Skudder, the youngster receiving his baptism on the right wing, will have to play understudy in England to Charles Piutau.
Hansen is too wise an owl, though, to succumb to Cheika’s habit of lavishly praising the All Blacks for their extraordinary success. “Michael has been very complimentary about how well we’re going, so I guess he must feel that we’re going to turn up feeling this is some kind of cakewalk,” he said. “That is most definitely not the case.”
