Incomparable leader McCaw to raise century

Richie McCaw wonders how on earth the All Blacks won his first game at the helm.

McCaw’s earliest of 99 Tests as New Zealand captain was a decade ago in Cardiff, where he will lead them once again against Wales on Saturday to raise his century of games in charge.

The 33-year-old flanker will run onto Millennium Stadium with his legacy assured.

He is popularly regarded as the greatest player of the professional era and, with his team’s success, surely the finest leader too.

Go back 10 years and two days and it was a different story when regular All Blacks skipper Tana Umaga was handed a rest.

Brilliant young No.7 McCaw was promoted, prompting smiles, handshakes and a pounding heart.

“I had no idea what I was doing back then, I tell you,” he said this week.

“It felt like I needed to have all the answers and always be the guy talking.”

The All Blacks snuck home 26-25 and McCaw, who was handed the leadership full time two years later, set about becoming the world’s most influential rugby figure.

His ferocious defence and fearlessness at the breakdown has never diminished while an astute tactical mind has only sharpened.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen remembers spotting McCaw playing a first XV game for Otago Boys’ High School and a year later had poached him to his own province of Canterbury.

He says in the 15 years since, there has been one constant – a desire to improve.

While most players are dedicated and ambitious in their first two years of Test rugby, Hansen says nobody he has seen can match the Kurow-born forward’s continued dedication to get better.

For example, in his early years in Canterbury McCaw “could hardly catch a cold”, Hansen said, but he set about improving his handling with hours of extra drills.

His ability to win ruck ball has never been in doubt.

Hansen recounts a 20-year-old McCaw rankling seasoned All Blacks Todd Blackadder, Reuben Thorne and Scott Robertson at one of his first Crusaders training sessions.

“They said if he comes into another ruck and pinches another ball, we’re going to snot him,” Hansen said.

“I said: ‘If you snot him, I’ll be snotting the lot of you. Leave him alone, he’s only a baby and get there quicker than he is’.”

Hansen says eventually he had to tell McCaw to ease off before player relations soured.

“So he started setting standards at training and he didn’t know any different.”

Hansen’s says McCaw’s finest hour was New Zealand’s 2011 World Cup triumph, which he virtually played on one foot, such was the pain caused by a fracture to the other.

McCaw was driven to see the tournament through, partly to put right the quarter-final failure of 2007, for which he insisted on taking much of the blame.

McCaw says he is privileged and proud to reach his milestone but that winning on Saturday would mean a lot more.

His parents, Don and Margaret, have made a late decision to fly to Cardiff and he feels he can’t let them down either.

He’ll take with him the same approach to achieving success as his previous 136 Tests.

“People want a magic bullet but there’s no real magic to it.

“For me, it’s just being prepared.”

THE THOUGHTS OF A 99-TEST RUGBY SKIPPER

– Life as an openside flanker

“The position I play, if you’re not in amongst it, you’re not doing your job right.”

– His relationship from a young age with Steve Hansen

“That might be the reason why I’m still in the job.”

– Why the relationship works

“You can have a good old back and forth and not agree but then have a joke together as a mate.”

– Will he know when it’s time to go?

“Deep down you know whether you can still perform. If you just turn up expecting it to happen, it can get you.”

– On not losing it with referees

“Now when I see other teams do it, that’s when you know you’re getting on top.”

– On being driven by fear

“A little bit, but not too much or after a while it would become pretty heavy on you.”

– Why he spent the whole warm-up alongside debut hooker James Parsons at training in Edinburgh last week

“Perhaps I’m not always perfect at it, but for a new guy coming in, it can make quite a difference.”

Parsons later thanked him for the gesture.

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