Sunday 17th August 2008 | www.planetrugby.com
Newspapers the world over were full of Richie McCaw's name on Sunday, after a terrific display of game-reading and strength from the openside had South Africa bereft of possession throughout the All Blacks' 19-0 Tri-Nations win on Saturday.
Coach Graham Henry was full of praise for McCaw as well, as he reflected on a result which evens up the Tri-Nations and looks as though it may have set up an all-or-nothing finale with Australia in Brisbane in three weeks' time.
"I thought Richie played outstandingly," said Henry to the NZPA about his skipper, who only returned to rugby a few weeks ago after sitting out the Dunedin game with an injury.
"But the whole loose trio were excellent. I thought Jerome Kaino had his best game yet, while Rodney (So'oialo) is always superb."
"We showed some real skill out there in defence, the guys' positional play was excellent."
McCaw himself pointed to the tackling effort as well as the positioning for the source of the unprecedented whitewash.
"They showed guts against a very physical team," said McCaw.
"We gang-tackled them and knocked them back. I thought it was a courageous effort."
Meanwhile, Dan Carter, whose usually-metronomic goal-kicking went horribly wrong for most of the game, said he drew inspiration from the display by the rest of his team to keep on going.
While Carter's place-kicking was poor, his positional kicking was perfect, leaving the Boks without any room to manoeuvre, and it was his try that killed the game off with 12 minutes to go.
"It is tough because things can snowball, but I've got a great bunch of guys around me," he said when asked how he kept his cool.
"When you don't do things so well, or when things are not coming off or you miss a kick, you just look around you and your team-mates are all putting their bodies on the line. You push what happened behind you and you just refocus."
Carter blamed bad timing for most of his misses, rather than the wind or the noise in the stadium from the promotional bongos dished out to each supporter by a local telecoms company.
"It wasn't the drums, that just makes you want to get it more," he said.
"It was a great occasion and a great atmosphere."
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