By MARC HINTON in Brisbane - RugbyHeaven | Thursday, 11 September 2008
The decisive game of the 2008 Tri-Nations is still three days away and All Blacks captain Richie McCaw is already in a hot sweat. Turns out, though, his Australian nemesis George Smith is the least of his worries.
McCaw, you see, is being put under the grill. A gaggle of excited journalists has managed what Schalk Burger, Smith and numerous other No 7s of international standing have failed abysmally to do. We have taken the brilliant All Black outside of his comfort zone. Well outside, it turns out.
McCaw is being showered with praise after back-to-back standout performances have transformed his side's season. What's more, his injury-enforced absence early in the campaign, and the subsequent All Black form crisis that accompanied it, only served to highlight just what a valuable (read invaluable) resource he has become.
And McCaw is positively squirming. He's being asked to quantify his brilliance, to rate his pieces des resistance. He's getting matches, veritable tours des force (OK, enough of the French) thrown at him willy-nilly, and he's being requested to evaluate his greatness. No, this is not Richie's cup of tea at all.
We should blame Graham Henry. He started it. The All Blacks coach came out on Tuesday and said some pretty flattering things about his skipper. Reckoned he'd never had a finer test in the black jersey than that he delivered in Cape Town last month. Described him as a "colossus".
Then a Sydney tabloid unleashed a full page report headlined: "In awe of McCaw." In a piece highlighting his massive influence on the All Blacks it mentioned, offhandedly, that the No 7 had won no less than 57 of his 64 tests, or an unfathomable 89 percent.
Later on Wednesday afternoon former Wallaby and Queensland great Jeff Miller stood in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall and informed anyone within earshot that to beat the All Blacks on Saturday night the Australians have to do one simple thing, and do it well.
The essence of Miller's message was that McCaw must be removed from the equation, whatever it took. "You target him and you basically say if anyone sees Richie McCaw you fly in and take him out... he's unbelievable, his ability to get everywhere, to basically be a serial pest, his influence as captain, the fact he can run so well with the ball, and he can offload as well. Australia really needs to have a focus to somehow nullify him and take him out of the game."
Miller, of course, was not advocating anything illegal or dangerous. But you pretty much got the gist of his message, not to mention that respect that exists for this New Zealand star among the Australian cognoscenti.
You also sense that McCaw would rather be out there combating flying Wallabies than fielding these invitations to reflect on his own greatness. It doesn't do his discomfort any good that not only are his latest two exploits being placed under the microscope - a virtuoso display at Eden Park, followed by something even better in Cape Town - but that his presence in Brisbane is bringing to light a previous personal epic back in 2006 when he single-handedly inspired the All Blacks to a Bledisloe-clinching 13-9 victory.
"I find it quite tough talking about it to be honest," said a sheepish looking McCaw. But still we persisted. Which was better? Brisbane '06 or Cape Town '08? "It's a hard one to answer, to be honest." But being the good bloke he is, McCaw obliges.
"I was happy enough," he says of his latest two efforts. "You can have one or two good performances, but being able be consistently good is what I keep aiming for. You've got to keep your feet on the ground too. If you're looking back thinking that one was good, it doesn't take long to not get it right."
But McCaw conceded some satisfaction at the way he was able to come back so effectively after that spell on the sidelines with an ankle injury.
"I came back into a team that was pretty desperate after a couple of losses, and was happy with how I slotted back in. [But] on Saturday we're going be up against a team that will be just as desperate and we've got to be the same. We'll see how the performances are Saturday -- that's how you judge yourself."
McCaw is asked for his recollections of that Suncorp '06 victory. It wasn't pretty, with just one try on the night to Joe Rokocoko, but it was mighty.
"I remember that one was pretty tight ... previously when I'd been an All Black and it had got tight like that we'd tripped over against the Wallabies over here. So to come out on the right side of that one was hugely satisfying."
And that tete-a-tete with Wallaby wing Mark Gerrard? It seemed to personify McCaw's greatness in a single moment, the flanker getting back to make a try-saving tackle, then in the same instant getting to his feet to win the pressure-relieving turnover.
McCaw smiles. "Every time it gets mentioned Ali Williams says they forgot the fact that I had to clear the ball with a big kick downfield... I guess there are always moments like that you're proud of, but when you get desperate they're the sort of things you've got to do."
The 27-year-old 64-test All Black says he doesn't need to read his writeups to know whether or not he's a had a good test match.
"When you come off the field you know if you've had a pretty good day, if you've had some influence. Some days you might have done nothing spectacular but you know you've contributed all around the park.
"That's what I try rate myself on rather than one spectacular thing that perhaps gets blown out of proportion."
But here's the thing with McCaw: he's so good, for him was is ordinary, to the rest of us is spectacular. Nobody knows that more than Wallabies coach Robbie Deans.
