Richie McCaw
His latest Coast to Coast challenge The exodus of our top rugby talent
All Blacks great Richie McCaw admits the exodus of New Zealand’s top rugby talent is concerning but may have the solution to keeping the best players in the country for longer.
As a player, the 38-year-old former captain never thought about leaving for overseas but since hanging up his boots after leading the All Blacks to a second World Cup triumph in a row in 2015, McCaw has seen a shift in the rugby landscape.
These days, every other news story seems to revolve around New Zealand Rugby either fighting to keep players in the country, or losing them to the financial might of the north.
Brodie Retallick, Beauden Barrett and Kieran Read are only some of the top All Blacks who have either confirmed their move overseas after this year’s World Cup in Japan or who are being linked to lucrative deals.
While acknowledging that the struggle to keep players existed during his playing days, McCaw says the climate for NZ Rugby is “unfortunate“.
“I think it’s always been a challenge,” he told the Herald yesterday ahead of his next sporting challenge at the Coast to Coast.
“It has been for a while and it’s always going to be. It’s just unfortunate the things you have to deal with as New Zealand Rugby.
“I think we’re probably never going to compete dollar-for-dollar for what’s on offer for some of these guys up in the northern hemisphere.
“You’ve just got to make it really hard for guys to make that decision to go overseas.”
Like everyone else, he doesn’t blame players for leaving — family and financial security always trumps rugby, especially because of the precarious nature of the sport.
McCaw’s solution is simple: there will never be anything that rivals
playing in the black jersey — and its aura, culture and perennial success is New Zealand Rugby’s point of difference.
“We’ve always said having an environment that’s really enjoyable and fulfilling, [where] you get looked after, and the chance to play for the All Blacks, that’s the things that we’ve got in our favour as New Zealand Rugby.
“And some will [leave], and rightly so if that’s the right thing for them. But if we keep the environment good and the All Blacks successful, it’s quite a hard team — when you’ve had a taste of it — to turn your back on.
“They’re the things that you can control and if you do that, then hopefully we encourage a good number to stay behind and stay here and keep playing. But I think it’s always going to be a challenge and we’ll be talking about it for a long time but we’ve just got to keep hopefully inspiring people that want to perform in the black jersey because I think it’s a pretty big carrot to stay here.”
McCaw represents a rare breed of footballer, a one-club man whose loyalty and longevity only seemed to make his game even stronger.
If there was ever a success story for the benefits of fighting for the black jersey throughout your career, it would be McCaw, the 148-test legend who many consider to be the greatest All Black. Leaving, he says, was never an option.
“I didn’t have any real burning desires to go and play anywhere else. If I was going to play properly, and you want to do that wherever you’re playing, I would want to play in New Zealand because that’s the team I enjoyed.
“I think when I gave up, I was at the point where I knew it was going to become tougher and tougher to keep that motivation and all the training you needed to do, just because that’s what happens. And I thought well if I can see that it might start to happen here, it would be even worse for a team you don’t know a lot about.
“It was a pretty easy decision not to even consider [going overseas].”
If we keep the environment good, it’s quite a hard team — when you’ve had a taste — to turn your back on. Richie McCaw