Legend McCaw says Joe Schmidt is on the radar to coach All Blacks
Life after Test rugby is not exactly relaxing for Richie McCaw
RICHIE McCAW has sore feet. His retirement coping mechanism is the reason. When he stopped playing rugby last October, McCaw was, uniquely, twice a World Cup-winning captain. He was also celebrated as the greatest New Zealand player of all time, which means the greatest player anywhere, anytime.
Already revered in his homeland, official confirmation of his status quickly arrived. He was awarded the Order of New Zealand, the highest honour that state can bestow. There can only be 20 living holders of the order.
He had twice refused knighthoods in the past. He doesn’t like titles, and the thought of being called ‘Sir’ made him uncomfortable. Humility of that kind explains his popularity and also reveals part of the nature that made him one of the great captains in sport.
When his rugby career finished, the future sat before him, as inviting as a stray ball in a ruck. Rather than settling into a career of simply being Richie McCaw, however, he flung himself into an extreme physical challenge.
That explains the sore feet. A week ago, he completed a five- day, 550km adventure race as part of a four-person team. It involved cycling, kayaking, hiking and rafting, and it sated, for a time, the enormous competitive nature that beats inside this man.
‘The public all found out so there was no pulling out,’ he grins, speaking in Dublin as a guest of AIG. There was a bit of attention on it, so I said “I need to do this properly”. I had to end up training 15 hours a week; two hours a day at least and we had to do some big days as well, just to get myself into shape to do it.’
It is difficult to imagine that ever being in doubt. McCaw and his team managed 10 hours of sleep in the five days it took them to reach the finish line. ‘I didn’t know how I was going to go. When you’re into a 30-hour trek and you haven’t slept for 24 hours, what are you going to do?
‘People talk about how you start hallucinating. We experienced a bit of that. That was the thing that intrigued me, how I was going to handle it.’
Sitting in an unremarkable Dublin boardroom, the evidence in his favour is unarguable. McCaw looks as strong as he did in his playing career, but his face does not have the nicks and scars that are the flanker’s warpaint.
His days of worrying about angry studs, whizzing boots and sly elbows are over. The difference in his personality from the playing days is more marked. Players wear masks in public, and as retired legends on sponsor duty, they perform, too. But covering his media appearances when he was New Zealand captain, it was noticeable how guarded he was. He would mumble through answers.
Yesterday, he was freer and more enthusiastic, even acknowledging the tougher side to leading the greatest team in rugby. There were days when it felt like a burden.
‘I think some players do feel that, but I also think it’s one of the things that drive the team to have expectations of themselves, that you go and win every game and perform every game,’ he said.
‘I think it’s a great thing in that regard, but if you don’t embrace it, it can become a big weight, especially if things don’t go your way. Perhaps even in my career, it [got] a bit heavy. You think, “Jeez, why am I doing this?” You have a win, and it’s sort of on to the next one, and you never actually go “That was a good job, well done”.
‘But you soon get past it, and you go “Well, it’s a privilege to have that sort of responsibility”. That’s the exciting part, but one of the reasons I knew it was time to move on, is that it does become tough, the pressure of performing every single week to a high level. At some point you go, “I’m not sure whether the desire may be as easy as it was”.’
One of the toughest days he endured was at the 2007 World Cup and New Zealand’s quarterfinal loss to France. For a long time, he says, that was the one result he would have reversed if given the chance.
‘But I’ve actually changed my view on it because I look at where we got to at the end of 2015 and I don’t think those eight years would have panned out the way they did had we not gone through that pain. But for a long time afterwards that’s the one that I would have changed.’
He confirms there was interest from French clubs last year, but he didn’t ask what was being offered, for fear he would be tempted. Coaching holds no great appeal yet, either.
McCaw says polite things about Ireland’s chances against New Zealand later this year, and ruefully remembers tough battles against South Africa, Joe Schmidt’s summer hosts.
It is easy to imagine him beguiling a conference-room of executives on the subject of leadership. He says simply aping a winning culture doesn’t work.
‘We have our own sort of vision and the way you want to do things,’ he says of the All Blacks. Under him, it was the right way and almost always the victorious way.’