All Blacks hoping for greater Richie McCaw influence

Sport360 staff 10:27 13/10/2015
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  • McCaw (l) plays waterboy.

    All Blacks talisman Richie McCaw is foxing and not missing in action at the breakdown, while he makes a lousy waterboy when not playing, according to the All Blacks.

    The New Zealand skipper's performance has come under the microscope as they prepared for their quarter-final clash against France with the most-capped player in rugby history barely firing a shot during pool games.

    The one time he was clearly visible was when acting as a waterboy in the All Blacks – Tonga match, and fly-half Dan Carter quipped he could not even do that properly.

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    But the most telling statistic from the All Blacks clean sweep in pool play was the low number of turnovers won — a total of 27 in four matches.

    Eight against the powerful Argentina pack was a fair effort but low numbers against Namibia, Georgia and Tonga begged questions.

    Among other quarter-finalists, Wales lead the way with 38 turnovers followed by Ireland (31), Australia (29) and France (28), leaving New Zealand fifth equal with Argentina on a list they usually dominate.

    McCaw has a reputation as a tackler and ball winner in the dark arts of the breakdown but in the tournament statistics he has barely registered apart from 12 tackles against Argentina.

    Sam Cane, McCaw's understudy in the seven jersey, explained the reason for the skipper's absence on the turnover list was the All Blacks not trying for turnovers in the first place.

    Coach Steve Hansen has said throughout the tournament the All Blacks were using the first four matches to rehearse scenarios they will likely face when the tournament is into the knockout phase.

    "We can vary how we want to defend," he said.

    "You will see in a lot of pool play we're not contesting rucks a lot but were putting teams under pressure through our line speed and physicality that way forcing teams into errors and trying to cut down their time and space.

    "We can change that because obviously we've got guys who are good (at the breakdown) as well so it's just depending on the opposition that we're playing as to how often we try and contest the breakdown."

    With the four-match rehearsal over, the defending champions have declared themselves ready for the sudden-death matches, starting with France at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

    "We've been waiting a long time for and planning a long time for this game after pool play," assistant coach Ian Foster said.

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