World Rugby's Finest Engine

Richie McCaw doesn’t so much play rugby as immerse himself in it.

He’s the all-action everywhere man, powering across the field, ripping and tearing, his head over the ball, a dominator of dark places. Rare is the game he’ll finish without some chunk of bloody bark hanging off his body.

He’s a hard man, a colossus of world rugby. And more often than not, he’s the most effective man on the park.

At the core of McCaw’s effectiveness is his fitness, his “engine”. He calls it his “biggest attribute”. “I’ve always worked bloody hard at it,” says McCaw in his book The Open Side. “If you’re fast and strong but can’t get there, then your speed and strength are no use to anyone. And oxygen debt doesn’t help your decision-making.”

As an openside flanker, McCaw is equal parts “fetcher” – the player who’ll appear at most rucks and mauls charged with securing or stealing the ball – and hard charger, the man who’ll cart the ball into the meat of the opposition defence and across the gain line. He’s a rangy, open-field runner and a weapon in the tackle. He’s Kieran Read crossed with Michael Hooper. He’s probably the best there’s ever been.

Yet all his skills and smarts, his game sense, his decision-making, it’s all powered by his fitness “base”. The man is a runner. Always has been. Aged 18 he broke his wrist and could only train by running. And run he did. All the way into the All Blacks, debuting against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in 2001 without having played Super Rugby. (He would be man-of-the-match.)

“All I could do was run, so that’s what I did,” says McCaw. “That base really helps, particularly when coming back from injury. You could be out for six weeks and come back and get straight back into it pretty quickly.”

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The man who gave McCaw that start, former All Blacks coach John Mitchell, recalls a three-kilometre time trial in which McCaw posted a time a nudge over 10 minutes 30 seconds, nearly running down All Blacks flyer and noted 400-metre runner Caleb Ralph.

When McCaw was a young tearaway, like most openside flankers, he loved making turnovers – stealing the ball from the opposition at the breakdown. He still gets a buzz from it but ranks them by influence on the game rather than number. He also breaks his game down into four key goals: tackling, clearing rucks, pressuring-with-a-view-to- stealing opposition ball, and running with the ball.

McCaw does lift weights – says they’re “essential”. Indeed, he built himself up to his current playing weight of 107 kilograms through hard labour under the iron. He says it made him bigger across the shoulders and stronger through the core, giving him a distinct advantage over other No.7s, who tended to be closer to the ground, like Hooper and McCaw’s great rival George Smith.

But weights are ultimately a sideshow – it’s that aerobic base he relies on most. “Some guys don’t like running and they go to the gym. But if I had the choice I’d always pick going for a run. My argument to people who say you should be stronger is that, maybe the first five or 10 minutes when everyone’s fresh, it might be an advantage. But after 60 minutes when I’m still getting there and beating the other guys, that’s when you have more of an influence.”

Teammate Dan Carter says McCaw is “a machine”. Former Wallabies captain George Gregan says McCaw is “the greatest Test player ever” and “just gets better and better”. And Mitchell says “he plays with blood and guts, and that stands out above the rest in the modern professional era”.

More power to him.