Former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw. Photo / Getty Images.
“What are you willing to sacrifice?”
World Cup year started in January for the All Blacks with Richie McCaw posing this poignant question to the senior leadership team as they gathered for a pivotal camp in Christchurch.
Invited by All Blacks coach Ian Foster to address the team’s leaders, during a review of last year’s tumultuous campaign, McCaw shared lessons from his mixed World Cup experiences that includes premature exits (2003 and 2007) and triumphs (2011 and 2015), and a statement of intent around the commitment needed to lift the Webb Ellis Cup.
“My first two campaigns that were unsuccessful some of the things we had to learn are helpful to pass on,” McCaw explains to the Herald. “When you’re in a leadership position and things don’t go well and you get another chance it certainly caused some deeper reflection.
“When I was younger I thought you just turn up and play well it can’t be that much different. I didn’t take on the magnitude of a World Cup. I thought we’d just prepare better next time and then 2007 happened.”
After his Christchurch visit McCaw joined the All Blacks in Auckland on Thursday to observe training and offer a sounding board as the team prepare for the headline pre-World Cup confrontation with the Springboks at Mt Smart Stadium.
“The big thing is you’re not going in there to say you’ve got all the answers. It’s purely to rub shoulders and if there are any questions someone might have you can give a perspective on, I’m happy to do that.”
McCaw’s presence forms part of an informal arrangement that has seen Foster welcome Dan Carter, Keven Mealamu, Conrad Smith and Liam Messam - other members of the first All Blacks team to claim the World Cup on foreign soil in 2015 - into the inner sanctum in recent weeks.
Behind the scenes All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan has talked regularly with former captain Kieran Read about lineout strategy, too, while Jerome Kaino called into camp last November.
“There’s so many people that want to help, particularly in a World Cup year,” Foster said. “It’s an opportunity to bring people in to bring the lessons of the past to the players of the present and hopefully make an impact on the future.
“We haven’t got a set formula for when they’re in here. They come in observe, be around and quietly share with a few players some of the things they’ve learnt.
“We’re trying to utilise the experience of players that have been there to gather information and make sure we don’t miss anything in the build up to France.
“Richie has been immense for this team. We all know that. One of his strengths is not to come in and preach. He just shares his own story. Telling stories is pretty powerful for the group we’ve got. For him to share some of the things he learnt – not all of those were positive. It was a great way to set up the start of the year.”
McCaw helped set the tone in January by delivering a powerful message about the devotion World Cups demand. For some that may involve abstaining from alcohol or certain foods. For others it could be extra time refining their core skills. For McCaw, it was honing his mental resilience under extreme duress.
The underlining message remains the same: to achieve the ultimate goal on rugby’s pinnacle stage, sacrifice is required.
“In ‘03 and ‘07 there were things afterwards when I would think ‘maybe I didn’t quite do what I could have done’,” McCaw said. “At the time I thought it was good enough but, actually, on reflection, you don’t want to have any regrets. If you know there’s nothing else you could’ve done at least you can live with that.
“When the pressure comes on, especially when you’re captain, how are you going to respond? Putting the time and effort into some strategies I might have or what might you do is important.
“From a physical side if there are things that can help you be fitter or stronger you might look at these. These are the little choices people make. It’s easy to say sacrifice but if you reframe it to making the right choices so you give yourself the best chance in October, that’s the way I look at it. Then it doesn’t become a chore. It becomes a willingness to not have that feeling of I should’ve or could’ve done something different.”
While the 2015 World Cup campaign ranks as the All Blacks’ best in history, it is easy to forget their opening game jitters against Argentina - when McCaw and Smith copped first-half yellow cards - or the tense semifinal victory over the Springboks in driving rain at Twickenham.
“It won’t all go your way.” McCaw reflects. “There will be challenges. 2011 was the same with injuries. You’ve got to expect those things. But you’ve got to make it happen. You can’t just hope. You’ve got to ensure when the time comes, when you need that intensity, you’re there because there’s no second chance. It’s about being ahead of it rather than it being a shock.”
For Beauden Barrett the Christchurch camp offered a deeper perspective to the McCaw he played under. As McCaw presented his nuggets of gold, Barrett and the All Blacks leaders listened intently.
“A lot of it was a good reminder from Richie and what we went through in 2015 and a bit more in-depth into how he was feeling and preparing,” Barrett said.
“As a player at that time I saw him as our captain. He was very serious. Very rarely did you see him having a laugh. He went into depth about how thoroughly he was preparing, leaving no stone unturned, and going through the what-ifs.
“With the weight of the country on his shoulders you can totally understand the way he was. For us to hear that from him there was deathly silence in the room. It was powerful coming from him given his experiences through 2011 and 2015. He talked about walking towards challenges and overcoming those.”
Prior to the All Blacks departing for Argentina last week Carter attended training at Mt Smart Stadium alongside Mealamu and Messam. There Carter chatted casually to Will Jordan and Damian McKenzie, among others.
Reflecting on his 2015 World Cup heroics, and McCaw’s poser to Foster’s leaders earlier this year, Carter recalled his dedication to fulfil a burning desire robbed from him by a freak groin injury four years earlier.
“You need to make a huge sacrifice to stay focused. For me it was time with my family,” Carter said. “Our second son was born in 2015 and Marco was born in 2013. As much as I would’ve loved to have spent each and every day with them I was on this mission of trying to help the team create history.
“I could have easily turned up to trainings, done what I had to and then shot off to be with family but I knew that would’ve been taking shortcuts. To be successful I had to work hard on my game, doing all the prehab, rehab, recovery sessions, the extra work as an aging athlete on my days off.
“When players around you see you sacrificing, putting all that time and effort into your preparation, seeing that drive and focus when an easier option is taking time off, they follow. “People sacrifice various things to reach the top. It’s making sure your planning and preparation is world leading so you’re not affected by distractions or outside influences and things you can’t control. When you lead like that a lot of the younger guys look and use that as an example to want to do the same.”
Through sacrifice, through hardship, comes growth. As he assesses the state of Foster’s All Blacks after the depths of their struggles last year, McCaw suggests that adversity could prove invaluable. Just as it was for him.
“The big thing is the lessons that popped up last year through some tougher times. They need to be used. And I’m sure they have been. The disappointments, that’s where you find out the biggest lessons.
“You look at some of the tries and skills from last weekend there’s no doubt we’ve got the talent and the players it’s making sure you get it all lined up when it counts. That’s the intrigue of it, and that’s why World Cups are different.”
As far as World Cup pointers go, there is no better benchmark than the supersized Springboks.
Live commentary of All Blacks v South Africa:
Elliott Smith on Newstalk ZB, Gold Sport and iHeartRadio; coverage from 6pm
Alternative Commentary Collective on iHeartRADIO, Radio Hauraki and SKY Sport 9
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