Heather du Plessis-Allan: Richie McCaw remembers Jonah the star

Heather du Plessis-Allan poses with former All Black captain Richie McCaw after he announced his retirement from the game.

Right up until his last day as captain of the All Blacks, Richie McCaw remained humble. No, he didn't want a knighthood. He didn't think it would sit well at his age.

Yes, he admitted, he had made mistakes. Getting sin-binned in that game against Argentina was his own silly fault.

Sure, he'd do another selfie. Probably the squillionth since the World Cup.

But most tellingly, the man some consider the greatest rugby player ever spent a good part of the start of his final press conference as skipper talking about someone else entirely.

He talked about Jonah Lomu.

He told a story about what a star Jonah was.

Richie was new to the All Blacks squad back then. He jumped off the tour bus and saw a crowd running to greet him. If this is being an All Black, he thought to himself, it's going to be pretty cool.

But the crowd ran past him.

They were running to greet Jonah.

Since his death this week, we have heard about Jonah's popularity. We have heard about his athleticism. We have heard about his illness.

We have also heard what a big heart he had.

One story probably sums up all the others. Former All Black captain Stu Wilson recounted the day Jonah turned up late for a training run. The rules were the rules. The Blues dropped him from the match.

Jonah said nothing, but Stu knew the reason for his tardiness.

Jonah was visiting the kids at Starship. He just didn't want anyone to know that.

It was hard to feel anything but pride this week for the conduct of the sportspeople representing our country.

If boys around New Zealand grow up wanting to be like Richie McCaw or Jonah Lomu we're off to a good start.

Or perhaps those boys want to emulate the men who make up our cricket squad.

You mightn't have realised how gracious it was for the Black Caps to form a guard of honour for retiring Australian fast-bowler Mitchell Johnson this week.

He might be an Australian legend, but Johnson is known for sledging opposition players something dreadful. Just ask Scott Styris.

Still, the Black Caps gave him the respect a player of his stature deserved.

They did it even though one of their teammates got nothing of the sort just a day before. Ross Taylor had racked up the highest score by a visiting batsman on Australian soil and come within 10 runs of a triple ton.

Yet, after being caught out, he walked off the pitch alone. The Australians didn't even jog over to shake his hand.

Still, that's a forgivable transgression when you consider Australia is the country that produces league players who consider it a good night out on the town when they end up urinating into their own mouths, a cricket captain overheard threatening to break an opposition player's arm and a tennis player who more closely resembles a sulking teenager than a professional athlete.

Contrast that to the images of Sonny Bill Williams crouched with his arm around a devastated South African player.

Contrast it to the image of Grant Elliott reaching down to help a gutted opposition player up from the ground.

Both these men had just won their matches, but instead of celebrating, they stopped to console the players they had just knocked out of their sports' World Cup.

Sports people do more than toss balls to each other, wave bats around and run around grass paddocks clutching at other men's thighs.

They represent our values to the world. They give our kids role models.

This week they have done us proud.