KEY POINTS:
Just one more sleep, Richie, a light jog and you'll be back out where you belong: leading the All Blacks at Eden Park.
In a perfect world - one where the lordly looseforward resumes the imperious form which has marked most of his career - he would also reverse the trend which has bedevilled the All Blacks in Dunedin and then Sydney.
There are a couple of problems at least with that theory.
It is asking an enormous amount of McCaw to instantly regather the A-grade form which has been such a reliable factor in his golden career while there are a couple of Wallaby roosters, George Smith and Phil Waugh, who will have a fair bit to say in tomorrow's return Bledisloe Cup test at Eden Park.
It has been six weeks and three internationals since the world's best openside flanker has been kitted out in his black jersey, an interval when the All Blacks have looked disjointed and have ceded successive Tri-Nations defeats to the Springboks and Wallabies.
If there are no late dramas, though, McCaw will step out again tomorrow in his famous No 7 black jersey, leading an All Black side determined to save their Tri-Nations defence this season and to halt some of the doubts about their pedigree.
McCaw has been a test spectator since June, when he damaged his ankle against England in Christchurch.
Those sideline duties have not been easy fare for the flanker, as he showed with his reactions last week when the All Blacks sank badly in the final quarter of their test in Sydney.
Since his test debut at Lansdowne Rd, Dublin, when he was chosen ahead of the more experienced Marty Holah, McCaw has churned through an outstanding international career, one in which he has had only seven defeats in his 62 tests.
He has captained the All Blacks in 25 tests since he succeeded Tana Umaga at the start of the 2006 season and lost only three of those internationals, all of them narrowly.
But after all the switches, changes and alterations since McCaw was hurt badly against England, there is some sign of normality in the All Blacks' looseforward arrangements tomorrow.
In McCaw's absence, substitute skipper and regular No 8 Rodney So'oialo played at blindside and openside, Jerome Kaino started at No 8, Adam Thomson started twice on the blindside and Daniel Braid returned after a 57-test gap to play openside in Sydney last week.
After that selection spinning wheel, McCaw returns to his usual No 7 role tomorrow.
So'oialo will look after his standard No 8 duties and Kaino will tend to the blindside flanker's role where he was used exclusively by the Auckland Blues this season to win back his national jersey.
There is a better look, a better balance to the All Black trio tomorrow night but there is almost an unhealthy expectation that McCaw will be an instant solution to the team's woes.
The All Black skipper has declared himself fit after his false start last week but his lack of match fitness will tell after such a layoff.
"So you have to make sure the adrenalin kicks in and you get stuck in. I'm picking it will hurt. But you just have to get on with it," he said this week.
Just to test him even further, the Wallabies are using two openside flyers - captain George Smith and Phil Waugh - two flankers of great experience who will profit when McCaw is taken out of the action in the run of play.
McCaw is resuming the traditional openside role he filled for the bulk of his career until the selectors decided this season to operate a left-right system.
He did not feel the switch made any great alteration to his role or his effectiveness.
But reverting to his old familiar duties should make his return a shade more uncomplicated.
"I have just got to make sure I prepare like every game and go out there and climb into it," McCaw said.
"You can't hold anything back or feel your way into it. You have to be into it right from the start."
When the bulky Rocky Elsom disappeared through injury from the Wallabies, McCaw was not surprised to see his old Crusaders' coach Robbie Deans plump for Waugh as the replacement.
That tandem role with Smith had succeeded previously for the Wallabies and Waugh was ready to hit the track.
"We didn't get the front foot ball we were after and if we allow them to do that this week they will be real menaces," McCaw said about tomorrow's looseforward clash.
His pack had been beaten last week and the main path to redemption had to be through analysis and attitude.
"We just have to get ourselves in a state of mind where we know we are good enough and that we are going to turn up better. I know the guys can all do that. It doesn't matter what sort of game plans you have, if you don't turn up with that, it ain't going to work," McCaw said.
It was beneficial that the All Blacks had an immediate chance to redress the ills of last week in Sydney.
Too often they had to wait until another season before they had a chance to avenge a poor performance or defeat.
Their primary tasks would be about building pressure through better ball retention and support play and those issues were foremost in their planning for Eden Park tomorrow.
