Poor form has alarm bells ringing for McCaw

Richie McCaw remains the finest competitor many of us have ever seen on a rugby field. Illustration / Rod Emmerson

There is scant evidence the All Black legend will "bounce back" to anything close to his former heights.

There is an increasingly bedraggled, bashed-up look to the All Blacks' World Cup certainties, epitomised by two disturbing performances for the Crusaders - including one shocker - from the great Richie McCaw.

The finest competitor many of us have ever seen on a rugby field is in the casualty ward and this time there is scant evidence the All Black legend will "bounce back" to anything close to his former heights. If it wasn't a World Cup year, it would be time to consider a captaincy change. Hell, it still might be if he can't turn the situation around.

The most difficult decision All Black coach Steve Hansen has faced during his reign - even if he didn't think so himself - was whether to retain McCaw as captain and thus keep him as a starter and almost certain 80-minute operator with the 2015 World Cup taking place as McCaw's 35th birthday approached. Such is his standing that McCaw, kind of Tendulkar-like, will probably be left to decide his own fate in an era when All Black bosses are far closer to the leading players than the men who had the courage - foolish or not - to take a blade to Buck Shelford's test career. Having come this far, McCaw is hardly likely to give it away, whatever his form, his thinking partly moulded by years of success and adulation. And who can blame him?

Captain-in-waiting Kieran Read's own problem with concussion did not help the situation, but such is McCaw's status that a dramatic change was unlikely anyway.

And yet, time waits for no one. McCaw had the worst game of his career against the Chiefs, when he was poor by anybody's standard and outclassed by Sam Cane. His form had been only average anyway but many of us never thought we'd see him play so badly, and alarm bells began to ring. Unfortunately, and significantly, he didn't bounce back last weekend against the Blues - a confused team who would have been meat and drink for McCaw in his prime.

Two steals and a semblance of the famed battle spirit aside, there was little to enthuse over. Once again, his ball skills were poor, he missed tackles and made a bad defensive read, was missing as a ball carrier, and generally looked like a battered warrior on borrowed time. The poor tackle which caused the concussion summed the situation up - he did well to close down Lolagi Visinia but executed badly once he got there.

No one can predict how the brain reacts to such trauma and McCaw has suffered these problems before. This is no ordinary situation for Hansen to deal with, and most of us would err on the side of McCaw if holding a selector's pen. He is a once-in-a-lifetime player, his mere presence a head start for so long. But opponents will be smelling blood, and cricket's World Cup final - where Brendon McCullum was apparently above having his wild batting questioned - emphasised the dangers of sending sacred cows into the toughest battles.

There are a few bright sparks around the country, Ben Smith et al. But the All Blacks are courting disaster if they operate on too many old legs and nothing is more worrying than the sight of McCaw 2015-style, although he is by no means the only concern.

Mt Smart or bust
The Warriors have no option but to fight to retain Mt Smart Stadium as their home ground. Shifting to Albany, at the behest of Auckland's politicians and bureaucrats, would spell disaster if the crowd doesn't follow. The risk is too great.

The bottom line is this: as longstanding tenants of Mt Smart, the Warriors deserve the right to stay in the absence of an outstanding alternative, while South Auckland deserves to retain a sport that is close to its heart.

The Warriors have not helped their own case by being an underperforming club, but they are being treated with outrageous disrespect. But having to cling to Mt Smart sums up the shocking state of Auckland's stadiums. The rest of the world was pulling down stadiums like this decades ago.

No Benji, no problem
I'm not surprised Kiwis coach Steve Kearney has no interest in selecting Benji Marshall. The Dragons playmaker had been a problem for the Kiwis before his brief switch to rugby.

His unpredictable way of playing is hard to build on in quick-preparation representative situations and he's not the greatest of defenders. And that from a major Benji fan - he has been among my favourite footballers to watch in any code.