Richie McCaw: Crowd can help us intimidate Cooper

Name: All Blacks: McCaw 'Eden Park has memories'
Uploaded: 2015-08-14T20:31:38+12:00
Duration: 154 s
Description: All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw says the Eden Park crowd can help his team put pressure on his old sparring partner Quade Cooper tomorrow. The comment, on the eve of his final test at the All Blacks' fortress, is likely to fuel a response to the Wallabies No10 which always promised to be a hostile one.

By Patrick McKendry

Reporter·Herald online·

14 Aug, 2015 04:21 AM3 mins to read

All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw says the Eden Park crowd can help his team put pressure on his old sparring partner Quade Cooper tomorrow. The comment, on the eve of his final test at the All Blacks' fortress, is likely to fuel a response to the Wallabies No10 which always promised to be a hostile one.

All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw says the Eden Park crowd can help his team put pressure on his old sparring partner Quade Cooper tomorrow.

The comment, on the eve of his final test at the All Blacks' fortress, is likely to fuel a response to the Wallabies No10 which always promised to be a hostile one.

McCaw and Cooper's history began when the Tokoroa-born Wallabies first-five put a cheap shot on McCaw near the end of his team's victory in Hong Kong in 2010 and followed it up with another in Brisbane a year later. They led to boos and jeers every time Cooper touched the ball at the World Cup four years ago.

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Asked today how he thought the crowd would react to Cooper, McCaw said: "I don't know. I really don't.

"He's the fly-half of their team and we want to make it as tough a night for him as possible. That's what I'm worried about and if the crowd help out with that, I don't know, that would be good."

McCaw won't be overly worried about how Cooper is treated but there was enough edge to his reply to indicate how seriously the All Blacks were taking the match as a whole.

There is a Bledisloe Cup on the line and a World Cup to come next. Another defeat after last week's 27-19 reverse would put a serious dent into the confidence levels ahead of their title defence.

McCaw, who will create a new test record of 142 caps tomorrow - he is currently level with Irishman Brian O'Driscoll - said he wanted to put the talk of milestones and final games behind him for the moment.

"One thing I haven't allowed is to get caught up in that because I really wanted to train as well as I could to play well on Saturday. When you have that focus you don't get caught up in those what-might-be's.

"I want to enjoy playing here and when you have a loss like last week it makes you want to play even more.

"The key is to let it fuel you, obviously, coming off a poor performance but just that in itself isn't going to make it work. We have to do things right this week and I think we have to this point."

He said the World Cup final victory over France in 2011 was his fondest memory of Eden Park, adding when asked whether the All Blacks were hurting after last week's defeat: "Yeah there's some people hurting, definitely. We're just lucky we have a chance to turn it around."