I can imagine Lomu exhorting his audiences around New Zealand and Tonga in particular and the rest of the globe to shift their attention to McCaw and all his wondrous deeds, to allow his wife Nadene , two boys and relations to cope with their loss.
This he would say, is time to celebrate McCaw's remarkable work in a glittering 15 year international career. So it is but there is a sombre edge attached to today's salute.
McCaw's career overlapped Lomu's for two seasons where they played five times together for the All Blacks. They were first united at Lansdowne Rd in Dublin, McCaw on debut when he won the man of the match award and Lomu scored a try in the eventual 40-29 victory.
Their final test together was also against Ireland the following year at Eden Park when McCaw was subbed and Lomu played on the unfamiliar right wing. It's no surprise with that firepower the All Blacks won all of those tests.
McCaw forged on, picking up the baton of greatness and delivering annual video libraries overflowing with rugby excellence.
What separated McCaw from the rest, we asked, and how could someone whose position demanded he play on the margins of the law throughout his career, be so consistently superior to some of the other outstanding looseforwards around the world?
McCaw had the bases well covered. He was magnificently fit, as brave as anyone in the game with a tolerance for punishment and with an unrelenting character which had dispensed with the quit button.
Rugby smart too with a forensic knowledge of the laws and an ability to acquiesce to different referees' demands in any game. He was a thinking man's rugby player whose mind allowed him to adapt his game whenever law changes were made.
McCaw and his red exercise books were legendary.
He wrote down what his coaches told him, jotted down ideas about his next opposition and how he and the All Blacks intended to play and tweak their strategies.
In the middle of 2009, the All Blacks were going through a tough patch. McCaw was still finding his form after a knee injury and the side lost both away tests to the Boks in South Africa. The skipper's summary after the initial defeat at Bloemfontein was they were spirited but playing dumb rugby.
They repeated that in Durban with reckless rugby. The great worry was the Boks don't have to do much to win again but some relief came with a single point victory in Sydney against the Wallabies. When the Boks visit there was no respite and they won in Hamilton.
The All Blacks are lurching through a 50 per cent win rate in eight tests. McCaw admitted grisly memories of the RWC quarterfinal in Cardiff two years before were bubbling up once more.
There's a widespread All Black rearrangement and McCaw et al challenge each other and their own performances. They cleaned up the tests on the end of year tour as they began to reassert their dominance.
McCaw spoke to his men about embracing the All Blacks legacy and asked them how they were going to achieve that.
"This jersey will show up the frauds , the imposters," he told the group. "It'll squeeze those who look for short cuts."
He demanded toughness, ruthlessness, power, pace and the want which had to come from within each player, "that inner desire to spill some blood if that's what it takes.
"It's not about wearing their jersey, it's about filling it. Love every minute of it."
You know McCaw did and uttering today's words about placing a full-stop on his test career will hurt. His actions were always his gold-plated vocabulary.
