Rugby: Where Does Richie McCaw Rank Amongst All Black Greats?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 16, 2010

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When creating a list of the greatest players of the past decade there would be a handful of names you would expect to see. These may include Du Preez, Matfield, Carter, Wilkinson and O'Driscoll amongst others. However one name stands clear and would undoubtedly make anyone's list. I am talking about, of course, Richie McCaw.

In 2010 he has reminded us just how good and influential he is in every game he plays. His career has been full of highlights and he holds all sorts of records, including the most tries scored by an All Black forward (19) and the most test caps as captain (52, including 46 wins). His greatness is unquestionable in today's game. But where does he rank amongst the all time greats?

Every All Black team has had its players who have stood out and have the tag greatness attached to them. Pre-World War II we saw the likes of George Nepia, Maurice Brownlie and Billy Stead on top of the world. Through the 1950's-60's the names of Meads, Lochore, Whineray and Clarke all stand out in most people's memories. The 1970's brought us Bryan Williams, Ian Kirkpatrick, Sid Going, and Graham Mourie while the 1980's saw the likes of John Kirwan, Grant Fox, and Buck Shelford rule supreme. The 1990's paved way for a whole lot of great players including Sean Fitzpatrick, Michael Jones, Zinzan Brooke, Frank Bunce, Jeff Wilson and the one-of-a-kind Jonah Lomu. In recent years the names of Carter, Umaga and Hayman come to mind along with that of McCaw.

All of these men were exceptionally good in their own time, so how is it then, that we can make comparisons and say that any of them were any better than the others? It is really an impossible task as the game continues to change and the game played now is a very different game to one played 100, 50, 25 or even 10 years ago. It is always easy to remember players from a more recent era and rate them highly, but it's the ones who still have their names mentioned 50 years on that you kn...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Rugby Union

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