Richie McCaw reaches 100 Tests as All Blacks skipper
Richie McCaw reaches 100 Tests as All Blacks skipper — and has a captaincy record unmatched in world sport.
Dominic Burke
FOX SPORTS
November 21, 2014 3:55PM
IF you are a Wallabies fan and reading this it might be wise to sit down. Richie McCaw might just be the greatest captain the sporting world has seen, bar none.
Okay, dusted yourself off? We weren’t kidding.
McCaw, the legendary flanker and bane of the Wallabies, will this weekend reach a world record 100 Tests as captain of the All Blacks.
It’s a mind-boggling milestone on its own, especially when you consider that second on the list for international rugby is the now retired Brian O’Driscoll, who led Ireland 84 times and just edges South Africa’s World Cup-winning captain John Smit (83 Tests as skipper).
To add more context, Wallaby greats George Gregan (59) and John Eales (51) combined to captain 11 more Tests than McCaw has on his own heading into this weekend.
Little wonder then that McCaw’s All Blacks teammate Kieran Read, an accomplished captain himself, described the upcoming century as a “massive deal”.
McCaw, who aims to lead the All Blacks to next year’s World Cup as they look to defend their crown, looks sure to add to the incredible tally.
But to fully appreciate just how incredible the milestone is, we’ve delved deeper into the numbers behind McCaw’s record reign as New Zealand Test captain.
Strangely, there were no stats for number of times spotted offside at a ruck, or a referee has warned “hands off, black seven”. But those are the last gags we’ll make, promise.
Seriously, it’s irresponsible to poke too much fun at a man who can rock such a magnificent mo for Movember.
It’s not simply the sheer number of Tests he’s captained that marks McCaw as king of the captains — it’s the amount of success he’s enjoyed in the hot seat.
Since he first assumed the captaincy in 2004, the All Blacks have won 88 per cent of their games with McCaw in charge. His captaincy record reads: 99 games played, 87 wins, 12 losses.
No one comes close to that phenomenal mark in world rugby — fellow All Black Sean Fitzpatrick has the next best winning percentage (76.5) of players with more than 50 Tests as captain.
And it’s a similar tale in other sports.
In cricket, South African Graeme Smith holds the record for most Tests as captain with 109, ahead of Australian great Allan Border (93). Between them they managed 85 wins — less than McCaw has secured on his own.
Ricky Ponting has the best strike rate among Test cricket captains, having guided Australia through a golden era of success with 48 victories from 77 Tests for a 62 per cent win rate.
In rugby league, Darren Lockyer led the Kangaroos a record 38 times. Despite Australia’s All Blacks-like dominance of the league world, Lockyer’s winning percentage of 81.5 (31 victories) also trails McCaw.
To think, McCaw nearly gave it all away after the All Blacks had their 2007 World Cup campaign ended by a shock defeat at the hands of France in the semi-finals.
Luckily for the All Blacks, and to the annoyance of Australian rugby fans, he decided to “man up and get on with it”.
“Being the person I am, as soon as I thought like that I thought: ‘There’s no way I’d want to do that’,” McCaw told AAP this week.
“I remember one day I got over it and got on with it.”
RICHIE MCCAW’S CAPTAINCY BY THE NUMBERS
Courtesy of Fox Sports Stats
· Becomes first player to captain his country in 100 Test matches.
· First captained New Zealand in a Test on November 20, 2004 against Wales at Millennium Stadium
- At 23 years and 7 months of age, he became the fifth youngest Test captain for the All Blacks.
- He is currently the fourth oldest player to captain the All Blacks in a Test match.
· The All Blacks have won 87 of the 99 games when McCaw has worn the captain’s armband.
- These 87 wins are more than the total amount of games by the second most capped captain in Test rugby history (Brian O’Driscoll’s 84 Tests as Captain).
- His 87 wins are more than every other New Zealand captain combined since the start of 1998
· He has scored 19 tries as captain, the fifth most in Test Rugby.
- 18 of these tries have come against Tier One Nations, the second most by any forward in world rugby, and the second most overall against Tier One Nations as captain behind Brian O’Driscoll (23 tries)
http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/ri...-1227130966260
Well done Richie, a very impressive achievement :approve:
