Richie McCaw believes that Super Rugby Pacific this season will have an added ‘edge’ as players look to impress the new All Blacks head coach.
New Zealand Rugby is yet to make a decision on who will replace Scott Robertson in charge of the national team with Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie understood to be the leading candidates.
Former All Blacks hooker Dane Coles and acting NZR chief executive Steve Lancaster are part of the panel that will decide who the preferred candidate who will be presented to the board before a final decision is made. The duo spent time in Joseph’s Highlanders camp last week and are set to do the same with Rennie’s Kobe Kobelco Steelers.
While Aotearoa holds its collective breath for the announcement to be made, Super Rugby Pacific continues and McCaw believes that this season has an extra spice for players hoping to press their claims for high honours.
Adds an edge to Super Rugby Pacific
He says that there will be no guaranteed selections with whoever the new coach is which adds another layer of intrigue in 2026.
“Oh absolutely, I think you’re right,” he said on NewsTalkZB’s On Sports Fix with D’Arcy Waldegrave.
“It sort of leaves no guarantees. Not that the necessarily ever was, but I just remember back, I think it was maybe 2004, where there was a whole new change of coaching set up, I was like, man, you’re not going to be any favours because you’ve done something in the past, and well, that’s always the way. But it’s going to add an edge, which is what you want.”
The legendary All Blacks captain hopes that it will also create more of a buzz around Super Rugby Pacific and get fans talking about the potential candidates Rennie or Joseph could be turning to.
“Hopefully, it gets people talking about who might be in the team and who might be the bolters and all that,” he continued.
“That’s what you want people talking and watching with interest. So it’s certainly going to make it intriguing and we hopefully get some good rugby. Super Rugby is where new stars put their hands up and the old, the old fellas that have been around, while getting to the swing of things as well.”
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Law trials
The double Rugby World Cup-winning skipper also weighed in on the Super Rugby Pacific law trials that are being conducted this season. The modifications have been made in an attempt to speed up the game and limit the ball out of play time and McCaw is all for the changes.
“I was always an advocate for anything that sped the game up and took a bit of juice out of the other team’s legs,” he remarked.
“Hopefully, as the game goes on, you are hanging in there the longest, so that’s what you want to see as a spectator.”
The 45-year-old was speaking to the publication on the day after he was inducted into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame, joining fellow All Blacks legends Jeff Wilson, Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford, Colin Meads, Jonah Lomu, Brian Lochore, Sir John Kirwan, Michael Jones and Sean Fitzpatrick, to name a few.
“It’s very humbling to receive that,” McCaw said.
“I’ve finished playing for over 10 years now and to still get things like that is very humbling. But I guess, you look at all the names that have already been inducted, there are some true legends of New Zealand sports through the years, so it’s very cool to be alongside them.”
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