Breakdown still a contest – McCaw

McCaw, who announced some time ago that he will not exercise the sabbatical clause in his NZRFU contract which would allow him to miss the entire Super 14, may not miss as many Super 14 games as expected.

The Kiwi skipper said the decision on whether he will sit out the first three rounds is up for review.

Asked for which Crusaders game he would return, he said: “I haven’t actually made a firm decision, but I’m definitely missing the first two rounds, so it’ll be either the third or fourth”.

Speaking to media at Crusaders training, McCaw said that with referees having been instructed to ensure that the tackler allows the tackled player to release the ball before an attempt at a steal can be made, the number of turnovers in games could be reduced to only one or two.

Retaining or stealing ball this year will require technical accuracy. If the ball carrier does everything technically right, “the team with the ball will keep it and be able to play, and that should allow some good rugby to be played,” he said.

The new focus by the referees on protecting the tackled player’s release of the ball will mean that “teams that are really accurate and figure that out to get their breakdown right will be the ones that do pretty well”.

There would still be a contest, he said, but it couldn’t be with someone who was inaccurate.

“They have either got to be right or not,” says McCaw, since the new law application would “reward players who are really accurate”. The ball-carrier would retain possession, he believes, “unless someone who is really accurate gets in and contests the ball”.

McCaw said he hoped referees would be consistent in their application of the laws throughout the Super 14.

Good in theory

“It’s all good in theory; it will just be interesting to see how it goes. Perhaps when players are almost on their feet, or getting up, there’s a wee bit of grey area, and some refs would allow you and some wouldn’t.”

“The reality is you’ve got different refs, so everyone will be slightly different. I guess as a whole as long as they’re all aiming to do what they say they’re going to do, we’re going to play to what we’re allowed to do and it’ll be silly if you don’t adjust accordingly.”

The indication from pre-season matches had been that more space was being created than in recent years. In his experience the teams he’d played in which had created the most space, had been the most successful. He believed that this year’s Crusaders team had players who were big and quick and able to exploit space.

But creating space was not always possible, and “you have got to have other things up your sleeve,” said McCaw.

The Crusaders goal for the Super 14 would not be merely to make the semi-finals, said McCaw. Coming second or third on the log was not what you played for through the competition; the idea was to win the tournament.

Starting off well was vital, he felt, because you didn’t want to play catch-up. It was important to finish first or second on the log as the long trip to South Africa made winning a semi-final more difficult.

Winning the close contests would be important for the Crusaders, McCaw believed, as failing to win close games had been costly for them in the past.