Editorial: Dan and Richie win names game

Richie McCaw walks down the parade path at Victoria Park in Auckland yesterday. Photo / Nick Reed

The Rugby World Cup is history now, and I daresay for many that is a very good place for it to be.

We may start seeing alternatives to street parades, painted faces and the "we're blown away" comments by the boys in black as they come face to face with streetside crowds of thousands.

But then it was all good news, which can be a rarity at times, and hey, in the wake of what the Aussies are doing to us on a flatly mowed slab of Brisbane we'll take it any time.

One thing that came across during the celebratory coverage was the sheer adulation many people had for a selected group of players.

The stars of stars.

Led by Daniel Carter and closely followed by Richie McCaw.

Which left a colleague to muse about the influence those names may have off the rugby fields, not to mention television screens.

It's all in the name ... a name says a lot.

I would not be surprised to discover in a year that the number of boys being brought into this land, and this region, with the names Daniel and Richie have trebled - quadrupled even.

For they are two things.

They are the names of two lads who may be seen as mentors to a degree, and people to aspire to, and they are both good names anyway.

Which led me to dig out the team lists of two gold cup-winning All Black teams.

The 1987 squad and this latest crew.

There is a very traditional spread of names throughout that squad of 28 years ago and it speaks volumes about that time.

You've got John, Andy, Michael, Richard, Steve, Murray, Wayne, Alan, Gary, Grant and Bruce among the number.

Not a Roger in sight but I can live with that.

But check out the names amid this cup-winning lot of today.

Wyatt, Beauden, Jerome, Keiran, Richie, Dane, Codie, Liam, Brodie, Nehe and Conrad among the number.

Oh, the imaginative and evolving world of the name.

I wonder what the ABs' line-up of names will be in another 28 years.

Maybe ... Daniel, Daniel, Richie, Daniel, Richie ...