Not counting this weekend, there are six more Super Rugby rounds to go before three weeks of playoffs (if the Crusaders get that far). Then there are five tests scheduled before four tests in the World Cup (admittedly against some less-than-stellar opposition). Those who think at least six Super Rugby games plus five tests and then four pool tests is not enough to get the McCaw motor humming have rocks in their heads.
So Hansen and Co, instead of just blindly pushing McCaw through yet another season, are attempting to bring him (and Carter) to the boil at the right time - like setting a horse for the Melbourne Cup, if you will. If that doesn't work, Cane's fine form should comfort the worry-warts. He's the ready-made replacement. That's good, isn't it?
If not McCaw, then who? Just to entertain the ludicrous, let's say Hansen dropped him or took him to the World Cup but didn't play him. Ardie Savea - talented but too new; Matt Todd - the likeliest replacement but there are signs the All Blacks brains trust think he's a bit small at the breakdown; Luke Braid is perhaps the most Richie-like but is suffering the same bodily wear-and-tear McCaw is.
The most sensible option is McCaw peaking, that's even without considering the value of his captaincy on and off the field. It's also clear there isn't anyone other than Cane, who seems to have been around since Brad Thorn was at kindy but is only 23.
Simon Barnes, writing in Britain's
Times
recently, was already manning the barricades against McCaw. Barnes wrote: "There does seem to be one rule for McCaw and one for the rest of the world ... There is no question McCaw benefits from referees' doubt more than any other openside and it's not just his many magnificent qualities that give him such a leading edge over his competitors. The senior figure when McCaw takes the field is rarely the referee."
Yeah, so let's replace him ... The McCaw critics need to hear the old saying along the lines of "How little they see what is, those who make snap judgements on what seems".
We can, however, thank the naysayers as they are doing a good job of ensuring the All Blacks do not suffer from over-confidence. A friend - and there are quite a few like him out there - argues the All Blacks of 2015 are like the All Blacks of 1991 in that they have too many old blokes and suffer from best-in-the-world arrogance.
The big difference is, in 1991, there was little or no succession planning and selection was more or less constant as the team still felt they were No1 in spite of evidence to the contrary and before Australia beat them in the semifinal.
Hansen has not made that mistake in this cycle - look at Brodie Retallick (23), Sam Whitelock (26), Patrick Tuipolutu (22), Owen Franks (27), Aaron Smith (26), Beauden Barrett (23), Malaki Fekitoa (22), Julian Savea (22), Charles Piuatu (23) and Israel Dagg (26). Youth sits alongside experience, selection (in the top team) is far from guaranteed.
The McCaw/Carter critics are also forgetting one fact: this is a World Cup. Defence, penalties and turnovers swell in importance in a game of centimetres. Such pressure cries out for leadership, yes, but also someone who has stared into the molten heart of the volcano and survived.
Sounds like McCaw to me. Oh, and Carter to kick the goals.
