It is natural that over such a length of time, McCaw is seen by many through a prism which more reflects their own prejudice than his career. For some, any mention that is less than adoration is heresy.
For others, he is the most effective cheat to have played the game, someone referees are scared to punish in all but the most blatant of circumstances.
As usual, the truth lies at neither end of that scale but there are a few points on either side that people should consider.
The most egregious allegation against McCaw is that he is perpetually offside at breakdowns and is allowed to be so more than anyone else.
This is so widely believed that some people joked that he could be picked for any country's greatest ever XV because he spent so much time on their side of the ball.
First, the fact that he is perpetually at them at all means he is being effectively involved. Second, his appearance on the "wrong" side is most often because he knows the breakdown laws.
This is the law by which McCaw lives and the one that a lot of fans do not appear to know, 15.4.(c): "The tackler must get up before playing the ball and then may play the ball from any direction."
Many players are taught to bring down an opponent, slide round to their own side of the tackle and release the man and then get to their feet to contest. What McCaw does is get to his feet after the tackle and contest the ball from the "wrong" side.
A technique he developed fairly quickly - and this is the other side of McCaw - is technically illegal but difficult to see.
Sometimes he will not compete for the ball but will brace himself to take hits from opposing players trying to clear out, leaving his colleagues to win it. Technically this is obstruction because if he does not play the ball, he should retire to his side of the breakdown.
However, we are talking mere seconds or fractions of seconds before players from both sides pile into a breakdown and it is only by knowing what to look for that it becomes apparent.
You could use that example to allege cynicism of McCaw and, yes, it might be so.
On the other hand, it is no more or less so than Lawrence Dallaglio's knack of holding a tackled player long enough to slow down the ball but not enough to draw a penalty, or Paul O'Connell's ability to appear in the middle of an opponent's driving maul off a lineout.
You could go back to his criticism of Wayne Barnes in 2007 rather than accepting the Kiwis lost because they could not kick a dropped goal in 20 minutes of possession in the French 22. There was a trip against Argentina at this World Cup. So what?
In a career that has spanned so much time, so much of the globe and so much of it played at the highest level, it would be impossible not to be able to point to isolated incidents.
Let's just join with the rest of the world in saying goodbye to one of its greatest players.
