Wynne Gray: Angst over McCaw is sign of the times

Richie McCaw. Photo / Getty Images

Just checking: We haven't started the rugby season, have we, not the proper programme anyway?

Sure we've ticked off a few trial games, but the serious business, the start of the revamped Super Rugby series is still a week away.

And while we are being inundated with Rugby World Cup briefings, information and updates, it is still seven months until time is whistled on in September.

Yet there is already mounting frenzy and, dare we suggest, an element of hysteria as we sniff some of the reaction to revelations that All Black skipper Richie McCaw needs time out for an operation on his foot.

At face value, a "McCaw Crippled" headline in this newspaper would have ramped up some of the worry lines until greater details were absorbed in the story.

But the mini-frenzy about damage to the All Black skipper gave a signal about some of the sporting hysteria and hyperbole which lies ahead this year.

Any injury to the multi-decorated McCaw or deputy Superman Daniel Carter will provoke much greater inspection than damage to other All Blacks. They are the core of the side, the talismans, the head craftsmen at the helm of a very experienced and successful side.

Other All Blacks are on the sidelines. Halfback Piri Weepu is recovering from the serious ankle break he suffered last year while Tom Donnelly and Colin Slade are both banged up for about the same length of time as McCaw with shoulder and jaw dramas.

There is also the small matter of the stress fracture in Sonny Bill Williams' foot.

While their absences have been lamented there has not been the same level of angst generated by McCaw's need to have a bone in his foot repaired. The Sportsman of the Year is an exceedingly valuable All Black as captain and the premier looseforward in the land.

But there has been a little too much bed-wetting about his extra absence from Super 15 instead of relief that his body will get a little more rest and reconditioning for what will be an exhausting season.

Injuries in World Cup year do bring extra storylines, though, from the time that Jock Hobbs relinquished the All Black captaincy because of concussion to Andy Dalton's unco-operative hamstring in the initial 1987 tournament.

Mike Brewer was also invalided out of that tournament because of a groin strain and four years later controversially missed out once again when he failed a medical on his damaged foot.

There were injuries to both fullbacks Terry Wright and Shayne Philpott during the 1991 World Cup which created great anxiety. The media were also in the casualty spotlight when renowned New Zealand photographer Ross Setford broke his upper right arm at Lille after he slipped on the rain-soaked surface while capturing the All Blacks' haka.

The Brooke brothers, Zinzan and Robin, were the medical headaches for the 1995 tournament. Zinzan spent a month in a hyperbaric chamber because of Achilles tendon damage and Robin strained a calf muscle. Both made the trip, did not play the first few rounds but lasted the gripping extra-time final against the Boks.

Promising looseforward Aaron Hopa died in a diving accident before he could contest selection for the 1999 tournament and five-eighths Carlos Spencer exited the event after he badly injured his knee in training.

Current medical case study Ali Williams had foot surgery not long before the 2003 World Cup and Ben Blair injured his neck in training before Tana Umaga's tournament ended after 15 minutes when his knee collided with Spencer.

Lock Keith Robinson battled to get to the 2007 event and was then a bit-part contributor, Mils Muliaina damaged a leg and Daniel Carter's calf injury created all sorts of quarter-final conjecture before and after the defeat to France.

Most of those injury headaches occurred just before or at World Cups, unlike McCaw's current temporary absence.

But there will be more episodes before the World Cup squad is selected and no doubt some testing times for Dr Deb Robinson and others on the All Blacks' medical, physio and rehab rosters.

None, though, are likely to be quite as dramatic as the withdrawal of Irish flanker Nigel Carr from the 1987 World Cup.

He and several teammates were en route to Dublin for a World Cup practice when their car was hit by a blast from a huge landmine which killed a senior Irish judge and his wife.

The three players survived the impact but Carr's injuries forced him out of the World Cup and into premature retirement.