Great captains win Rugby World Cups. Four years ago McCaw was not that man. He is now.

The Man with the big chisel has started to etch a few preliminary lines. Richie McCaw’s head is ready to be carved into rugby’s Mount Rushmore.

Great captains win Rugby World Cups. Four years ago McCaw was not that man. He is now.

Even as recently as the Tri-Nations there were doubts about McCaw’s leadership. He was seen as slow to make tactical adjustments. On Sunday McCaw came of age. He led his men with the sort of calculated fury that we used to get from Sean Fitzpatrick and Martin Johnson.

And maybe the key to it all was that McCaw had spent the week on one leg. McCaw has always said he likes to lead by example, but at this World Cup he has had to take a step back at training. McCaw has been forced to study the map, forced to feel the mood of his men, before charging off into no man’s land.

I have never seen McCaw smile on a rugby pitch the way that he did on Sunday night. There was eight years of satisfaction in that one smile. It came from a very deep place. The victory over Australia was the biggest achievement of McCaw’s career.

Part of the smile was because the Aussies had been put in their place. Quade Cooper had been humbled. David Pocock – who like it or not is still the world’s best openside – had been backed into a corner. But part of the smile was about team.

It was about how Owen Franks and Brad Thorn and Kieran Read and Jerome Kaino and the rest of the All Blacks pack had smashed Australia. It was a man’s smile. It was about being bigger and stronger and harder. It was about male dominance.

McCaw is an icon in New Zealand and the country growls at the suggestion that he shoplifts when he thinks he can get away with it or is no longer the best player in the world. But maybe New Zealand is growling less than it used to. Maybe it feels less threatened by such statements of the bleeding obvious.

And maybe New Zealand can now celebrate McCaw for who he is and not as some symbol of the whole country’s masculinity. He is a good bloke and a hell of a rugby player who for six years was the best in the world. But he is a far better captain now than he ever was.

The earthquake surely had something to do with his heightened authority. McCaw said at the time: “There is a new normal now.”

The new normal became a New Zealand that looked beyond its own fenceline. The new normal became referees who behaved like McCaw’s private secretary. The new normal was a Canterbury captain who finally became the leader of a whole country. The new normal was Piri Weepu and Cory Jane and Aaron Cruden no longer feeling that teacher is looking warily at them.

Before the World Cup I wrote that not all men are great leaders, but that I had a hunch that McCaw and New Zealand would finally pull through. I felt that compared to the captains of the other countries – John Smit aside and he was not worth his place in South Africa’s team – McCaw looked a very big man.

Graham Henry puts his skipper on the list of captains that includes Wilson Whineray, Brian Lochore, Graham Mourie, Wayne Shelford and Sean Fitzpatrick. But New Zealand has to beat France in order to justify McCaw’s ennoblement. When that happens shortly before 11 o’clock on Sunday evening, then Sir Richie will be Henry’s ‘special’ captain.

Of course it just had to be France. It just had to be Thierry Dusautoir, the flanker who McCaw respects beyond any other. But there won’t be a repeat of four years ago and that match. McCaw knows now not to keep “the lid on too tight.” Like Henry he is learning to smile.

We saw the difference last week in the pinched faces of Robbie Deans and James Horwill compared to the easy going confidence of Henry and McCaw. It was a complete role reversal from previous World Cups. The All Blacks have finally learned to be cool.

There is no other way for them to win a World Cup in their own country. On the train going into Auckland city on Sunday a young man talked about having to give up his job because he was too worried about the All Blacks. You could feel his vibe in the stadium on Sunday. New Zealand fans are so uptight that they only start really cheering when they know their team has won. The All Blacks have to float beyond that tension.

Eight years ago in Australia McCaw went to the final in Sydney because his parents had bought tickets. He said before this World Cup: “I don’t know why I went. It was horrible being there. Now I’ve been to one, I wouldn’t mind going to another.”

Well, Richie, you made it.

from Stuff.co.nz