McCaw to play 8.

Due to Reads injury, what are the chances of McCaw playing 8?

8 or 6?

8 none at all, 6 slim to none and right now Slim's out of town.

6. Vito
7. McCaw
8. Kaino

How about that?

I'd have thought that Vito would just played 8, am sure he has played there both for the Hurricanes and for Wellington.

Bring back Buck.

More to the point what are the chances of Mccheat playing within the rules? regardless of whatever position he wears!!

What a key board warrior he is.
Why on earth would McCaw play 8?

Nganboy- 'Why on Earth would Mccaw play at 8'

Well he's brought eternal shame and contempt for his position and probably wants to share the aprobrium around the pack.

The mans a disgrace to the game, and a downright impertinant cheat, and those are his good points. All the Gods of Rugby should ensure that this creature is given his just deserts in the next WC, and treated as any other player. And pigs might fly!!

Right, where's Matron, its time for my Medication, Matron!!

Because an article came out a few weeks ago, saying McCaw had been training at 8.

Mccaw started his playing days as an 8,sometimes interchanges with his 8
for tactical reasons.With the Crusaders he played at 8 with George Whitelock on the flank.

english warrior wrote:Nganboy- 'Why on Earth would Mccaw play at 8'

Well he's brought eternal shame and contempt for his position and probably wants to share the aprobrium around the pack.

The mans a disgrace to the game, and a downright impertinant cheat, and those are his good points. All the Gods of Rugby should ensure that this creature is given his just deserts in the next WC, and treated as any other player. And pigs might fly!!

Right, where's Matron, its time for my Medication, Matron!!

Do you actually believe that nonsense, or did you not have anything knowledgable to say?

Biltong- I not only believe and feel all of my post on Mccheat, but what i've written is the censored, polite post, because the real one would have more swearing in it than a Chubby Brown monologue!!

Yet I'm sure you always kiss the Neil Back poster you have on your bedroom door goodnight before you tuck in.

disneychilly wrote:Yet I'm sure you always kiss the Neil Back poster you have on your bedroom door goodnight before you tuck in.

Hopefully that's all he does with the poster.

I wonder if it's laminated in that case.

disneychilly wrote:I wonder if it's laminated in that case.

Now that is downright scary.

I'll have you know that its an oil painting and kissing would make the paint run!!

This is all silly talk.
Right now Kaino, Vito and McCaw are the fit loosies.
Kaino is a specialist 6
Vito is a 8/6 in that order
McCaw is a GOD who spends most of his time with a 7 on his back.
We don't have a back up specialist 7 so it would be pretty pointless moving McCaw.

Thought Vito was a 6 firstly?

My point is that McCaw is the only loosie we have who can really play 7 so it would be crazy to play him anywhere else.

[quote="nganboy"]This is all silly talk.

McCaw is a GOD who spends most of his time with a 7 on his back.


Which is more than you can say about Neil Back or any other pommie loosie

Mehrts is God

Yeah, yeah yeah, you must mean the World cup winner Neil Back who has achieved more than any other AB playing today. In fact the last time the AB's won top silverware was when Graham Henri was in short trousers and had a bit of humility!!

You will note that i never ever denigrate Dan 'No bottle 'Carter in the same way as Mccheat, because Carter plays within the rules and is a good sportsman ( if a tad mardy and emotional)

But its Mccheat who truly gets my goat with his tactics of playing in opposition shirts, lying across the ball with his cloak of invisibility and generally not being subjected to a long overdue shoeing. My how i'd have liked Mccheat to have played when that was allowed, but its sadly not to be. Hope he and the Evil Rugby empire of the AB's is given its true come-uppence!! Enjoy the world cup!

not sure mccaw is suited to playing 8 to be honest.

I wish McCaw was English - hell with our selewction policy he could be - so let's get him in the All Black of England.

[quote="english warrior"]Mehrts is God

Yeah, yeah yeah, you must mean the World cup winner Neil Back who has achieved more than any other AB playing today.

That is just a silly statement.
This would be true if winning a world cup was the only measure of the quality or achievements of a player.
There have been wonderful players who have not and never will win a world cup.

Is being a member of a world cup winning team better than playing 100 games for your country? Or winning around 80% of all your games, or never losing to Ireland, Wales, Scotland etc. Neil Back was a fine number 7, probably a bit small who benefited from having guys who did the really hard tight work around him freeing him up to be a ball stealing terrier. Course he cheated heaps too.

How many people in the world would rate Neil Back a better 7 and McCheat? Take out the biased Poms and Kiwis and see where the voting would fall.

He actually went to 8 today... not that I'm a genius or anything...

Nganboy- Sorry my little colonial friend, but winning a World cup IS the main pre-requisite for greatness and those who don't climb that particular mountain will always be seen as nearly men, and whats more you know these words are the real deal!! Bye for now.

English Warrior,

Remind me when Neil Back won the honour of being the incumbent captain his country? win 100 test caps? whitewash a lions series and pick up back to back IRB player of the year awards?

Hoisted by your own pompous petard ghost...McCaw's plaudits, whilst manifold, do not as yet include being a World Champion. To be so good and yet be unable to perform for the cameras suggests to me hasn't reached his potential, just like the side he leads. Back was the real deal so show some of the respect you demand for McCaw.

Assuming its individuals we are talking here Gatts. Back didnt win the World cup on his own, neither did McCaw lose it on his own, at least thats what you seem to be saying- in fact I thought Wilkinson won it. Looked a bit too slim for Back from memory...

McCaw did however win the IRB player of the year 3 times and get nominated- largely by a pool of predominantly NHers 6 times I think it is.

Was Back ever mentioned in there somewhere? Can't recall...do remember the name though...

Neil Back did Captain his country, but granted he was never the incumbert as that was Martin Johnson, but he did win a hatful of caps and i don't know how to say this, but he couldn't play the British lions because, he's well, British.

As for IRB player of the year well, that is mainly political. But back to Neil Back and Mccheat, yes of course they both at times cheat, but England always have to face over vigilant refs, while AB's and Mcc get away with murder. Therefore Back was more skilled and less blatant, because if he was as big a cheat as MCC he would have spent more time off the park, whereas, Mcc spends most of his time offside. As for Richie being a great player, well he may well be, but i've yet to see him play a game within the laws, so its hard to give a true assessment. Bye for now!!

The world cup is also very political English Warrior. Sorry to tell you this, but rugby is a business. If anything the outcome of the RWC is more political than the outcome of the IRB player of the year. If the RWC was won every four years metronomically by NZ, or maybe Aus or SA then how would any interest be generated? Rugby League is dominated by Australia, and who can get interested in the League world cup? What a tournament like this needs to be successful, is upsets, and outsider victories, that is why it is shared around as it is.

Back played for the Lions a few times though. Lost a fair few of the matches he played in. I guess some guys just can't step up to the highest level.

TheGreyGhost wrote:

Back played for the Lions a few times though. Lost a fair few of the matches he played in. I guess some guys just can't step up to the highest level.

You are right, i don't have time to list all the ABs from 1995 onwards who bar 2003 were absolutely nailed on to win RWC but failed to reach the highest level, suffice to say McCaw would be on there at least once!!

TGG- 'What a tournament like this needs to be successful is upsets, and outsider victories'


Well you got to hand it to the AB's because they must have made every tournament since 1987, losing when they are the favourites!!! Ha,ha,ha, But is it too tooo much to think they'll ablige another tournament and fail yet again.
I hope it doesn't happen, no really, Honest!!

I've long said English Worrier that the only thing vaguely interesting about the RWC, which is after all has been a fairly morbid affair since 1999 is that NZ have chosen not to win for a while.

I can't help but think that NZ's desire to not win in order to expand interest in rugby is hindering the quality on display at the tournament.

It seems like an inevitable effect of the best side going out earlier that quality would suffer.

We'll see if the NZRFU think the cup has been shared around enough for us to take it home for four years.

TGG-'NZ's desire not to win'

Hmmm, says a lot and answers a few questions as to the AB and Kiwi mindset!!

Hey i know that you're being ironic, well done!! i Didn't think AB fans had it in them. Wonders will never cease.

But take it from me(and you're going to have to) that winning the World cup is the greatest thing in your sport, and i'm sure if you can find a few Kiwi old timers, they'll tell how good it was to watch the Pro AB's beat all those amateur sides back in the mists of time. However, they will probably be in their dotage now because that win was long long ago. But if you can achieve it this time (as Neil back did) then you too will become a fan of WOrld cup wins. That is of course if the 'Choking reflex doesn't kick in!!

So we have an English Welsh and Kiwi poster discussing the merits of each in the World cup.

Hmmm...lets see...
NZ-Wales:

2003 NZ: 53-37
1995 NZ: 34-9
1987 NZ: 49-6

Oooooh...

NZ-England:
1999: NZ 30-16
1995: NZ: 45-29
1991: NZ: 18-12

Not a lot better but no cigar I'm sorry...

So let me get this right. You're able to slate NZ's performances based on the fact that your very own teams were completely unable to contribute to any of it.

Ok, fair enough. An interesting perspective you have- riding the success of others to make a point...very good then...

You need to complete the list taylorman....can you list your successes at RWC for us too...just lisitng where you beat Eng/wales is cheap polarising of the argument designed to distract from the facts...mccaw is not the world champ he or his mum want him to be, to date he has failed on that front!

gg is banging on like the relentless drone he is about Mccaw being the best blah blah, fact is he has never been a world champ. You can list all the results you like, pointlessly i might add because we all know that NZ always win...always, without doubt, unless.......unless of curse its a RWC 1/4, 1/2 or Final when they , and he, lose!

Taylorman doesn't need to list the RWC successes, just look at your own. A paltry 1 from 6. You know that as well as we do.

Jeepers all this rubbish going on during a tournament which could see him actually win the thing. Brave timing. A lot of players not as good as McCaw have won the Cup, it's the way the cookie crumbles. The beauty if it being a team game.

Wales best result was in the shamateur '87 world cup. And frankly it doesn't count because Samoa weren't there.

England's solitary victory was in the era when the referees were interpreting the laws incorrectly. Afterwards, the IRB clarified that the entire competition had in fact been played under a misapprehension about the correct adjudication of the breakdown. To me, this makes England's victory worthless.

Settle down people.
Gatts. You are either saying mccaw is rubbish or not.
Have you made your own mind up?
Do you honestly think mccaws drive in his life is to cheat? really?
3 irb player of year. 6 Nominations and hes driven by... Cheating?
That your honest opinion?

Taylorman- 'Do you honsetly think Mccaws drive in his life is to cheat'

Yes, because its a great tool to win matches!!

Ooh English Warrior I just saw a speck of dust on Neil Back's halo. You wouldn't be a good lad and polish it for us all to admire again would you?

i dont think mccaw should play 8 to be honest...

Yeah I'm with you on that Cricketfan90.

I haven't been on this site for ages, and it's good to see that GreyGhosts level of sarcasm / irony hasn't diminished at all.
It's also amusing to see that it still winds everyone up so much.

As for the McCaw comments, he simply manages to get away with everything that every other players wishes they could.
It's not any conspiracy one way or the other... he just plays the ref better than anyone else (as well as being bloody good at what he does)


The biggest problem is that rugby used to be a sport that was almost self-refereeing.
If you were on the wrong side in a ruck, you'd get a shoeing.
If you were a bit too naughty in a scrum, you'd get a right-hander

These are things that don't / can't occur in the modern game, and the refs aren't always capable of keeping it all under control.


and finally... any backrow that doesn't cheat isn't doing it's job properly.

Gatts you referring to England's group as a joke is pretty silly considering how close they came to capitulating against Argentina. It's really quite an interesting group.

As I said before being a World Champion makes you part of a great team but not necessarily a great player. And vice versa. Blanco, Magne, N'Tamack all great players. None a world champ.

English Warrior, sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. That's why I used it in reply to you sir, yet you still didn't get it. Oh dear.

injuries announced this morning,
changes to team to play Japan
McCaw out replaced by Victor Vito.
Muliana replaced by Toeava

Adam Thompson to number 8.