Here is a beauty I remembered from last year. You might not catch it the first time, but on the replay you can see how Piatau is lucky to still have a head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W_4S5aM1yfQ#t=21s
I'm still not sure what any of this has to do with McCaw though.
Here is a beauty I remembered from last year. You might not catch it the first time, but on the replay you can see how Piatau is lucky to still have a head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=W_4S5aM1yfQ#t=21s
I'm still not sure what any of this has to do with McCaw though.
It was really noticeable that he has adopted this method as his Plan A in the ruck.
Instead of clearing out by pushing players back, he's clearing out by pulling them from the opposition side.
But if McCaw is doing that as Scarfman mentioned, and generally taking up space which he definitely does - and he is getting away away with it, opponents have to do the same thing. If then the playing field is not level with the officials (as it wasn't with lbw decisions against Oz batsmen in their days of pomp) then can we whinge.
Rather than criticise McCaw we should do what he does until there is a crackdown on taking up space.
Then there are his blocking lines of run in front of the ball carrier, as the Reds noticed one afternoon in Christchurch town.
It wasn't spotted - brilliant.
.
It wasn't spotted - brilliant.
.
So (St Richie the Invisible) can't get done for lazy runner if you pass the ball into him & he can't get done for not rolling away.
Then there are his blocking lines of run in front of the ball carrier, as the Reds noticed one afternoon in Christchurch town.
It wasn't spotted - brilliant.
.
If its the tacking space at the ruck thing, well again all teams do that. The Reds do it very well. Pretending to roll away and accidentally fall in the way isn't confined to just McCaw, but he is better at it.
But shit, it's rugby, there's an infringement at every ruck so kudos to those who don't get pinged.
McCaw has a vast catalogue of dodgy manoeuvres, which are coming out to play more often now that he's slowing down. I've also noticed the Reds 'taking up space' very often, Beau Robinson is one of the more blatant ones. The Highlanders do it a little bit but in our case it's more that we just plain old fall over the wrong side of the ruck (looking at you Thomson, Hoeata, King, Mackintosh). We get duly penalised though.
But shit, it's rugby, there's an infringement at every ruck so kudos to those who don't get pinged.
1) Off line-outs and scrums – skill of shepherding. Understand the need to run lines off line-out which allow you to support your backs quickly while slowing opposite number and preserving space for backs to attack.
I believe the same process could be attributed to rucks also. To me, this is all McCaw was doing against the Reds.