Richie McCaw Cheat or genius

[cyclopath]

after a second viewing, I will admit my initial assessment of Joubert was a bit harsh. Still a bit pedantic at times, but generally not bad at all. The howlers belonged to others.

 

[MrMouse]

Nah, Joubert made a number of wrong decisions both ways but was on the whole decent. He had zero _useful_ help from his touchies, but still kept the game going.

I also have to say that, so long as he treads close enough to that line that the ref doesn't blow the pea out of the whistle, Richie McCaw is a genius. It's his job to test the boundaries, find out what/where they are, then perform acrobatics along a very fine line. He does his job better than I've seen anyone else do it. End of story.

 

[DPK]

The stats are here. Hamish McBrearty does a great job on his site, maintaining his love for his side while still digging deep into things.

Here's the stats on McCaw, from the Sports After Dark website. http://sportsafterdark.net/2010/08/31/inside-the-numbers-tri-nations-penalties/

 

[Thin Thighs]

As Winston Churchill said, there are statistics, lies and damned lies.

THe article makes interesting reading, and appears to use/manipulate the numbers to justify the conclusions. Typical but not unexpected.

 

[Scarfman]

Sports after dark: the number 1 and 2 most penalised players are McCaw and Franks.

Fuck me, I could have sworn I made a video showing how each of their their roles in the side is to infringe.

Good onya Hamish, sure you're a Kiwi, but you're an honest fellow. The next round's on me.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

What has happened to the right honorable Saint Professor Richard McCaw?

Where was he at 4:30 on Saturday Morning? Why was he not at Darfield taking care of things?

Why did he not stop the Earthquake?

How has he let Associate Professor David Bam Bam McCock-PoCaw steal some of his invincibility potion?

The Master needs to watch out for the Apprentice during the 2010 Gold Rush in Sydney.

 

[Lindommer]

Looks like Bret Harris has (finally) seen your piece, Scarfy. From The Australian today http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...our-woos-refs/comments-e6frg7t6-1225915015230

All Black glamour woos refs
Bret Harris From: The Australian September 07, 2010 12:00AM

THE All Blacks are a very good team - clearly the best in the world at the moment - but statistics reveal that they are getting away with repeatedly infringing the rules, providing them with a competitive advantage. A clear trend has developed in the Tri-Nations where the All Blacks concede penalties at their own end of the field to stop the opposition from playing, but do not have players sin-binned for a professional foul. The All Blacks consistently give away more penalties than the Wallabies and the Springboks yet are not being sanctioned with yellow cards. The penalty count has gone against the All Blacks in every Tri-Nations test this year, but they have had only Owen Franks yellow carded, compared to four for the opposition. Significantly, 63 per cent of the penalties the All Blacks have conceded have been while they have been defending in their own half. This indicates that when the All Blacks' defence is under pressure they opt to infringe to stop the attacking team's momentum, comfortable in the knowledge that no one will be sent to the sin-bin for repeat offending, and prepared to give away three points rather than risking seven for a converted try.

You can't blame the All Blacks. The object of every team is to slow down the ball of the opposition and players will try to get away with whatever they can at the breakdown. The onus is on the referees to deal with both teams fairly. This is not to suggest referees are cheats, but there may be a human bias involved when it comes to the All Blacks. New Zealand captain Richie McCaw is a great player and the All Blacks are a great team, which means they are probably subconsciously favoured by referees in certain situations. If not, how do you explain the statistics on penalty counts and yellow cards in this year's Tri-Nations? Yellow cards are not handed out for isolated ruck infringements, but referees do go to the pocket for repeated offences.

In the All Blacks' Wellington win against the Springboks, Irish referee Alain Rolland penalised the Kiwis three times for slowing the ball at the breakdown. On the fourth occasion, Rolland told McCaw that "this is an official warning". It was black comedy, All Black comedy. McCaw must have had to stop himself from laughing.

As the best openside flanker in the world, McCaw lives on the edge of the law, which is what his role requires him to do. In the 88 Tests he has played McCaw has only been sin-binned once - by English referee Dave Pearson against Wales in 2006. McCaw has not been sin-binned in 35 Tri-Nations games. Yet, in Super Rugby, McCaw has been sin-binned six times, a much higher ratio. In four of these sin-binnings, the referees who issued the yellow cards were Australian - Stu Dickinson (three) and Matt Goddard (one). On the other occasions the referees were the New Zealander Keith Brown and South African Marius Jonker.

The fact that McCaw has never been sin-binned by a South African referee in the Tri-Nations, and only once by them in Super Rugby, reinforces the view that they have a different perception of his play than Australian referees. It is also worth nothing that in 13 of his 18 Tri-Nations games against the Wallabies, McCaw has been refereed by a South African. And a South African referee, Mark Lawrence, is due to control the Test between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in Sydney on Saturday night. If Lawrence sin-bins McCaw and the All Blacks for repeated infringements, the Wallabies will have their best chance of beating the All Blacks since Robbie Deans' first Test in charge against New Zealand back in 2008.

 

[Scarfman]

Even more interesting is that Mark Lawrence is the first ref to control a game that we KNOW has seen the video. I wouldn't be surprised to Richie take a back seat. Interesting to see how Franks goes, however.

 

[MajorlyRagerly]

 

[Scotty]

Wow 11 offside penalties against the all blacks, and still the ref can't find the yellow card!

 

[Scotty]

He also says that the wallabies give away the most penalties at the breakdown, but this is only as a percentage of their overall penalties. In fact the All Blacks give away 40% more penalties at the breakdown than the Wallabies!

 

[Gnostic]

I do like his not so clever manipulation of the stats there. :lmao:

 

[Gagger]

Guys - encourage you to take serious chat about law bending over to this thread



DONE

 

[Mojoman]

For McCaw to get penalised so much (according to statistics) and still not concede any yellow cards is pure genius in my books. He plays right to the edge of the laws, as he freely admits himself. Yet he bamboozles the Refs into not carding him. Outstanding.

 

[Reddy!]

In defence of McCaw - he made some great runs on the weekend and quite a few metres in the process - didn't realise that was such a big part of his game.

 

[Gagger]

I'm gonna say it - Richie McCaw is past his best.

He's still fucken good, and could still be arguably the best in the world, but not as good as he was.

The focus on the linking/running game is because he can't complete on the floor anymore. At the beginning of the season I thought it was just to do with the new interps, but now I reckon that's just coincidence with an aging body, that now needs bigger and bigger holidays.

I wonder if the niggle creeping in reflects this?

 

[Mojoman]

Disagree. The law interpretations have completely changed the 7's role. Thats why guys like Phil Waugh are no longer playing test match rugby. You can't rely on pilferring balls @ the breakdown. McCaw has just changed his game to suit. If you watch the tape, he's still @ the breakdown contesting and slowing the ball down. Just not getting as many steals as he used to.

Same reason why a guy like Daniel Braid enjoyed a resurgence. He was never an expert pilferrer and was always a better link player. 2 years @ the Reds suited him to a T.

Pocock, as good as he is right now can only get better by improving his ball carrying and ball playing. George Smith had the best balance between steals and ball playing I've ever seen in a 7.

 

[Gagger]

That's what I've been told, and that's what I'm not buying. I think you're kidding yourself if you think there's no more room for a fetcher.

Pocock's a true fetcher and look at the impact he's had on the games this weekend and Bloem f'rinstance. If you can get there to disrupt and get hands on, why not pull the steal? In the new interps you just need to be faster than before. This weekend McCaw was too slow to the tackle, the only way he got there in time was side entry, or to flop afterwards - got pinged for both.

McCaw's running game - which is very good - is a wide running game like Elsom's at 6. Pocock's far more direct in the middle of the pitch, where he's also on hand for ensuing breakdowns.

For me, this is leaving the ABs with three backrowers (all v good players) with very similar skill sets - a bit like the Boks this season.

 

[Gagger]

From the NZ Herald via Garry on the blog:

The Wallabies won the battle of the breakdown, turning over All Black ball eight times and only conceding three penalties in the process, while the All Blacks won five turnovers but conceded a whopping 11 penalties in the contest zone.

 

[qwerty51]

Yup, Pocock's the new master of the breakdown. McCaw still is amazing around the field. He's not that big but hits and runs harder than Chisholm