Dangermen of the Rugby World Cup: Richie McCaw

Dangermen of the rugby: Fourteen years of service. 141 caps. 135 points. IRB International Player of the Year a record three times. For a man that has everything, what is left for Richie McCaw to win?

As September’s showpiece looms near, one last World Cup trophy would be a fitting send-off for the man from Otago, New Zealand.

A titan of the game, the openside flanker has been the bedrock of the All Blacks seemingly since his test debut. In the time since, has amassed immense experience and possesses an almost sixth sense for the game, capable of clear thinking under pressure. His recent try against South Africa as the chips were down is indicative of the McCaw spirit: this is a man that is at his best when he faces adversity.

At the 2015 World Cup, he’ll once again be in charge of a team that enters an international tournament billed as favourites.  Not by much, mind – recent losses against Australia and South Africa have ever so slightly diminished the aura of invincibility that follows McCaw’s men wherever they go – but all the same, there are few sides in sport that enjoy the All Blacks’ level of dominance.

Of course, there are no guarantees. New Zealand has famously failed at World Cups in the past, losing at the semi-final stage in 1991, 1999 and 2003 and famously choking in the quarter-finals of the 2007 competition against France. They had been seen as pre-tournament favourites each time.

With McCaw in the prime of his captainacny career and commanding the breakdown, though, New Zealand will be quietly confident. This is a man, after all, who has made his name getting into the heads of referees and testing the legal boundaries of the game. Because, to this confident champion, winning is everything.