All Blacks skipper Richie McCaw has brushed off the almost certain loss of center Conrad Smith for today’s Rugby Championship match against Australia, when the world champions could set a new record for consecutive victories.
New Zealand’s final preparations for the start of their title defense were hit by a pregnant pause yesterday morning when Smith rushed home to Wellington to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.
Exciting young talent Malakai Fekitoa is set to come off the bench to replace the 77-Test veteran in midfield and Ryan Crotty has been called into the squad, even if coach Steve Hansen has not given up hope Smith might play a part in the match.
Photo: AFP
“It’s happened enough times in the past,” a phlegmatic McCaw told reporters at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney. “Just look at the last Test we played when Conrad broke his thumb. Malakai was the last guy to play at center in the last Test so him slotting in will be fine. At the end of the day, if you let those things influence what you do in the weekend, you haven’t really got the environment set up right, so hopefully everyone’s aware of what’s going on and have prepared as such.”
That sort of sangfroid in the face of disruption typifies the sort of team culture that has helped the All Blacks match the record for most consecutive victories for a top-tier nation over the past 14 months.
An 18th successive victory today would add that record to an already impressive collection of honors the All Blacks have achieved in the past three years, including the World Cup triumph and back-to-back Rugby Championships.
Beat the Wallabies in Sydney and again in Auckland in the return match next week and New Zealand will retain the Bledisloe Cup for a 12th straight season.
McCaw becomes the first player to play 50 matches in the two incarnations of the annual southern hemisphere Test championship today, and his approach to feats and honors remains as grounded as ever.
“We addressed it at the start of the week and said there was an opportunity,” he said of the record winning streak. “If you look at the Bledisloe, that’s on the line as well. We just want to go out and perform well, and if we do that we give ourselves a good chance of winning and getting one hand back on the Bledisloe. Those by-products would be nice, but we’ve got to get the job done first.”
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