Spectator Sport | 1 October 2011

If the cap fits…

There can’t be many people who can wear a quartered and tasselled silver cricket cap without looking as if they’re searching for a Hackett window display to stand in. But New Zealand captain Richie McCaw managed it the other day in the sheeting rain at Auckland on the occasion of his 100th Test appearance in an All Black shirt. In lesser hands — or on lesser heads — the cap would have resembled an undersized miner’s hat crossed with the Wellesley House under-14s school colours, and would have guaranteed the wearer several weeks of relentless bullying. Sitting atop McCaw, it only reinforced the image of an iconic figure hewn out of some timeless cliff face.

New Zealand rugby, like Australian cricket with its beloved baggy green, takes kit very seriously. You don’t mess with the All Black jersey; you wear it with understated but ferocious pride. An All Black thinks of himself as the shirt’s temporary custodian, not its owner. There are few more ruggedly square-jawed heroes than McCaw — just ask any of his fabulous-looking girlfriends — and his response to his 100th cap was modest and moving. ‘I loved it out there today as much as the first day I played for New Zealand,’ he said after the Kiwis’ ominously potent victory over a characteristically chaotic France. ‘The All Blacks jersey is special every time I put it on. When you do that, you play for your team-mates, family and everybody in this awesome country.’

There was something intimidating about McCaw’s modesty, as though he would just happily fling himself in the way of danger in his 100th cap as he did during his first. Of his 100 Tests, he has started 94, and been on the losing side just 12 times.