#23 How Richie McCaw Became the Greatest All Black

Shakeel Aslam: Sport is about winning and losing. There's no fudging, no smudging, no saying, well, that's not really what I meant. And the Rugby World Cup knockout is binary. Two columns, win or loss. The classic zero sum equation. For every winner, there has to be a loser. If winning was pro forma, victory wouldn't be worth striving for. Victory is only sweet because you always risk losing. If you step into that combat zone, you accept everything that goes with it. You don't decide whether you want to stand or a bomb in front of the French forward pack when you're waiting for the ball to arrive. You don't decide once you're out there whether you want to be battered and bruised and humiliated. You have to make those decisions long before. The time to decide that losing is too painful is before you walk out onto the field. So that is an excerpt from Richie McCaw's autobiography called The Real Macaw. ⁓ he's widely regarded as the best all black of all time, best captain of all time, one of the greatest, if not the greatest rugby player of all time. The only one to rival him would be, I think, Dan Carter. ⁓ so just to tell you bit a little bit more about the stats, he's the most capped player in All Blacks history. Listen to this, listen to this that here. He made 148 international test appearances, 110 matches as captain. He had an 89% winning percentage. When he didn't play, that dropped down to 79%. So when he did play, it was an extra 10% chance that he'd be winning the match, which is crazy. ⁓ he played for one of the most dominant teams of all time, the All Blacks. There's been a number of books on them and their history and how they came to become so great, but that wasn't all that was the case and we'll get into that as well in in this episode. So I want to start with how Richie first got into rugby. The Hakatara Miya primary school closed in two thousand three, but I had two teachers and about twenty five kids when I became a pupil at the age of five. The two little schoolrooms are still there, with a field out front, surrounded by a shelter of macro car paths to keep out the raw southerlies and southwesters. There was one set of farm-made goalposts hewn from hardwood and braced with iron footings. It was there that I started playing rugby and pickup games at interval and lunch times, mixing it with kids of eight and nine. The bumps and bruises didn't put me off. Mum says that's all I wanted to do. Get to school so I could play rugby. So from this it's clear that he had an early passion for rugby. And one of the biggest influences in his life was his coach as a junior. And he taught him some of the principles that drove him forward for the rest of his career and something that he carried. with him when he was captain. The best thing about Barney's coaching was that he made us all part of the team. His mantra was that everyone loves good footy, and good teams produce good players. He rotated the captaincy every week, rotated the kicking duties both for touch and for goal, and kept meticulous records of who did what in his exercise books. He wanted everyone to share in the team responsibilities. He had a cup that he used to award to the player of the day, which never went to the kid who scored the most tries, it always went to the kid who had lifted his game the most from the week before. Carrying the ball for Corral under 9s against Union. The one thing he did stick to was the positions he chose to play us in. He'd had a year to look at us by then: assessor skills, size, speed, and agility, and he must have had a pretty good eye because most of us played out our careers in the positions that Barney chose for us. That said, I mostly played number eight and occasionally a lock because of my size. Barney remembers me as being ball-hungry, but there was no individual starring stuff. You couldn't be selfish with the ball. You got a metaphorical boot up the arse if you didn't pass the ball. And it was all about using the backs. That taught me a hell of a lot. So a couple of things to take from that. So he taught him very early on. He taught everyone in that team the captaincy, how to be a leader, because he rotated every, which is really important. And and something that something else that I found really amazing in that as well was that he would he would give an award at the end of the day, but it wouldn't be to the person who'd done the best. It'd be the person who improved the most. What he's teaching those children is that. Progress matters more than just performing on one day. Ca if you're constantly becoming better and better, then that's a good thing. If you're constantly improving more and more, then that's what's gonna help you most rather than just having a one-off. ⁓ and then he done this other thing that's really interesting as well. He wouldn't let us play in competition that first year, for instance. We had to spend the first season learning skills. So every Saturday morning, Barney would teach his own to catch and pass and tackle. And at the end, we'd play a game among ourselves. We didn't know at that time, but that was a huge advantage Barney gave us. He quickly picked up that I liked contact and was pretty fearless. And he knew that it was really important to teach me to tackle properly so that I didn't damage myself. As a result, he spent a lot of time with us on correct body position, straight back, eyes open, all that basic but essential stuff. So they didn't actually compete at all in the first year. It was all about learning essential skills. And I think that's really important because it means more time is spent. on on dedicate on learning the craft and I don't think there's any point playing a match with any without any foundation foundation skills because it won't be effective. And then once you've got those skills, once you've got that, you know, those you've built those those first building blocks, after that it's all about improving and growing. And it's reminds me of boxing actually because if you think about it, even an amateur boxer would just jump into his first fight without first doing some training and eventually some sparring. They have to learn how to the proper technique, how to take the you know, the the hits and the bruises, and that way they can be prepared for ⁓ an actual fight, similar to what Coach Barney was teaching Richie McCaughe his teammates. ⁓ and then his dad, Richie's dad, gave him some advice, which he still remembers to this day. I was twelve years old when my father told me I'd enjoy my rugby more if I got fitter. That was how he put it. I was a big kid and he could have said I might have that was how he put it. I was a big kid and he could have said I might make a better player for still losing some weight, or that I might be selected for better teams. Instead, he said I'd enjoy it more. That stuck. I don't know why. The county council had left markers and blue paint on the verge of loop road, and I worked out those markers were 500 meters apart. So I tried to run five markers one way and back three or four times a week, three kilometers, four kilometers, five, right through late summer as the sun burnt the valley brown. I jogged down our shingle driveway after school, past the sheepyards and onto the loop road. This is one of the things that I love about reading these athletes' books is how some of the greats trained when they were younger. And I just find it fascinating because, you know, ⁓ a lot of the time there's nothing advanced or technical about it. What's ri what Richie's doing here is he's ran a distance and he would do it consistently. And ⁓ what's crazy is if you compare that to what he's doing now, nowadays he's actually competing in ultra marathons where he's covering total distances ranging from five hundred to seven hundred kilometers and it can take over five days. complete that distance, which is mental and it's one of the things that actually contribute to how good of a rugby player he was, how effective was he. He had this fitness, this unmatched fitness where could just keep on going. Anytime there'd be a ruck, he'd be one of the either the first or second guy to get there and he was just relentless. So by the time Richie was fifteen, he's gone up against guys that are five years older than him and he found that it toughened him up for the year after. Now I don't know much about rugby to be honest, but What I do know that is that it's brutal. And like football, it's got different positions, and Richie explains what his is. That's my job as open side flanker, not to mention captain. Be all over the game, control the breakdowns, impose myself on their ball, slow it, read the ref, do whatever it takes to get into their heads. At my best, I live in that split second of a time and space at the breakdown, a collision zone where a hundred plus kg Bodies are hurtling from diverse points of the compass towards a small avoid focus. Success or failure can be measured in microseconds. Open-side flankers live or die in those slivers of time. So the open side flanker is basically the rugby equivalent, if think about it, of a box-to-box midfielder in football or soccer if you live in the States. And ⁓ if you watch football, then you'll know that box-to-box midfielders are very fit and they cover the most miles in a game. And so flankers play a number of different roles and they do the dirty work like stealing the ball if the opponent's sack is tackled. They have to get there first and put the body on the line to win it. And they're constantly in the team other teams' face, they're pressing them, forcing them into space. And it's no wonder that they have to be super fit to do the job. And so when when Richie's young something important happens to him when he's out with his family at McDonald's. Listen to this. I was sitting next to Uncle B I was sitting next to Uncle Bigsy And showed him the book I'd been given. With the training program in it, he scrutinized it carefully. You want to be in the New Zealand Under 19s, he said. Do you want to be an all black? ⁓ yeah. He took out a pen, smoothed the table napkin. Let's map out how you become an all black. I was a bit fazed, felt lucky to be given a trial for the under nineteens, though I was only there because our school, first eleven, had had a great year. But with his encouragement, I told him that this coming year, when I was embarking on a Bachelor of Agriculture Science degree at Lincoln University in Christchurch, I wanted to make the New Zealand Under nineteen's, then the Canterbury Under nineteen's, then next year the New Zealand Colts. Uncle Big Z wrote it all down, kept prompting me, then what? I listed the Canterbury under twenty ones, the Canterbury team, and he insisted I put a target year beside each of the teams that I needed to make. We worked out that after the two thousand and three Rugby World Cup, there'd be a bit of a clean out in the All Blacks and there'd be go guys going overseas. So I might make the procedures then and maybe the All Blacks after that, maybe two thousand and four. All Blacks 2004, wrote Uncle Bigsie. I was keeping my voice down, aware that this was all pie in the sky, given that I hadn't yet made a national age group team. But Uncle Bigsie wasn't finished. You don't just want to be an all black, he said. You want to be a great all black. What could I say? Who wouldn't? So I nodded and he wrote that down too. Then pushed the napkin over and gave me the pen. Sign it, he said. Sign it, great all black. I was hoping no one could overhear him. Dad had already taken himself outside for a walk. I looked at the list Uncle Big Z had constructed. It was a stairway to rugby heaven alright, but looked more like fantasy than a legitimate aspiration for someone like me. Sign it, he said. I couldn't bring myself to write the words Great All Black, so I wrote G A B. And straight away this reminded me of another athlete from other side of the world in America, Michael Phelps. He done this exact same practice with his coach Bob Bowman. Listen to this. When I was 13, Bob felt I needed to have some formal lessons and goal setting. One day on a school holiday, he surprised my mum by saying, I'm taking Michael to lunch today. He came and picked me up and we went to this restaurant that I liked. He pulled out a sheet of paper, he said, Okay, what are your goals this summer? Of course, I replied, I don't know. He started suggesting some things I ought to do and said, Why don't we pick three events? Let's start with a fifteen hundred meters. The fifteen hundred is almost a mile, a Bowman favourite. We were trying, even when I was that young, to lay down a base of endurance work. Let's do that in sixteen minutes, Flaty said. Let's also pick the two hundred fly, Bob said. And I put down two minutes four point six eight seconds. That time was precisely one hundredth of a second under the national age group record. That would be a big drop for you, he said. Okay. Bob then said let's pick the four hundred IM. He suggested a time of four minutes thirty one point six eight seconds, which was also near the age group record. He said, Take this paper home and put it on your refrigerator. You'll see it every day. That summer at the nineteen ninety nine Junior Nashals in Orlando. I didn't win any events. In the 1500, I went 16 minutes. In the 200 fly, I swam two minutes four point six eight seconds precisely. That always amazes me ⁓ when I read that. The fact that he set these goals and he he achieved them to the to the millisecond is crazy. So both guys, Michael's coach Bob Bowman and Richie McCaw's uncle, Uncle Bigsy, they were intent on creating fixed goals and milestones. And the funny thing is, Tiger actually did the exact same thing, except he based it on Jack Nicholas's milestones that he wanted to beat. I mean, Michael's precision hitting his times is pretty crazy. It almost doesn't sound true, although I do believe it it is. So eight years later, when Richie was 21, he found that same napkin. When we sold the farm in two thousand two, I went back to clear out my room. I found pinned up behind the wardrobe the table napkin that Uncle Bigsy had helped me put together while we were waiting for our burgers in Timaru. When I looked at the target dates for all the teams, I realized that I'd beaten them all, making the all blacks in two thousand and one, three years before the two thousand and four team I targeted. So again, he's beaten his target that that him and Uncle Bigsy set for him. So now I'm gonna move on to one of the other major themes of this book. And the driving motivation behind Richie's success, which is the 2007 World Cup, where the All Blacks lost to France in the quarterfinals in Cardiff. And to give you an idea of the effect this had on Richie, I ⁓ searched this on Kindle and I seen that it's mentioned 80 times in the book. So it's cut something that comes up over and over again in the book. And here's a scene from the game itself. We stand under the post, disbelief has been replaced by a really bad picture. I suddenly understand the expression I saw on Jeff Wilson's face in nineteen ninety-nine. Bewilderment, disbelief, yes, all there. But something else, fear. What we went through after Sydney in two thousand and three searches back. The recriminations, the anguish, the anger, bad pictures from the past, fomenting, fear of the future, the headlines, the national grief, the disappointment of my parents and my sisters, somewhere up there in the crowd, among thousands of Kiwis who have flown across the world on package tours to support us. Here and next week in the semi in Paris and in the final. I look at the eyes around me and can see they're not here. They're watching the same reels. I'm standing right in front of them and they can't see me. I don't understand what's happening, but instinctively I know I have to somehow get my mind back to the here and now in Cardiff. And that last sentence is really important as well. And something that him and the rest of the All Blacks work on is to try and focus on the game at hand and to not Not get flustered, not to ge become anxious and then, you know, lose the game. So they lose the game and they're gutted. And this is how a journalist described it. No man's land in our hearts and minds. It feels desolate, decay, the putrid smell of, I don't know, death. And like with many great teams, they got their fair amount of stick from fans from the media, especially. The real brick bats come mostly from overseas. Under a column headed You've Got to Be Choking. Peter O'Reilly reports that the result confirms the All Blacks status as world class chokers. Dave James asks what the All Blacks have got in common with tennis player Jana Novoton. Dave James asks for the All Blacks have got in common with tennis player Jana Novotna, NFL's Buffalo's Bills, and hosts of red-faced English soccer players. When the pressure's on, they all choked, and the meltdown has been public, painful, and impossible to forget. Just ask New Zealand's rugby players. They trample all before them, but when the rugby world they trample all before them, but when the Rugby World Cup comes around every four years, the All Blacks are Are all a tremble. So I mentioned earlier that I'm not really a rugby fan. So growing up, I only really noticed who the All Blacks were post 2010 up until now. And ⁓ I've always known them as being the greatest rugby team ever. But it wasn't that wasn't actually entirely the case before their 2011 World Cup. So before that, they hadn't actually won their first one since 1987, which is 24 years earlier. And the funny thing is, between that time, they actually dominated the playing field, which is probably why they're considered as as the best rugby player rugby team all time. In between that time, they played 245 test matches with a record of 184 wins, 47 losses, and two draws. That's effectively an 80% win rate, which is crazy. I don't think there's any other sports teams out there in the world, international sports teams, that have been that dominant in in in in such a in such a long space of time. And That doesn't sound like choking to me. So I checked the record ⁓ that they had in World Cup matches. In that time they played in five World Cups and they only made the final once. In between they they they lost in either the quarters or a semis and they just could not get past. So I think that's why that's the reason why they caught so much flack as chokers because they actually entered the tournaments ranked world number one or they were h either heavy favourites and then they just kept losing. And all this was was quite a surprising to me considering their their status as a team. So going back to the book, Richie went back to the term that his uncle coined for him. I think GAB might be a handy frame of reference when it comes to consider what I do next. How I respond to the card of calamity, what would a GAB do? I think GAB might be a handy frame of reference when it comes to considering what I do next. How I respond to the card of calamity. What would a G A B do? The first thing would be to admit that I didn't play to the my best in that game. One bad game doesn't suddenly make you a bad player. I remember a quote I've heard. Every great all black has been dropped at some point. I've got to face the possibility that I might be dropped after Cardiff. But even if I'm not, what happened there? Getting beaten when we shouldn't have is almost like being dropped. So this is especially helpful when he was being doubted as a captain. And ⁓ you know, it was his first World Cup as a captain. He'd played the 2003, ⁓ but he wasn't captain then, and he'd only been appointed the previous year in 2006. My captaincy is being called into question constantly, I'm told. In the sports pages, I'm not reading and all the talk back radio, I'm not listening to. It's a legitimate question. Am I the right man for the job? There's an option in front of me which would make everyone feel good. Take a neutral position. Say that if I'm not the right man for the job, I'm happy to step aside. Give everyone give everyone, myself included, an out. But I bedrock, I think, no, bugger it. I still believe I can do it. It's scary, but if I'm going to become the captain I want to be, I've got to put myself up for it. I've got to survive Cardiff and come out the other side stronger for the experience. I think about Uncle Bigsy and GAB. What do I want to be remembered as? The guy who gave up when it got hard was really insightful because he is throwing the chicken foot down and he's saying, and he and he's thinking about, you know, he could quit and make it easier for everyone, but he's thinking, no, I want to improve as a captain. And he's thinking with that mindset that Uncle Bigsy instilled into him when he's very young. What would a great all black do? So it's constant sort of thought and mantra in his head that he he's got to act like a great all black and and it pushes him forward to make some of the decisions that he does later on in his life. And ⁓ so there's an early lesson that Richie learns when he first started at his club team Canterbury that I want to tell you about. I try for a better picture to change the channel. 2001, my first year with Canterbury, we're playing for the Ran Furley Shield against Wellington. We're down 29 to 12 with 15 to go. And our captain Todd Blackadder gets us around him and says, Don't for a minute believe that we're not going to win this. And I don't believe him. I'm standing there thinking, bugger, my first decent shield defense, and we're going to lose it. When we get over to Wellington and won it, that was a big lesson. You've got to believe that it's not over. Now there's there's a key lesson here that he learns that shapes the whole mentality of the team going forward. And it's a reflection on on their performance in the World Cup. The guts of it is that in that moment, our leadership group failed under pressure. That includes me. Rather than saying have a pot if it's on, I should have been more directive. And so should the senior players in the back lane. But also includes the coaches. We didn't have a drop kick in our playbook. We hadn't as a group run through the scenario of what happens if it gets tight and we need one or two things to happen to win the game. We believe that we're good enough to go out and play well. We never imagined ourselves to be in a sticky situation like that. Despite history showing that all rugby world cup winning teams have been in those situations, in that sense it was a failure of imagination as much as anything. If there's a next time, we need to expect to be in that situation rather than hope we won't be. And that last line is super important. Let me just read it again. If there's a next time, we need to be if there's a next time, we need to expect to be in that situation rather than hope we won't be. Essentially what he's saying is expect the unexpected. And later in the book he speaks about this in detail. There's a lot of the work that they have to do to fix this issue, this mentality issue of of collapsing in these difficult moments. And in that moment in the in in the Cardiff, they reached a a point where they didn't actually know what to do. They didn't know how to tackle this French offence and how to get past them and what to do to win. Essentially they they didn't understand how to adapt. They didn't have anything in their armours or the playbooks that they could turn to. So he mentions ⁓ in the book it's around two thousand and ten at this point and he speaks about that pressure again. I know in my bones that come the extreme pressure of a Rugby World Cup knockout phase, there's going to be a moment when everything is on the line. The only Rugby World Cup when that didn't happen was the first in 1987 when the All Blacks were never really pressed. The lesson from every other World Cup is that the winning team will at some stage, during the knockout stage, need to survive a moment which tips it one way or another. The winning team has often needed some luck in that tipping moment, but you can't count on luck. And what I want to make sure is of is that when that moment ha comes, we are able to manage it without freezing. In the past, we've maybe downplayed that pressure, taken that attitude, hey, we're tough, we're all blacks, we can deal with it. We thought that if we didn't talk about it or make a big thing out of it, maybe it'd go away. This time around, we're going to do it differently. We decide to acknowledge that pressure and try to develop some tools to deal with it. To that end, we work with Bert and with Seri Evans. This is really a pivotal moment in the all blacks history, actually. So Bert Inoka, he's one of the ⁓ guys in the team. He'd been with the team since 2000 as a sports psychologist. But it's funny because back in those days there was a stigma around psychology and I think it was being seen as weak. So he was actually employed under the title Team Asus. And ⁓ so Burt brought in Kerry Evans, who was a forensic psychiatrist, especially to help the team improve the response to these high pressure situations. And he came up with this idea which I'll get to in a moment. When Kerry analyses what happens to the brain under extreme pressure, It makes a lot of sense to me in the light of events in Cardiff. He explains that underlying pressure comes from exp expectation, scrutiny, and consequence. If you play for the All Blacks, you've got expectation. People are watching, and the consequences of not winning are huge, particularly given our history in the Rugby World Cup. Acute stress comes when the brain perceives a threat. Either predicted, opposition or individuals do something you planned for, or unpredicted. They do something you haven't planned for. Either is okay as long as it's not accompanied by a feeling of helplessness. That's when adrenaline-fueled responses. overwhelm the individual and you get aggressive or you try to escape or you go passive. So it's fight, flight, or freeze. I know that I end up becoming passive. When any of those things happen, decision making becomes muddled, clarity is lost and accuracy is compromised. If you go into freeze mode, your reactions are dulled. You go through the motions, lack coordination, become indecisive and withdrawn. You don't hear people around you. You don't see what's in front of you anymore. You become captured by bad experience pictures from the past or fear of future consequences. So I've always thought that it's fight or flight to be honest. I didn't actually consider that there was a third response which is freeze. And it makes sense because there were moments when I was young, I'm sure when you were younger, that I should present in class and like, you know, many people, I didn't like public speaking, I didn't like presenting and I you know what, I still I still don't like it. And I remember one time there was there was no escape. I couldn't actually do anything. I'd already managed to avoid it once by delaying it delaying it and then you know classes ended. But the next week I was in that same class and I had nowhere to run. And so during the presentation there were moments where I honestly my mind just froze and I didn't know what to say next. And it was it was really difficult. It was a struggle. And so ⁓ Richie goes on to say, Kerry calls that state when you lose contact with the present, getting trapped in the red zone. That glazed look that I saw on those owl blacks' faces standing under the post in 1999 and that I saw around me And was part of after Trail Scored in 2007 where you're starting but you're not seeing what's in front of you anymore to get out of the red zone and move to what he calls the blue zone. You need to somehow retain situational awareness so you can make decisions and be able to execute on those decisions. Kelly gives us exercises to help us make that transition from red to blue. Breathing slowly and deliberately, nose or mouth with a two-second pause. While breathing, hold your wrist on the outbreath, then shift your attention to something external. The ground or your feet or the ball in hand. Or even alternating big toes or the grandstand. Get your eyes up, looking out. You've got to use deep breaths and keywords to help yourself get out of your own head, find an external focus, get yourself back in the present, regain your situational awareness. The other thing you've got to do long before you get into that red zone is plan for the unpredictable. So that when it happens, it's expected and you don't feel helpless. It's really interesting actually because I I play golf ⁓ and I've got a family tournament. coming up this week and we're playing abroad in Marrakesh. And ⁓ one of the things that I've really been struggling ⁓ recently is that when I actually when it c when I'm practicing at the range and I'm doing my drills, everything's going fine. But when I actually go out to play, there's this thing in my head, there's this mental block where I can't I keep chunking the ball when that basically means I keep hitting the ground before I hit the ball, which is not what you want. And the ball doesn't go anywhere near as far as it should. And w after reading this I was thinking, okay, how can I apply it to to to myself? So one of the things that I thought is I can visualize all the things that can go wrong when I hit a shop. It could go into a bunker, it could go out of bounds, it could do whatever. And I guess I could visualize, okay, how can I stop it from happening? And if it does happen, what can I do next? And one of the things that I thought of that okay, he's he Richie said here that their tactical was to breathe, which I can definitely do, and then to sort of train your mind to to to focus on something else. So look at the ground or or or you know look at the sky or just or or you know smell the air, whatever. So it kind of distracts you and then all you're actually doing is what you've practiced. Because I can do it at the range, I just can't do it when it's actually in the game itself. So it's one of the things that I'm gonna try and and learn from what I've read in this book and you should try it too if you're playing any sports either competitively or for fun and you just want to improve. So back to the book. Then Richie speaks about what that actually means for him and what he needs to do as captain. Kerry and I look at scenarios that might engender the feeling of helplessness I had at Cardiff. When we didn't have a play to go to that was specific for the situation we found ourselves in. How to deal with that, how to change momentum when you feel the game plan is not working. It's not about having or implementing a plan B. It's not about turning things around by scoring a spectacular try in the corner so much as having really specific practical plays to fall back on to take us through the next minute or two in order to change a particular element of the game. For instance, if we hadn't had the ball for a while and when we do get it, it's deep in our territory, what do we do? Hold on to it or kick it? My task is to work through these specifics with Kerry, but then translate them into calls or plays that everyone will understand. So we're all on the same page when we need to go to them. But no matter how much you plan, in rugby or in life, not everything is predictable. Some things no one can see coming. They are the unforeseen tragedies which test the human spirit in the most fundamental way possible. So, in essence, like I said earlier, what this all means is that the all blacks need to learn to become more adaptable to situations they're that they're not used to. Because that can always happen. There will always be something you you know, someone in the team could get injured, they might have more than one injury. The French offense must might be doing something different, and you need to figure a way of okay, how do we improvise, how do we adapt. And then overcome. I think that's a saying actually i in the navy seals, improvise, adapt and overcome. I'm not too sure. But it's something that they're trying to work on here because in Cardiff they froze and they filled themselves a situation where they didn't know what to do and panic setting. And once that happens, you know, like ⁓ like me in golf, stress takes over, you come tense and you make the wrong decisions and your ability to perform just goes down. And ⁓ it reminded me of something He said early on in the book about making decisions before you even step foot on the pitch. Now I want to move on to ⁓ Richie's leadership and some of the things he did, specifically how he gated the team and what he said to them. And one of the things he did is something that I actually really love doing myself, and it's it's something that's really ⁓ you know, encouraged in today, and I'll I'll just get straight into it. I buy a Warwick 2v4 rolled page exercise book and start putting my thoughts together on the page. I write down a heading, why I want to be captain. It helps to write it down that I enjoy having an influence on how the team operates and performs, that I like the pressure and responsibility that comes with the captaincy, that I can believe I can improve with experience, that I care about how the team goes and want to help set high standards and that selfishly it helps me to stay engaged and become a better player. And this journal pops up over and over again and ⁓ there's so many examples of entries. But before I get to it, you know, this is something that I've been practicing a lot myself in the morning is I write down, you know, the the date, the the time that I've actually, you know, started my work. ⁓ and then my to-do list and then some affirmations and and that's essentially what ⁓ Richie does. He calls them mantras, but they're they're affirmations, mantras, whatever you want to call it, reminders to himself and t to tr try and stay positive and just to try and, you know, focus your mind on on on those particular things. And I I find it very useful. I think it keeps you Directed, ⁓ and you know, you d it doesn't mean that you're pigeonholed into one little thing. It can be diverse, new things will pop up and and you you start focusing on them. And that's some of the things that ⁓ Richie does as well. He's that again, he's thinking about how to adapt to certain situations, he puts it into his his journal. And here's an example of of one of his entries. Every game day mantra in my warwick begins the same way. Start again. It's usually accompanied by other exhortations, get involved early, DMJ. I don't actually know what DMJ means. Keep getting up. They're reminders that what I did last week is history. That each week, the beginning of each game is ground zero. On the night before test, we have a stretch class at 6 p.m., half an hour before dinner, and I use that to visualize what I'm going to do next day. On game day, we have something to eat about 3 30 for a 7 30 kickoff. Then downtime in our rooms. I use that time too to write down my mantras and to visualize. Start again, kick off, where will I be? The ball is coming to me. How am I going to catch it? If it's our kick, what's my role? What will I be seeing? Defensive scrum. We've been through the sort of moves they're going to do. How am I going to get there? Don't take a first step forward. I'm going to go sideways first to get the space, then forward. The same is true of each season. You have to start again. You hope to build on the things you set in place last season. But sport doesn't work like that. Every season is different. Even if you were able to perfectly replicate the attitude and fitness you had last season, it will still be different. Playing personal, playing personnel will have changed. Yours and the oppositions, coaches and trainers and physios and doctors might have changed, referees might have changed, and the latest bright idea from the IRB will definitely have changed rule interpretations. And ⁓ you know, again, it's one of the things that me and you've talked about over and over again, and something that we see across all these athletes is that one thing, visualization. Tag Woods did it, Michael Phelps did it, so does Sugar Ray Leonard, and it's super important, and you can see that he's using these these quiet moments to kind of Firstly, he mentioned that he he he was visualizing what he was gonna do the next day, which again primes your mind and and and keeps you away from distractions. And then on the day of the match, he's visualizing himself again, you know, walking through the match and he and he and what I read out is some of the thoughts that he he has as as that's him working through his visualization process. And I think I truly believe it works and helps you and ⁓ if anything, it just releases that pressure from you because you know. If you think about it, if you have a World Cup final coming up and it's one week away, you can stress yourself out extremely hard over those coming weeks, up to the point when it's game day, you know, you're a mess. Whereas if you have this positive thinking you're visualizing, then it gives you some hope and it gives you some positivity and something to go in there with you have a plan. And that's why it's super important to to visualize if you're an athlete out there, whether you're young, old, whether you do it for fun or if you're trying to be the best. It's important to do these things to visualize. If I was doing it for golf, I would try and visualize. I would look at the courses that I'm going to play, which I am doing, and I would try and visualize how I'm going to play them, what shots I'm going to hit, how it feels with a club in my hand, me taking it backwards in my back swing, and then feeling the ball, the club hit the ball, and then it kind of keeping my eyes on the ball, all the things that I'm trying I'm sort of working on. And then it gives me some confidence that I'll that when I actually actually do it, it'll seem like I've already done it. Which is the art of visualization. So one of the important things that Richie reminds himself of is is one word that appears pretty much in every journal entry that he does. Deb Robinson, the old black doctor, who's seen it all in terms of battered bodies and bones, is quoted as saying that without a significant change in the rugby calendar, there is a real chance that careers will get shorter. In the meantime, the game gets more physical every year. It reinforces one of the little pre-game mantras I always write down in my warwick. Enjoy. Enjoy today. A rugby career is as fragile as your knee joint. And that idea is really important because, like I said, you can get flustered and bombarded with all these worries that you actually forget to enjoy the game that you love, that you grew up playing, that you y you know, that y you played before you were paid for it. And I think people play best when they are truly passionate about their sport and when it's not a chore. ⁓ and one of the other things that it brings me to is something he accepts early on is the heat that comes with being an all black and the and the pressure. All black coaches and players will always be under the most intense scrutiny. That's just the way it is. You've got to regard that attention as a privilege earned by the guys who wore the jersey before you. I love how he says that as well. Attention is a privilege. So you see a lot of these days where you know players are overcome with all of this anxiety and you know ⁓ some of them can be quite cocky and it's they also almost become entitled. Whereas He said here that playing for the All Blacks is a privilege, and so is the attention that you get. So take it on the board and try and honor it for the guys that played before you. And it's super important for all athletes representing a nation or club. And I was about to say, you know, a major nation or club, but I don't think that's the case. It can be any. The best work hard no matter who it's for, and that's the point. And this reminded me of one of his other journal entries. What's the formula for great all black teams? They dominate physically up front, they have great decision makers. And they have the pace and power to kill teams if the chance comes. So almost a year after the lose in Card, if they're about to play Ireland in a test and the media's still angry at the team, they're still pissed because of how they lost. And it's not even a chance for his redemption. That's not how they're framing it. It's just giving them an opportunity to make the public and the media a little less disappointed and listen to what Richie's response was. Bugger that I'm not buying into any of it. We have five days before our first test against Ireland and all of a sudden I feel different. Rather than please everyone, fuck it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to make sure I get others to help. But I want to set things down my way and not tiptoe around and make every sure everyone's happy. So if you're a reserve and you're a bit disappointed that you're not playing, well tough. You're in the all blacks and someone has to do that job and it's you and you better do it bloody well. That certainty around what I want to do comes from a feeling that this is my team in a way that previous teams weren't. When I was appointed captain in 2006, I was very aware that there were guys in the team with a lot more experience than me. Guys who had even captained the All Blacks before, like Ruben and Anton. They were always supportive. But the thought would sometimes come to me when I was fronting the team, what are they really thinking? Do they really think I'm doing a good job? This time when we got when we This time when we get together, there are no longer any whispers of doubt in my mind. I'm the captain and they're my team. That extra security means I'm happy to ask the senior guys, what do you reckon? Tell them I'm not sure and then be happy to go with what they think. I don't feel anymore that because I'm the captain, I need to know everything. When you're not comfortable in the role, you don't want to show any weakness. Whatever happen Whatever happens, I'm in charge and I'll accept everything that flows from that. And I think this is it reminds ⁓ me of what the highlight that we shared earlier, right? Where he speaks about being captain and what a great all black would do. And ⁓ this is a common moment for Richie because He he wanted to take charge and he wanted to be the man he in the E and he wasn't scared of putting his opinion out there and he didn't want to tiptoe around, which I think is commendable. And it shows in some of the speeches that he gives to the team as well. One of them was after they just defeated Australia convincingly in the Tri-Nations. This was after Richie had been out with an anchored injury for six weeks and listen to his mentality. So this is after they've won. And this gives you an insight into into the demands that he has of this team and what actually catabot with them into being the great team that they were. The following week We're at the airport hotel for an early call to board the plane for South Africa. I call a team meeting for even earlier, 4 30 a.m., which is apt, because I want to talk to them about not relaxing, not getting comfortable. There are no coaches or management, just me and the team. I tell them that last week's game is the perfect illustration of the difference between genuine preparation and faking it. I name a couple of names to show the difference in their performances when they prepped genuinely and when they didn't. I tell them that last week doesn't mean shit if we can't do it again next week at Newlands. Preparing generally means being mentally tough to do what is required between now and next Saturday. Cape Town's got a lot of temptations, and I'm not talking about no fun, but we need to be tough bastards if we were to get what we're after. I'm asking you all to be fucking genuine this week. I tell them, before you leave here, just decide if you're willing to do that, and if you're not, I suggest you don't bother getting on the bus. There's utter silence, which I take as a cent. Then I tell them about the exercise that Gilbert Inoka and I want them to do on the flight. Things to think about, visualizations about preparation and playing. The week goes well. I've told the leaders that I need them to help set the attitudes for the week, both on and off field, and to be demanding, so that I don't always have to be the voice in their ears. So the message here is clear. He's telling the team, don't get complacent, don't get too comfortable. And he's he's sharing some of the the insights that he's he's learned from ⁓ you know the the his his sports psychologists on visualization and prepping mentally. And it's really important to have this mindset, I think, because which because when you're relaxed, your your subconscious makes you not try as hard and you go into a match with this, you know, this air of confidence. But my my question is what I was thinking about is what happens when that confidence is shaken? Then what do you do? You've got to stay ready for anything that comes out at you and your mind needs to be on alert all the time because if you're not, you'll be caught off guard and that's something that the all blacks didn't want to happen again. Richie You know, that that loss was actually really great for Richie's career because it made him hate losing and it made him hate being in a position where the team didn't know what to do and he wanted to avoid that at any cost. And it's it's the exact reason. It's that exactly one of the reasons why he's considered the greatest struggle player of all time. Not just for the All Blacks, but in rugby history. So the good news for the All Blacks is that the team clearly listened and then after that they smashed it. They beat South Africa Easily 19 0, and it was actually the first time that South Africa had been kept scoreless in a home test. So they made a statement. And then the next match they were playing against Australia again. And they've tried the same tactics, but this time they actually haven't worked. They're 10 points down after 60 minutes. ⁓ but the thing is, Richie doesn't actually mind. He's he's kind of happy. In some strange way, it's where I want to be. Last quarter, everything on the line. almost a year after we blew it all in a similar situation at Cardiff. We've talked the talk, trained hard and thought hard about what we do in this situation. Can we execute? And so they do. They stay patient and they actually win the match and then they w the at this point they've won the Bledislaw and Tri Nations Cups. They're happy. But the work doesn't stop there. Richie's already thinking ahead to the upcoming tour, which is a long tour. And it's interesting to see the type of things that can actually affect a team off field Which he speaks about here. Almost a year to the day after Cardiff, I spent a couple of hours with Gilbert and Oka refining objectives for me and the team on the eve of our departure for London. We talk about the leadership challenges of a five week tour, like how to keep everyone fresh and emotionally connected, how to avoid a culture of secrecy in a touring party of thirty five where cliques could easily develop, and how to get bone deep commitment out of players every week instead of skin deep. I find that interesting as well because it's some of the things that you don't really think about when these athletes are going abroad and a couple it happens with, you know, football, ⁓ cricket, ⁓ rugby, tennis, where they're the athletes are away from their families and their homes, you know, for weeks at a time. And it's very easy to get complacent because often they're back to back and, you know, they need to let off a little steam and they they they want a little bit of time to themselves. But that's exactly what, you know Richie as captain is so good at is he's already planning these things in advance. He's taking that ownership and responsibility to do it. You know, no, it's not management doing it if it was in football terms. It'd be the manager's job to think about that. And the captain in football I feel is more of an on-field captain. ⁓ they make the decisions and and they they they are the leader. But Richie is taking all this on board, and so ahead of an upcoming test, the team's talking and they're worried about what the opposition are going to do. And Brad, who's one of the guys, he he wasn't happy with it and He he was getting fed up and he he was saying that why are we focusing on everyone else? We should focus on how good the all blacks are, like how where we thrive, you know, we're strong, we're powerful, we can win. And that got Richie thinking and and then he done this. When the team gathers at the heritage, I'm conscious of the lack of direction early in the season and get them together at one of the meeting rooms. Lay out the all black jersey on the floor in front of us and ask them a question. Will you do what's expected of you as an all-black? Maybe some of us don't know. exactly what that is or why their expectations of this team. It's simple. Over time, the All Blacks have been the best, the winningest team in rugby, setting the standard for the world. They've been some great men who spilt blood for this jersey, made sacrifices dating back to Amsterdam days when pride was all they were playing for. We can look at that legacy in two ways. As a burden that inhibits us or as something we can embrace. The great thing is that this group has an opportunity to add to this proud history, to be a part of it. I'd be bloody disappointed if our own expectations of ourselves and each other were anything less than that. How do we ensure that? What does each of us need to do each week to ensure this happens? I talked last year about toughness and the state you need to be in when you turn up to play. Bone deep reparation, not skin deep. You can turn up and do your thing, do what you have to do, put in another day at the office. Or you can put your body on the line, empty the tank, or you can go one step further, spill some blood, have one of those big big days, and leave a piece of yourself out there. For this team to perform, we need the whole team to empty the tank each and every time they pull on the all-black jersey. Four or five of us have to go that step further. It won't be the same guys every week. That's where we have to be. That's not where we've been the last three games. You might think that's an unreasonable expectation, but there are plenty who'd be willing to give that. We're the lucky ones who have been chosen to wear this jersey. When you look at a blank jersey with a silver fern, yes, it's unique, but it's just a piece of cloth sitting there. It only becomes special when it's filled by men who have the right to wear it. Men who are prepared to do things that others aren't prepared to do. This jersey will show up the frauds, the imposters, it'll squeeze those who look for shortcuts. You won't last in this jersey if you're not prepared to do things you need to do to fill it. What we've done well in the last three games is learn our roles, get structures right, done our homework. But that's only 20% of it. It's the other 80% that we need to deliver. The toughness, the ruthlessness, power pace, the want, that's got to come from within. That inner desire to spill some blood if that's what it takes. That's how the all blacks have been successful. That's how we trust in each other is. That's how trust in each other is earned. You've got to know that when you go to the well, your mate beside you will do the same. Every time you pull that jersey on, that's what filling the jersey is about. It's not about wearing this jersey, it's about filling it. Love every minute of it. Wow. That is a fantastic speech. Honestly, so much to unearth from that one speech alone. But you know, the fact that he goes in three levels and he speaks about You know, level one being just going in there and getting your work done as a day in the office and level two is going a little bit deeper and level three just totally emptying the tank and he his his demand, his expectation is for the team to empty that tank every game. Every game, and that's a lot, you know, that's a lot for for for you to do it. It's a lot on your body, on your mind, and you're you're giving so much to the game, but that's exactly what it takes to become the best. You have to give it all your all. If you think about some of the The greats for example, Rafael Nadal, he's well known for his intensity and his competitive drive and every single point he wanted to win. It was super important. And then if you look at someone else like Michael Jordan, he hated losing. Even if there were twenty one twenty points down and, you know, the game is about to end in a minute, he would still be giving it his all. And that's the type of mentality that sets the greats, the really, really super greats from the good, you know, and and the decent. Because you have to give it your all every game. Every match is a World Cup final. And ⁓ you know, that that that speech I've read so many times, but it's amazing. He speaks again about the jersey, about, you know, having some honor and dignity and pride in that jersey. And what he says again is it's filled by men who have the right to wear it, men who are prepared to do things that others aren't prepared to do. And it reminds me of this quote actually from Mike Tyson on discipline. He said that discipline is doing what you hate to do, but doing it like you love it. So what that means is when you love it, it shows that you have passion. And when you have passion and when you have drive and commitment, your performance will be so much better than the next guy who's just doing it. He he can't be bothered. He hates it and he's just there to do it. He's just there to get it done. It's just that job to him. But that's the wrong mentality. So absolutely love that from Richie. And so as a leader, ⁓ instead of always asking the team to give their everything is super important here. He would genuinely want his h to help his teammates improve. Sometimes when things go wrong with someone, you have to also ask whether we could have done better to prevent the situation. Rather than blame him 100% for stuffing up, you look at guys who aren't performing, and yes, they have to do it themselves. But maybe also part of the problem is that we're missing something. There's something we can do to help them. I think that before you give anyone the heave hole, you have to at least ask the question. And that's great as well, because it's not always about ⁓ you know, he's trying to think about how management and how him is a Captain can help someone improve and I think that's what all great leaders actually do is they figure out how to help their players, their teammates, how to get the best out of them to help them improve in wet any way that way they can. So I want to fast forward now to the 2011 World Cup. One of the things that fueled Richie was this image that he couldn't shake from his mind, and he mentions it over and over again in the following pages, and it's this. There's an inspirational sequence on high rotation on New Zealand television as the Rugby World Cup gets close. Captain Kirk is holding the Webb Ellis Cup aloft in the old main stand at Eden Park back in 1987, with the cheating crowd down on the field in front of him. I like that image. I see myself doing that. The 2011 All Blacks have decided we're not going to be all shucks modest about our aims. We're here to win the World Cup, and we're not going to be intimidated or overwhelmed by the pressure of history. Quite a few of us were burned in Cardiff in 2007. Dan Mills, Brad, Ma, Kevie, Ali, and I were all scorched in Sydney in two thousand three. But the whole squad and virtually the whole nation is aware of our World Cup record. A record of stumbling and missing since nineteen eighty seven. It could be regarded as a history of failure. Our take on it is that it demonstrates just how tough and unique a challenge the Rugby World Cup is. Is that it's like nothing else that we've ever done or will do is different. We reckon if we acknowledge that and embrace it, rather than downplay it like we did last time, we'd be better play We'll be better prepared to succeed this time. We're also going to try to enjoy every moment of what's been touted as the last time our little corner of the world gets to host the Rugby World Cup. That fits with me too. The penultimate word I write down in the war book every game day is always enjoy. But when I watch the footage from 1987, there's a bit of unintended consequence for me. When David Kirk holds a cup aloft, there's a moment when he turns to the forgotten man, the original captain, Andy Dalton, to come and hold it. Dalton's sort of reluctant because he did a handby before the tournament and couldn't play one minute of one game. It's an image that sits in the back of my head, ready on playback, every time my foot flares. Don't let that be me. And so Richie, he took immense motivation from this and he used it to fuel his desire to play even whilst injured. So he got an injury before the World Cup and it was his ankle and it was quite bad. And another thing is that Dan Carter was injured too and he couldn't play and Dan was absolutely gutted. He was questioning himself, he seemed quite depressed. Judging by the by what Richie says about him the book, is he you he's querying like why it happened to h him, like why me. And Richie ⁓ felt awful and he was playing with this injury and he made a commitment that there's no way that he'd play. He'd do everything that he could to play with this injury, and the only time that he would stop actually is if it would affect the team and he couldn't give it his best. So he would try over and over again. And then he speaks about the result of all the hard work that the All Blacks had done to this point with with Bert and Kerry. The what else feeling had gone. We'd got used to the new normal. All that preparation for the unexpected seemed to have worked. Rather than thinking, shit, why is all this happening to us? We're thinking, bring it on. We even said there'll be something else that will happen. There will always be more things that happen. Just expect it and deal with it. In a funny sort of way, everything that gone wrong was keeping our feet on the ground, reinforced by my meetings with Bert and Kerry, even the foot. Kerry was telling me that this was the challenge that's been given me. It was about how I dealt with it. And this is exactly what he is and the team have been preparing for is how do you deal with unexpected situations. So all the work that they'd completed led to this point. But like we said, one of the problems he still had was his ankle and he speaks about how it hindered him in the semifinal against Australia. Bear in mind this is a semifinal. During the warm up, I didn't feel it too much. But five minutes into the game, I felt it again. Something letting go. A clunk or prop or crack. The pain came back. Again when the ball was in play, I could get through that and not think about it. It didn't inhibit me actually running around and doing things. I could put it to the side. But as soon as the whistle went and there was a line out 30 meters away, jogging over there was bloody sore. I told Deb that I'd play as long as I could do my job without thinking about the pain. But as soon as I started thinking about the foot while the ball was actually in play and the pain started affecting the decisions I was making about what I would do, that would be the time I would quit. It was sore all the way through the semi, but only really sore when the whistle went. One of the most challenging bits was running up the tunnel at halftime. Getting on and off the field was complete agony. And listen to this vivid image of what that pain actually looks like because it's terrifying and I honestly don't know how he played with it. I'm sick of the bloody foot. It's like stepping on a red hot lump of coal. I have to change my gait slightly and then other parts of my foot get sore. But it kind of doesn't matter anymore because I got through the semi and I know I can play in the final. I tell myself that if it's like that for this week, I'm sweet. I can get through it. If you're ever going to be a bit tough, if you're ever going to grit your teeth and get on with it. This is the time. If it had been another week after this one, I don't think I would get there. Knowing there's only one more, I keep talking to Per. We're down to eighty minutes. That doesn't sound like a lot. I can do that. And that's something that they actually tracked over the course of the World Cup is that they would try and count it in minutes. So at the start, you know, he had two hundred and forty minutes to play and he would just count it down over and over again. And now eighty minutes he thought is doable and something that he can definitely do. But This all shows you the type of person that he was. It's the type of grit and determination he had and how badly he didn't want to be the Andy Dalton of 2011. There's no way he wanted to be the guy who was standing on the sidelines, not able to give it his all. He'd still be happy for the team, but he would be disappointed in himself. And so then Ritchie goes on to speak about how the team prepped for the final, what they did differently. We don't use the emotional trigger we used in the pool game against France. Instead, different players talk about their experiences of the French. Woody talks about Paris in 2004. Conrad about Leon in two thousand six. I talk about Marseille in two thousand nine. How we attacked and beat them then, how we took their heart away from them. We talk about them being the most dangerous when they're scared and don't expect us to win. That's when they die for the jersey. Like nineteen ninety-nine, like two thousand seven. That's what we can expect. We hear through the great find that their team meeting room is plastered with newspapers, full of headlines which accuse them of cowardice, of being failures, of being an embarrassment to La France. We know that's going to get them fizzing. It's actually really interesting here because it's two very different ⁓ approaches taken here. So on one hand you've got the old blacks who are trying to bring some positivity and they're trying to, you know, think about the happy memories, the good times of when they of when they played France and beat them and you're they're sharing it around the room so that you can imagine it creates a good energy and good vibe and you know, it almost feels like it's inevitable that they're gonna win. And then you've got the French on the other hand who you know, there's different types of motivation but the for the French here doing here, they're they're using you know, fear of failure and fear of being ⁓ you know, of messing up and being an embarrassment to their country. So they're using, you know, these sort of negative outcomes to fuel their motivation and to fuel the fire so that they come out, you know, playing their hardest because they don't want to be failures, which is another tactic as well. Again, something that Michael Jordan would do. He'd make things up and he he he would he would try and put himself in a mindset where he could be as competitive as possible. So another thing is if I was thinking about this, if you do well on your failures, what's going to be on your mind? Failure. But if you think positive and take away the good, you're in a much better headspace, which is exactly what Richie was doing with his team. And to understand what was at stake, you have to listen to what he said next. That was better than what I was thinking this morning as I sat on my bed. If we don't win today, this could be my last game as an all black. Kelly keeps telling Kelly keeps telling me to imagine the worst that could happen and say, okay, I can handle it. I'm not sure if that's true this time. If we don't win this game, it's my third attempt to win the World Cup, my second as captain, three-time loser. I don't want to find out whether I can handle that. It's not about the past or the future, it's about the present. There'll be a moment. So here these he's talking about the visualization thing again, and he's he's trying to imagine the worst and say, Okay, I can handle that. ⁓ to put myself in that state. But you know, he's got genuine concerns here that he he does not want to be a three-peat loser. And ⁓ you know That would happen. It reminds me of their their their cricket team as well. ⁓ New Zealand cricket team. They went to back to back finals as well and they lost. And, you know, it was devastating. For such a small country, they actually produce some great players and great teams. Like the All Blacks, greatest rugby team in the world, and New Zealand have been the greatest ⁓ cricket team in the world as well at times. ⁓ and they produce some fascinating players, but you know, I don't really know how one, you know, performs well and the other doesn't. But it just shows you the contrast. So, long story short, they win the World Cup and they redeeming themselves. And then I guess ⁓ Richie has a good summary about what what what they've been kind of going through ⁓ and what I felt in that moment. Gratification doesn't have to be instant. The further I get from that final whistle on twenty third of October two thousand eleven, the more I enjoy it. I realise I've been in a tunnel for four years, enjoying my life, but pushing away anything and anyone who wasn't going to help me get to that point of light at the end. Now that I'm there with the sun on my face, it feels bloody fantastic. France was superb, the perfect adversary. If we'd won by 20 points, we still wouldn't know if we'd learn anything from Cardiff. That last 30 minutes of the final was exactly the physical and psychological test we'd prepared for. So essentially what he's talking about is he's he's been in he's had tunnel vision for the last four years and he's ignored anything that's out with that tunnel. And there's a personal satisfaction there for Richie where you know, the team have improved. So it's not just about winning the World Cup, but is they've actually fixed what was broken before and they've improved it and and it obviously goes to Joe because they won the World Cup. ⁓ the thing is for Richie, you know, throughout this whole final is understated and I didn't share all the highlights, but this World Cup, he was playing with an injured ankle, but he put in the work every single game. And the highlights that I shared was to kind of prove that he worked hard and and what exactly it took him and After twenty four y long years, they'd finally done it. And at the end of it, Richie is finally x-rayed and this is this is how his foot was. When I finally get to X-rayed, it's found to have three fracture lines. Effectively three breaks. That same metatarsal. The screw went in longitudinally down the bone to hold the original stress fractures together and that's fine. But at the point where the screw ends, the breaks begin. Looking back, probably one for each clunk I felt in the pool game against France. The quarter final against Argentina and the semi against Australia. So can you imagine playing with that pain? ⁓ my word. Like he the thing is, his foot must have got progressively worse as well. Like he did have little gaps in between. ⁓ like he had a I think he had a week between the semi and the final, but still, like he's his his foot's getting progressively worse as the competition goes on, but he's still somehow managing it. And the the reason why I think that's really sore is because I've sprained my ankle a number of times over the years, playing different sports, playing football. Cricket, badminton, and ⁓ after I've sprained it, I can't actually put my foot on it. And it's not that it's even broken, it's just sprained and maybe slightly fractured. But I honestly I don't know how these guys have this pain threshold. It's commendable to to rugby players to be honest. Like one of the things and it's really childlike to think about it, but one of the things that I always used to wonder is, you know, when rugby players tackled each other and they're all kind of piling on top, like they've all got studs. So They must get studded a lot of times. And can you imagine a hundred kilo man on you? Like for example, Richie McCall was 110 kilos at his peak. Like that's a heavy guy. Imagine someone like that standing on you with studs, it'd be horrible. But yeah, Richie obviously got through it and he's he's a stronger man than I am. ⁓ and that th this this sort of mentality and this ability to overcome, to adapt. and and become better and win. It's one of the reasons where why he won the 2011 World Cup and then went on to win the 2015 World Cup. So he's actually the first captain in history as well to win back to back World Cups. And I was listening to this podcast called The Good, the Bad and the Rugby Podcast. And Richie was on it and he was speaking about how 2015 was a lot more enjoyable because they were confident and on top and they played really good rugby. Whereas in 2011, you know, it was there it was a trying to gained their reputation back following their their 2007 World Cup final, which apparently is regarded as their the worst loss in their rugby World Cup history. and ⁓ he was playing with injuries as well. So you know it was more about just surviving. He had to just survive. Whereas in 2015 they enjoyed being on top and they won sort of comfortably. So that's how he became you know he's became an extremely accomplished player and he's actually one of the very few athletes who to retire on top because he retired after that 2015 World Cup. He could have played on longer. And a lot of athletes do. A lot of great athletes do because they just love the game. But some certain guys will want to leave or ghetto will want to leave the game, you know, while on top because they don't wanna they don't wanna, you know, like I think ⁓ Michael Jordan actually said this as well. He said that I can't even remember the exact words, but someone is telling him but a certain other ⁓ legend of basketball, he was so passionate that they had to carry him off ⁓ the basketball court. Whereas Michael Jorge was like, nah, no one's gonna carry me off the court. I'm gonna walk off the court. I wanna end on this final highlight, which I think summarizes ⁓ Richie McCaw pretty nicely. Back in May, long before the World Rugby World Cup, I re-signed with an NZRU for a further four years. I decided back then that win or lose, I wanted to stay involved with New Zealand rugby. Winning the World Cup is both a huge bonus and challenge. History shows that very few winners of the World Cup have been able to live up to a world champion tag in subsequent years. I'd like us to try to carry that title with pride and live up to what it means. There are no guarantees that we can. The game has no memory or sentiment. But a big part of what I love about the game is the obstacles that you have to overcome to achieve anything. And as the adage goes, whether you think you can or think you can't, either way, you're probably right. I choose to believe that we can. And so they did. Like I said, they won the 2015 World Cup. And That was a great read. I would highly recommend ⁓ this book to anyone who's interested in in learning about leadership, learning from one of the greatest leaders in sporting history, ⁓ about the all blacks. you can buy off on Amazon or your sort of local ⁓ bookstore. So that's me. Thank you so much for listening. That's one legend down, the work continues.