Let’s take a peak behind the curtain.
The breakdown battle is one of the most decisive factors in a rugby game but it can also be the most misunderstood. Oftentimes, whether or not something is illegal is really up to the referee’s interpretation, which can be both frustrating and confusing for the fans.
Rugby Tonight on BT do some great workshops on various aspects of the game but New Zealand’s equivalent got the shrewdest breakdown operator in the history of the sport to delve into the nuances of rucking.
It is fascinating to hear Richie McCaw describing how poaches a ball.
Interestingly, they didn’t ask McCaw the key question: ‘Richie, when you want to commit some BLATANT breakdown burglary, how do you go about brainwashing the referees into ignoring your obvious misdeeds?’
Hopefully, now that the All Blacks captain has given away some of his secrets, Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien will be able to neutralise his threat in the World Cup final.
