McCaw expected on bench

Richie McCaw is likely to return via the bench to the Crusaders for their Super Rugby quarter-final against the Queensland Reds at AMI Stadium, Christchurch, on Saturday night.

McCaw, who has missed the Super season while on an extended sabbatical, played his first match for seventh months on Saturday when he turned out for his Christchurch club against University in a metro division one game.

McCaw played the full 80min and Crusaders head coach Todd Blackadder watched him for the last half hour and was pleased with what he saw.

“I was always interested in seeing his fitness level at the end of the game and he looked pretty tired to me which was a good sign for the fact that he had given so much,” Blackadder said at Crusaders training on Monday.

“But the first game of footy after a long time is always going to be pretty tough and I thought he did really well.”

Blackadder said the interests of the team had to come before rushing the All Blacks captain back into the team especially as the incumbent loose forward trio of No.8 Kieran Read and flankers George Whitelock and Matt Todd had performed outstandingly throughout the campaign.

“You’ve got to weight things up and make sure you do right by the team. We’ve got a game we’ve got to win – bringing a guy like Richie back into the team is fantastic and makes our selection even harder,” Blackadder said.

“There’s also loyalty to the guys who have done the job. You can’t under-estimate the work they’ve put in to give us the opportunity. These decisions are never going to be easy.”

Blackadder said that McCaw had proven throughout his long career that he was mentally tough, but he believed he would not be up to the physical level required for 80 minutes of a crucial knock-out match against the 2011 champions.

“He got through the weekend all right and he’s really keen to be involved so that’s encouraging. But it would be silly to compromise the team. He’s a quality player, he’s Richie McCaw of course, but we’ve still got to put the team first.”

Blackadder said the Crusaders would be told the decision on Tuesday but the team would not be released until Thursday’s training. It is expected McCaw will replace the youthful Luke Whitelock.

The medical reports were all good for the Crusaders. Midfielder Tom Taylor, who suffered a head knock and was replaced in the 25-17 win over the Hurricanes last Friday, was recovering as was All Blacks lock Luke Romano from the ankle injury which kept him out of the Hurricanes match.

“He [Taylor] was quite coherent after the game. We don’t think it was too serious and he seems back to normal,” Blackadder said. “Luke was running on Saturday so it’s all looking fairly positive, but he’s got to get through a bit of running this afternoon.”

McCaw expected on bench