Is Richie McCaw the invisible man?

[johnh]

The reason I ask is because in yesterdays game against Ireland and against England (I didn't see the Scotland game) he seemed to spend much of his time at the breakdown - let's not mince words - cheating!
Since I don't believe that refs are biased (unless they are reffing a Tigers game in which case we all know they are biased aginst us), it's the only explanation I can come up with.

[Smurphswillgetya]

who said that!!!

[Big Dai]

[fentiger]

I think it`s because he wears black....

[Tiger_in_Birmingham]

He's even better than Backy used to be.

The only person almost as good is Mr Burger - but he can turn nasty likely to cause injury cheating unlike McCaw who lies all over the ball and comes in the side all the time.

McCaw doesn't have a holiday home in the opponent's half of the field unlike Ryan Jones - he is slightly more subtle

[kingol22]

Ferris agrees with you
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 35,00.html

[Bill W (2)]

McCaw rarely offends at two or more breakdowns in succession.

He gets a team mate to offend the next time.

[Stu_F]

I wonder whether anyone has ever calculated stats about ratios between penalties conceded & yellow cards?

Although this wouldn't count penalties that should've been given & weren't!

[Bill W (2)]

No-one seems to consider that the SH refs are favouring the ABs, nor that the 'interpretations' are good for them too, what a surprise. England showed the world that if you attack and get them on the back foot, the ABs wilt. that's why they lose in the WC.

.

In Hong Kong the Aussies too showed this.

The whole point is that referees (SH and Magners particularly) favour the side going forwards - even when they are in defence!! The law "first man arriving must stay on his feet" has been qualified by "unless he is driven over the ball by his team mates". Similarly, "the side" (as in coming in from) is now non existant for the advancing team and applies only to the retreating team.

McCaw (and the AB's) exploit these refereeing anomalies.

[Yorkshire man]

The older ones amongst us will remember that famous Scots back rower, John Jeffries. He was born offside, and is probably still there today in his retirement.

[taffyboiy]

Gotta say, the 'contest' we want at the breakdown would be a lot fairer if the side with the ball had to come in from behind the back foot too. Attacking players come flying in from all angles to knock the defender off his feet while the tackled player holds on as long as he dares, it's rubbish. Similarly, the defending team successfully drives over the ball, only for the late-arriving attacking scrum half to nip round them and pick up the ball. And frankly, if you're the attacking team and you infringe at a breakdown, it should be a free-kick against, not a penalty. Losing the ball is punishment enough (same goes for crossing/osbtruction, getting up again once you've been tackled etc).

[Will S]

It wouldn't surprise me that if one game soon the penny finally drops with the refs and the AB's get pinged all day long at the breakdown and end up taking a bit of beating. Let's hope that day is sometime at the world cup!

[Sam W]

I think that one of the problems with catching McCaw cheat is that he's so good at playing the game legally, it's probably hard for referees to catch him when he's playing illegally. They can't penalise him every time they think he might have won it illegally, because chances are half the time it'll be totally legit! The only thing that annoys me- as rightly pointed out above- is the amount of penalties McCaw (and other AB's) appear to be able to give away without being sent to the bin or from the field altogether!