Chumbawumba’s 1997 megahit Tubthumping had long since passed into the pantheon of Greatest One Hit Wonders, but it just kept coming to mind during the epic All Blacks Springboks test of 2012 in Dunedin.
That was the night a group of Springboks took it on themselves to do what they had convinced themselves referees were failing to do, and deal with the constant menace that was Richie McCaw.
Rugby was still yet to offer any serious effort to deal with the disturbing number of head injuries suffered by players being ‘cleaned out’ at ruck time, and that night it was open season on the All Blacks captain.
It came to a head (no pun intended) just after the hour mark. McCaw was making a nuisance of himself, and copped a piledriver charge from Duane Vermeulen, one that would be a yellow card now, but was not even considered a penalty by the Irish referee George Clancy.
McCaw was bowled to the deck, and before he could get up, copped a second blow, this time from replacement prop Dean Greyling, diving over a pile of bodies to deliver a forearm jolt to the head.
Had anyone bothered to look at a replay, it would surely have been a red card, but the gormless Romain Poite from the touchline said yellow and that was that. (To make matters worse the Sanzaar judiciary saw fit to ban Greyling for what amounted to one whole week).
McCaw got up and went straight back into the fray. Time after time.
The more the Boks tried to hurt him, the more he just keep leading the charge, demanding to receive the ball at restarts before steaming back into the posse of green clad giants, tackling everything that came near him, and yes, creating ever more havoc either side of that fine line he trod every game, at the breakdown.
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