Richie McCaw still flying high despite missing All Blacks

Richie McCaw is a helicopter pilot now. Also treks the occasional 550 kilometre cross country race when not travelling the globe as an AIG ambassador.

The latter duty has McCaw in Chicago all week, no longer a current All Black, still New Zealand’s greatest ever player despite the team that immediately following his retirement is deemed superior to the groups he led at three World Cups.

But he has moved onwards. Or upwards.

“I have bought a share in a helicopter business and I got my commercial helicopter licence. When I am back in Christchurch I fly commercially. I did all my private licences previous but the first half of this year I got my aeroplane commercial licence and then helicopter.

“That’s what I do with my time back at home when I am not doing anything else.”

McCaw scored a disappointing 94 percent over six flying exams, a statistic that pales in comparison to the 100 percent return against Ireland over a wonderfully epic 14 year international career that began with a man of the match showing at Lansdowne road in 2001 (Greg Feek led that haka).

Do you miss the game?

“You can tell I miss it. I miss running out and the thrill of that.

“But I don’t miss the physical side. Waking up on Sunday morning beaten up. I miss the competition.

“You have got to earn it every time,” said a man who lost just 15 of 148 test matches.

“You don’t want to be on the first team that loses to Ireland but I think you are in danger if you use this as a motivator. Motivation is turning up to perform. If you start worrying about other things it is not helpful.

“Guys know about it in the back of their mind, you just don’t talk about it.”

McCaw and Joe Schmidt are best friends, right?

“I don’t know Joe at all, never really met him, but there is no doubt he has a good rugby brain.

“I just like his manner too. You’d watch from afar on TV and he has got the right manner. You can tell why guys want to play for him.”

Eventually we mention the war.

“There was no doubt the Irish played particularly well that day, 19-0 after 20 minutes, but the second half was just a real wrestle. I knew we were starting to make things happen. Just time started to run out.

“But you could see the Irish boys were looking for the clock to run down rather than being still in charge of the game.”

You have to earn it every time, Richie is an eternal reminder of that.