Richard Hugh "Richie" McCaw was born on the 31st of December in 1980 in Oamaru, North Otago. Ritchie is a New Zealand professional Rugby Union player, and is the current test captain of the New Zealand All Blacks. He plays in the openside flanker position for the All Blacks, Crusaders and Canterbury rugby teams.
McCaw is considered the best player in his position, with his demonstrated ability to anticipate play, to turn over possesion at the breakdown with prolific regularity, to tackle with authority and adapt to the referees ever changing rulings being widely considered as some of his key attributes. Richie is also pretty handy at scoring tries, and is skilled at arriving at the breakdown quickly and with frightening regularity if you are unlucky enough to be the man on the ground. He has created more possesion turnovers than any other flanker in the game, past or present.
He was raised in rural North Otago, before moving to Dunedin in 1994 to board at the Otago Boys' High School. In 1999 he moved to Christchurch to study at Lincoln University and was selected in the national under-19 rugby union team. The following year he played for the Under 21s and Canterbury in the National Provincial Championship, before debuting in 2001 for the Crusaders in the Super 14.
