Fluffy Mccaw Admits To Woolly Workouts

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday August 12, 2005

GREG GROWDEN

As part of his training regime, New Zealand's most famous player, Colin 'Pinetree' Meads, apparently liked sprinting up and down the hills on his farm with a sheep tucked under each arm. And New Zealand's latest forward hero Richie McCaw has also revealed sheep were important in his rugby upbringing. We know asking Kiwis about ewes is a dangerous business, but in an interview in tomorrow night's Test program the All Blacks back-rower readily admits to tackling sheep as part of his training when growing up on a South Island farm. "Yeah, I used to do that a little bit," McCaw said. "You'd try to catch them in the yards, bring them down, stuff like that." McCaw also reveals the origin of his unusual nickname - Fluffy - blaming Justin Marshall for it. "We had these player profiles that we filled in via email," McCaw said. "I left the nickname box blank but he somehow got into my mailbox and changed it to Fluffy. So now my nickname's Fluffy, which I'm not very happy about."

Living the dreams

All Blacks second-rower Chris Jack has an interesting pre-match ritual. He explains on the Blacks' website that he wakes up at 7am. "That's when my routine begins," Jack said. "I have a goal sheet that I read before going back to sleep to have rugby dreams - visualising my job later that day. The goals change every game but mostly on the list are tackles, lineouts, running the ball and clean-outs."

Byron feted

Byron Kelleher's revelation that his new girlfriend is porn star Kaylani Lei drew a lot of attention in the South African press when the All Blacks were in Cape Town last week. Dale Granger, one of South Africa's best media sleuths, was straight onto the case, gathering a tribe of past Springboks to give their views on sex and rugby. Some of the gems in the Weekend Argus newspaper included James Dalton revealing he "had some of my best games after a good romp on the morning of the match". James Small wanted to personally shake Byron's hand, saying: "If he can satisfy a woman who has performed in 88 porn movies, he must be a legend." Keith Andrews was just as impressed. "If his reputation is anything to go by, he must be like a young ram." Andrews said that when he played the Boks were locked up in their hotel until after the game. "That didn't stop one or two players sneaking out and enjoying themselves before kick-off with a bit of couch rugby."

The strife of Brian

South African rugby administration gets crazier by the minute, with almost endless stories of rifts in the ranks. Head honcho Brian van Rooyen is forever getting into trouble - and has made his fair share of enemies - but somehow manages to survive as president of the South African union. When Australian counterpart Paul McLean presented him with a boomerang after the Pretoria Test, Van Rooyen, believing it was an axe, said he might use it on some people. "Brian, don't throw it," McLean immediately replied, "it's a boomerang, it comes back."

Chimp shots

Herald glam gal Jess Halloran has been hovering around the R&M desk being a pest, and to get rid of her we've agreed to use her hot-off-the-press item about African rugby. Her brother Tom, who is representing Tanzania, is co-ordinating a four-nations tournament that involves a bonding session where everyone plays a round of golf at a Tanzanian course. The players deliberately aim at any monkey wandering across the fairways, because the local rule is if a chimp takes your ball, you get a free drop. Back to your seat now, Jess. Peter 'Fab' Fenton has also been bombarding us with calls, and it's all because his two classic rugby movies The Running Game and The African Campaign are being released on DVD. They are worth getting, as they are a timely reminder of when Wallaby tours were fun.

Good work, boys

Five promising schoolboy players who met the Wallabies yesterday got some interesting advice. When asked what they'd been told by their heroes, one replied: "Stay out of nightclubs." And there are two interesting names in the NSW primary schools representative team - Cameron Clark, the son of TV commentator Greg Clark, and Declan Carroll, son of former ARU heavy Matt Carroll.

Rumour of the week

Channels Nine and Ten are showing serious interest in broadcasting the end-of-season Wallabies tour of Europe. Our mail is that Nine is most likely to show the November internationals. And we hear the Bledisloe Cup arrived a bit battered and bruised from New Zealand a few days ago. The ARU had to give it a quick spit, polish and repair job.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK 'We know the Wallabies have been getting bagged and people have been saying they're crap. But that's the game of rugby ... you have good weeks and bad weeks.' All Blacks second-rower ALI WILLIAMS.

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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