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Richie McCaw and Dan Carter - Source: Photosport -
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All Blacks captain Richie McCaw is set to follow his team-mate Dan Carter and re-sign with the New Zealand Rugby Union, according to ONE News rugby reporter Andrew Saville.
Carter yesterday announced a new four-year deal that will mean he is available to play for the All Blacks until after the 2015 Rugby World Cup, with the option of taking up short-term overseas contracts in between.
With that sewn up, the focus now turns to the future of fellow superstar McCaw, who was also identified as a key target by the NZRU.
Saville told TV ONE's Breakfast this morning that his sources indicate the influential number seven is all but committed to staying in New Zealand on a similar contract to Carter's.
"I would imagine it would have flexibility. Whether or not he takes up a playing sabbatical overseas - he may take a holiday overseas for a lengthy period of time but McCaw will definitely sign on again with the NZRU," Saville said.
"I think he's probably already signed quite frankly."
To retain both players would be seen as a major coup for New Zealand rugby as both players would have been in great demand from cashed up overseas clubs.
McCaw and Carter are also thought to hold a great deal of influence among other players and their decision may prevent any 'mass exodus' of All Blacks following this year's World Cup.
However the NZRU has already drawn criticism for the Carter deal, with some in rugby circles complaining that 'no player is bigger than the jersey'.
Saville believes McCaw and Carter are special players and therefore deserve special treatment.
"I can't believe a lot of the negativity in the last 12 hours or so about this deal," he said. "I think what the union has done is been flexible with this deal.
"There were multi-million dollar offers from France from two clubs in particular, so to fend those off and to keep Carter is a major point," he said.
"The same people (criticising the deal) would be bagging Carter today if he took the bigger money in France and fled this country."
Another criticism has been that the flexibility will set a precedent for other players, but Saville believes this is a reality of professional sport.
"I think that's irrelevant if you look at professional sport around the world Kobe Bryant gets paid more by the Lakers than one of his training partners, a quarterback in the NFL gets a heck of a lot more than the guy standing in front of him."
"It's purely rugby supply and demand, Dan Carter is a very special player and this is a very special deal."
Yesterday Carter said it was the Rugby Union's flexibility that kept him in New Zealand.
What do you think? Comment below.
Add a Comment:
Post new commentraymondo said on 2011-05-18 @ 19:25 NZDT: Report abusive post
I have just found my kneeling pad so I can place it front of my tv and go into prayer mode to pay homage to nz's god DAN CARTER no wonder at least a third of this country is poor ,the media and sporting Gurus in this country think its just wonderful to feed this RUGBY player more money than it takes to take care of a very large number of our unfortunates that suffer because of government and corporate arrogance ,I think your are a bunch of sick parentless people with brains as big as peanuts
ioscott said on 2011-05-18 @ 13:35 NZDT: Report abusive post
This is great news for rugby in New Zealand. My greatest concern is succession management in the All Blacks number 10 jersey. We still need to give other players international exposure in this position to ensure that when Dan does finally leave we have adequate cover.