Richie McCaw's closing to the end

First the All Blacks coaches said they were preparing an understudy for McCaw's subsitute.
Then it was suggestions that McCaw could eventually switch to 8 latter in his career.
After that we sought him playing 8 for Canterbury.
Last week the talk was how damaged and stressed was McCaw's body after a test.
A few days ago we knew that McCaw would skip the first three games of the Super 14 2010
Also this week he could be seen scrummaging at 8 during the All Blacks training session.

All in all, McCaw can't last forever, as tough as he is, putting his body to the line, week in week out. So I bet he will be targetting RWC 2011 as his ultimate goal. Nothing longer than that. Yes, perhaps he will still play for a year or so after the RWC, but he's sending out messages that rugby's a heavy burden when you are an openside, and just like Schalk Burger's and George Smith's, his body's got a limit.

I like him more than ever.