Dan Carter Reveals Former All Blacks Captain Richie McCaw Had A Weird Ritual Before Every Game

Ice-cream.

They don’t really come much better than former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw. The legendary flanker led New Zealand to back-to-back World Cups in 2011 and 2015, representing his country 148 times, with 110 of them coming as captain.

He only lost twice on home soil in 61 games for the All Blacks and lost just 15 in total out of those 148 games.

He was also named World Player of the Year no fewer than three times and scored 135 points for his country – making him the highest-scoring forward in New Zealand history.

And as if his two World Cup aren’t enough – McCaw can also boast four Tri-Nations titles, three Rugby Championships and two Grand Slams. But even the best players in the world have their weaknesses.

Former teammate Dan Carter and Scotland journalist Lee McKenzie interviewed McCaw in a live chat on Facebook and Instagram this week where it was revealed that McCaw could not play a game unless he got a feed of ice-cream beforehand.

“I’ve never seen a man eat so much ice cream before. I’m struggling to think of a test match you played where you didn’t have ice cream the night before a game,” Carter said about McCaw.


“You’re spot on,” McCaw admitted.

“The best man at my wedding, when he got up, the first thing he said was ‘we’re going to start the speech with Richie’s first love’. And everyone thought ‘where’s he going here?’ … and then he said ‘ice cream’.

“I love my ice cream. I always found on a Friday night you’d earned it for the week. It got me ready to go.”

But what flavour did McCaw usually look for?

“I quite enjoy mint-choc chip. But with an apple crumble the night before a game a bit of vanilla used to be pretty perfect,” McCaw added.

Carter added that McCaw would get pretty pissed off if he didn’t get his ice-cream feed before a game.

“I did find it quite amusing when you’d absolutely tear off at the dietician or the hotel staff because there wasn’t ice cream,” Carter joked.

“It would completely ruin your preparation and as every professional athlete knows – preparation is the key. And that was a big part of Richie’s preparation and you did not want to mess with that.”

Facebook
Twitter
Follow Me
Instagram