Richard Hugh McCaw ONZ (born 31 December 1980) is a New Zealand former rugby union player. He captained the national team, the All Blacks, in 110 out of his 148 test matches, and won two Rugby World Cups. He is the most capped test rugby player of all time, and has won the World Rugby player of the year award a joint record three times.
McCaw predominantly played in the openside flanker position for the New Zealand, Crusaders and Canterbury teams, but also played as a blindside flanker and no. 8. During McCaw's career, Canterbury won the NPC (later ITM Cup) five times, and the Crusaders won four Super Rugby titles. As well as two world cups, the All Blacks won seven Tri-Nations titles, completed three successful Grand Slam tours and won the Bledisloe Cup eight times.
He made his debut in 2001 for the Crusaders, and was selected for the All Blacks' 2001 end-of-year tour, despite having played only eight minutes of Super 12 rugby. His debut for New Zealand was against Ireland, where he was awarded man-of-the-match. McCaw became a regular selection for New Zealand, only missing a few games due to recurring concussions. In 2004 he was appointed captain of the All Blacks, whom he led at the 2007 World Cup. After their elimination in the quarter-finals, his captaincy came under criticism, but he was retained and eventually led the team to consecutive world cup titles in 2011 and 2015, becoming one of only twenty players who have won two rugby union world cups.