Richie McCaw retires from all rugby

All Blacks captain, Richie McCaw has announced his retirement from professional rugby, saying he will now pursue his passion for flying.

The world's most capped international made the announcement at New Zealand Rugby headquarters in Wellington today.

McCaw says the decision was not easy to make as he loved playing rugby and the announcement timing was difficult following the death of All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu.

McCaw says he had thought long and hard about this year being his last, but he did not want to make that 100 per cent certain because he did not want that to affect his performance for the All Blacks, particularly at the Rugby World Cup.

McCaw also highlighted in a video on NZ Herald how special it was to get a win against France in the quarters of this year’s RWC.

The 34‑year‑old would now work with the Christchurch helicopter company he has been involved with recently.

He says aviation is something his passionate about and his going to carry on flying and work towards getting his commercial pilot license.

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew says Richie has been the most influential player of his generation, if not of all time.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says in his opinion, McCaw will go down not only as the greatest All Black of all time, but the greatest captain they have ever had and possibly the greatest player to have ever played the game in the modern era.

McCaw finishes his All Blacks career having played a record 148 tests, the last being the Rugby World Cup final win over Australia where he became the first captain to lift the William Webb Ellis trophy on two occasions following the 2011 victory.

The 34‑year‑old's rugby career began with the Canterbury NPC team in 1999 before he made his test debut against Ireland in Dublin in 2001.

He finishes having played 34 games for Canterbury and 145 caps for the Crusaders.

Source: Stuff.co/NZ Herald