More: Richie McCaw Retires l McCaw's Australian Legacy
If it’s achievable, he’s probably done it. A couple of times most likely.
But his best moment - the one that sets him apart from any other All Black - will never be repeated.
October 23, 2011 was a day of national reckoning in New Zealand. The All Blacks stood on the brink of ending a 24-year long World Cup curse against France at Eden Park in the tournament’s decider.They’d already beaten France 37-17 in pool play and the French team was on the verge of mutiny.
But the All Blacks weren’t without their own problems. Talismanic first-five Dan Carter was out with a groin injury and his replacement Colin Slade was also out.
Halfback Piri Weepu was kicking goals and doing much of the organising while rookie playmaker Aaron Cruden found his feet. But even Weepu pulled up lame in the final.
Unbeknownst to anyone outside the All Blacks set-up, McCaw had a broken bone in his foot.
He tried to keep the injury hidden from teammates and he rarely left the hotel so the public wouldn’t see him hobbling around.
He hardly trained in the week leading up to the final.
“I’ll be right,” he said.
Then Cruden went down in the first half and Stephen Donald came on.
“This is what I play the game for, this moment,” McCaw wrote in his autobiography.
“Don’t be scared of it, embrace it.”
And that’s exactly what he did, leading from the front, keeping it together as his opposite Thierry Dusautoir scored next to the posts to narrow the gap to 8-7.
“8-7, with 48 gone, 32 minutes to go. That’s a goddamn age,” McCaw remembered.
With 15-minutes to play Francois Trinh-Duc lined up a penalty which would have put France two points ahead.
Bad memories surfaced of Cardiff four years earlier. Also against France. Also in the knock-out stages of the World Cup. Also two points behind.
“Trinh-Duc blocks it right. Maybe that’s the moment, the bit of luck we need,” wrote McCaw.
“Don’t panic. Don’t force it. Keep doing what we’re doing and the opportunity must come.”
The clock runs down, Andy Ellis kicks into touch and the long national nightmare is over.
Kieran Read recalls it as the "toughest game I've ever played" and stoic Kiwi rugby men like Steve Hansen and Graham Henry are moved to tears remembering it later.
"Richie is probably the greatest All Black ever," said Henry in The Weight of a Nation.
"When he came off the field in the final I looked at him and thought he should be in hospital on a drip.
"I get emotional talking about that.
"If he hadn't been playing with a broken foot...I don't think we would have won."
Not many can say they achieved what McCaw did that night. Six men in total had captained their country to a World Cup victory.
None of them did it with a broken foot.