McCaw backs Jonno to lift England
Baabaa: Richie McCaw will lead a stat-studded Barbarians side later this year
New Zealand captain Richie McCaw is backing Martin Johnson, the 2003 World Cup winning skipper, to restore English rugby to its former glory.
The All Blacks play England at Twickenham on November 29 as part of their six-match northern hemisphere tour and McCaw is expecting Johnson to produce a much stronger team than the one outclassed by New Zealand in the two summer Tests in Christchurch and Auckland.
"His influence will start to come through. The quality of the man, the respect and what he's done - if he can put that into the team they will be a tough team," said the 65-cap flanker.
"When he played he went out and produced it first and foremost himself and he wasn't afraid to grab other guys to come along with him.
"If they weren't pulling their weight he made that known. You can only do that if you're doing it yourself and that's what he always did.
"The other thing was he had some pretty good lieutenants around him when you think of guys like Lawrence Dallaglio and Neil Back and he seemed to get the best out of them as well.
"When you played him you always knew the English team were going to be pretty good so I'm sure they will be a hugely different team from the one we played Down Under in June," said McCaw, who accepts that the All Blacks outclassed a jaded England side in the summer.
"I spoke to Steve Borthwick, who said it was his 53rd week of rugby from when he started preparing for last year's World Cup to then and I know what that's like.
"They are obviously going to be excited playing at home and it's going to make for a pretty tough match."
McCaw, 27, is fresh from leading New Zealand to last weekend's Tri-Nations final triumph over Australia which sees them restored as rugby's top nation following last year's World Cup flop in South Africa.
McCaw, paying his first visit to Wembley Stadium where he will play for the Barbarians against Australia in the Olympic Centenary match on Wednesday, December 3, admitted he was "blown away" by the venue on his first visit on Friday.
He will be joined by an impressive array of world rugby stars for the first rugby match at the new Wembley.
Former All Black Jerry Collins was the latest addition to the Barbarians line-up which includes South African 2007 World Cup winners Percy Montgomery, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Fourie du Preez, John Smit, Bakkies Botha and Schalk Burger.
All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko and their former prop Carl Hayman, now with Guinness Premiership side Newcastle, have also promised to play with second-row man Borthwick the only current England international so far named to play in a squad coached by Jake White, who masterminded South Africa's World Cup triumph last summer.
More British players will be named later, with Premier Rugby having agreed to release a number for the match to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Olympic Games in London where Australia won the gold medal with a 32-3 victory over Great Britain at the White City Stadium.
Some of the proceeds from the British Olympic Association match will help fund Team GB for the London Games in 2012 and McCaw is hoping that rugby will eventually feature in the Games.
Unfortunately that day will not come in time for London 2012.
"There's always talk about it and I guess it would become a truly global game if it did end up in there in time," the New Zealand staradded.
"There's the sevens at the Commonwealth Games and it's a big thing for a rugby player to go to that so if they could do something like that it's a thing all players would aim for."