Read ready to take over

Editor

Richie McCaw's knee injury means number eight Kieran Read will captain the All Blacks for the remainder of the Rugby Championship.

Richie McCaw's medial ligament knee injury suffered against Argentina on Saturday means that Kieran Read will lead the All Blacks for the remainder of the 2013 Rugby Championship.

The position is not new to Read, however, as he captained New Zealand to a 3-0 series win over France in June.

“It's something you've got to step in to and continue to do as well as you can,” Read told stuff.co.nz with regard to taking over from McCaw.

The number eight added: “My role at this point is to perform and lead out there as much as I can. We've got a great group of guys in the leadership group to step up and play whatever role that's needed. We'll work on that throughout this week.”

Steve Hansen is confident that Read can fill the large shoes that McCaw leaves behind, sighting the fact that Read actually stepped up his work rate after the injured All Black skipper left the field of play.

“Reado is well established,” Hansen told stuff.co.nz.

“We're getting performances from him as we expect. We think he's probably the best No 8 in the world at the moment. He didn't let us down. He probably went up a gear when the skipper went off. That's what you want to see. You want your best players to find something extra when you lose another top guy.”