Andrew has an England shirt for McCaw

Rob Andrew has hit back at remarks made by All Black coach Graham Henry by saying he is ready to pick Richie McCaw for England in the second Test.

Rob Andrew has hit back at remarks made by All Black coach Graham Henry by saying he is ready to pick Richie McCaw for England in the second Test.

Andrew's comments centre around the fact McCaw, in England's eyes, was constantly coming into the ruck on their side.

England had two players, Andrew Sheridan and Mike Tindall, sent to the sin-bin for offences at the breakdown, yet McCaw escaped the sin-bin despite a high penalty count in the All Blacks' 37-20 victory at Eden Park.

“I'm going to give Richie McCaw an England shirt so when he comes in on our side he's got a white shirt on,” Andrew told NZPA in response to claims England were cynical at the tackle situation.

He also took issue with All Black coach Graham Henry's gripe that England scrummed 'passively' in the final quarter as the game became disjointed.

“Most of the collapses were actually on our ball, we're not very keen on collapsing our own scrum,” bristled Andrew who then rounded on referee Nigel Owens.

“We weren't happy with the way the scrums were managed and there are some issues which scrum coach Graham Rowntree and John Wells, forwards coach, are looking at in terms of the engagement.”

Andrew was also unhappy that Owens and the All Blacks were sharing the same hotel in the days leading up to the game.
“I was a bit surprised,” Andrew added.

“Maybe that was just one of those administrative issues that needs to be looked at.”

Andrew said he would have appreciated an opportunity to clarify points with Owens before the Test – and also meet with South African referee Jonathan Kaplan, who controls this week's Test.

“It's a difficult area because coaches will try and influence the referee and Paddy (O'Brien) tried to put an end to all the games that were going on.

“I understand that but there are a lot of changes going on in the game.”

Still, despite his list of grievances, Andrew could not deny his team were also their own worst enemies in Auckland.

“What really hurt us was the simple mistakes,” he said.

“They have an ability with the ball in hand, there's no question about that, but we made it easy for them, they didn't have to work for the tries against us.”

Meanwhile, Andrew curtly dismissed a radio report that Andrew Sheridan was among England players seen drinking at the Viaduct Basin near the team hotel into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

“Are we in New Zealand? Yeah, thought so.”