Meads v McCaw: every All Black's caps scaled to today's calendar, and why it is a dead heat

Colin Meads played 55 Tests for the All Blacks. Richie McCaw played 148. Sam Whitelock holds the record with 153. On those numbers there is no comparison. But Meads played in an era when the All Blacks played about four Tests a year, and he played 55 of the 59 Tests New Zealand played between his debut in 1957 and his last Test in 1971. McCaw played in an era of 12 or 13 Tests a year, and he played 148 of 185. So who had the bigger career?

The method

We counted, for every one of the 922 men who have played a Test for the All Blacks, two things from New Zealand Rugby's official line-ups:

• Share of available Tests: how many of the All Blacks' Tests between his first and last he played. It measures how indispensable he was.
• Modern-equivalent caps: his Tests scaled to today's calendar of about 13 Tests a year, using the number of Tests New Zealand played per year in his own span. Years with no Tests because of the world wars count against nobody.

The second number is a thought experiment, not a forecast. It assumes a player would have kept the same hold on his place in the professional game, with its rotation, rest weeks and longer seasons.

The most-capped All Blacks, and what they are worth in each other's terms

The ranking: modern-equivalent caps

Meads v McCaw

On a straight conversion Colin Meads comes out top: 55 Tests at four a year is worth about 180 today, more than McCaw, Whitelock or Barrett. That is because Meads played 93 percent of every Test available to him over 15 seasons, an extraordinary rate for a lock in an era of brutal forward play and long tours.

But that is not quite fair to McCaw either. No modern player plays 93 percent of the Tests in a 15-year span: rest weeks, rotation and the length of the season see to that. McCaw played 80 percent of his, Whitelock 86 percent and Barrett 79 percent, and those are among the highest in the professional game. If Meads had played 80 percent of the Tests in a modern 15-year span, he would have about 155. McCaw's modern-equivalent figure is also 155.

So the honest answer is a dead heat. Meads and McCaw had the two biggest careers in All Blacks history, three decades apart, and once the calendar is accounted for, neither is ahead.

The other big careers

• Sean Fitzpatrick played 92 of the 97 Tests between his debut as a Baby Black in 1986 and his retirement in 1997, including 63 in a row. Scaled, that is about 147 caps, level with the modern record holders.
• Ian Kirkpatrick played 39 of 40 possible Tests between 1967 and 1977, including what was then a record 38 in a row. Modern equivalent: about 138.
• Gary Whetton (58 Tests, 1981-91), John Kirwan (63, 1984-94) and Kelvin Tremain (38, 1959-68) all come out at between 114 and 125.
• Wilson Whineray and Don Clarke, the giants of the late 1950s and early 1960s, are both worth more than 100.

The most indispensable

All Blacks with 30 Tests or more, ranked by the share of available Tests they played:

These are the players selectors simply could not leave out. Kirkpatrick missed one Test in eleven years.

What it means

The most-capped list will always be a list of modern players, because the modern calendar offers three times as many Tests. Adjusting for it brings the great players of the amateur era back to where they belong: Meads beside McCaw, Fitzpatrick beside Whitelock, and Kirkpatrick, Whineray and Clarke among the longest careers the All Blacks have known.

Sources: New Zealand Rugby, All Blacks statistics (stats.allblacks.com), line-ups for every Test 1903-2026, with appearances checked against each player's official profile; RUGBE analysis.