McCaw Not to Seek Out Quade in Brizzy

Ritchie McCaw

Crusaders captain Richie McCaw will not be out for retribution against Reds pivot Quade Cooper when the two sides clash in Brisbane on Sunday.

But while the All Black openside flanker says he doesn't carry grudges into matches, he has certainly not forgotten how a gloating Cooper shoved him in the head after James O'Connor scored an injury-time try during a Bledisloe Cup match in Hong Kong last year.

O'Connor dusted himself off to kick the conversion which gave the Wallabies a 26-24 win and McCaw, when reminded about the incident with Cooper, said he will not be chasing the Wallaby fly-half with the aim of hurting him on Sunday.

"Oh, I know he did that," McCaw told smh.com.au

"Maybe I will get an opportunity one day to get a good tackle on him, but I don't get too carried away with him and those sorts of things.

"If you go out there chasing something like that, you can forget about what you are going to do," he added.

The Wallabies' win ended a 10-match losing streak against New Zealand and halted the All Blacks' 15-match winning sequence.

And McCaw could only watch on as the Australian players celebrated their win before leading his players over to congratulate their opponents on their stunning victory.

He reckons reacting to Cooper's taunting was not option.

"I couldn't do anything about it at the time, could I, because we had just lost the game," McCaw said.

"So you take your medicine and walk off. I don't hold grudges, I don't get too carried away because life would be a bit of hard work after a while if that was the case."

McCaw said it was pointless to act to provocation by hurting an opponent.

"What do you get out of it? You get a sore hand and a week's break, so there is no point," he said.

"You are better to let your actions do that talking and, if it comes to that, it is usually because someone is frustrated and you are obviously doing your job right.

"Especially as captain, you can't afford to put yourself in that position, I don't think."

McCaw said he only ever threw a punch at an opponent once but came off second best.

"I think I tried one day and hit a hard head and hurt my wrist, so that probably wasn't a good idea."