A week ago, he was in Singapore offering some high powered adidas executives from around the world pointers about the art of leadership.

Now, All Black skipper Richard McCaw is returning to his primary trade, and will be back in red and black in time for Friday nights inaugural Air New Zealand Cup quarterfinal against Wellington at the Cake Tin.

While the Canterbury team for the sudden death match will not be revealed until Wednesday, expect this years national skipper to be involved.

It will be the first time he has represented Canterbury in the capital since he led the side to a 40-27 win over Wellington in the 2004 Air New Zealand NPC final, which remains the provinces only win at the ground known as the Cake Tin.

A refreshed McCaw took a full part in Canterburys post match recovery session today, which consisted of some light training followed by anaerobic games to loosen up the joints again in the aftermath of last weekends taxing tussle with Auckland.

Prior to the physical aspect of the session, McCaw was a full contributor to the post game team debrief.

As good a player as he is, Richie offers so much more to the team than just what he does on the field, Aaron Mauger, who will captain Canterbury in the quarterfinal, says.

His influence off the field is enormous too, in terms of the advice and guidance he offers. Having him around and actively involved is giving everyone a boost.

It is a timely lift too, given that Canterbury was forced to make a staggering 296 tackles during Saturdays thrilling 27-22 win over Auckland which denied that side the top qualifying position for the playoffs.

Such was Aucklands almost total domination of the second half, it had 80 percent of the possession during that period and spent over seven minutes camped inside Canterburys 22m, as opposed to less than 40 seconds in its own 22m; yet it still managed just one try.

Watching on from the coaches box, McCaw was rapt with his team-mates effort and is looking forward to doing his talking out on the field from Friday night.

Its a big game to be coming back into but Im looking forward to it, McCaw says.

The break Ive had [since the Tri-Nations] has allowed me to freshen up a little bit, but that has had its sacrifices, in terms of missing out on games for Canterbury. While it was disappointing that the shield has moved on, I was rapt with the way the players responded to that set back. Last weekends game against Auckland showed that there is still potentially a lot left in our season if we can keep winning, and Im keen to play my part

Friday nights game will be just McCaws 28th appearance in the Canterbury jersey since his debut as a substitute during a 31-3 win over North Harbour in 2000.

That was McCaws only appearance in 2000, but he played the last nine matches of the next campaign in 2001, tasting defeat just once, at North Harbour Stadium.

In the four seasons since, he has managed to fit another 17 appearances around his heavy All Black commitments, although just three of those were last year, and Canterbury lost twice to Otago during that time.

Overall, Canterbury is well in the black from the time when McCaw has been on the field, with 22 of his 27 matches for the province having produced wins.