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Sam Cane might return from broken neck sooner than many fear

By Chris Jones
Sam Cane last June. Photo / Getty Images.

Chiefs head coach Colin Cooper is hoping All Blacks flanker Sam Cane will be given the green light to start playing again by the end of May as he recovers from the broken neck he suffered against South Africa.

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That would still give Cane time to make the All Blacks squad for the Rugby World Cup in Japan but Cooper insisted the defending champion’s leading open side would not be rushed back and his return will depend on specialist medical advice.

Cane was left in a neck brace a long period after a collision with Springboks loose forward Francois Louw in the 35th minute of the All Blacks victory at Loftus Versfeld in October last year. In an interview with Radio Sport’s D’Arcy Waldegrave, Cooper said he hoped for good news to come back from Cane’s meeting with a specialist later this year.

“He goes back to a specialist early April and hopefully they give him the green flag end of April or May,” said Cooper who will have Brodie Retallick as the team’s on-field leader for the Chiefs Super Rugby campaign with Cane being involved off the pitch.

“We’ve kept with him (Cane) the whole time. He’s a great leader and so he will captain the Chiefs for 2019 and co-captain with Brodie Retallick. So while Sam is not playing he’ll be doing a lot of the captaincy off the field and Brodie will be leading the team on the field.”

Cane admits the injury has forced him to look at his life and recognise what is important going forward and he told journalists: “It probably put rugby in perspective within half a day for me. People were saying ‘will you be right for the World Cup?’ I was just like, honestly, that’s the furthest thing from my mind at the moment.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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