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The moment that changed All Blacks star Sam Cane's life

By Online Editors
Sam Cane. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

By Patrick McKendry, NZ Herald

Sam Cane can still remember the exact moment All Blacks coach Steve Hansen told him he would be captaining the team for the first time.

It was at the World Cup four years ago. A few days before the Namibia match, Cane was walking to a barber’s for a haircut near the team hotel in London when Hansen jumped out of a taxi for a word.

“I was hoping I would get to play that next game,” Cane told the Weekend Herald in Beppu as the All Blacks continue their preparations for their World Cup match against Canada on Wednesday.

“I went into that tournament with realistic expectations. Richie [McCaw] was skipper, so any game time I had would be awesome.

“[Hansen] said I was starting, which I was chuffed about, and then he followed it up by saying, ‘you’ll also be captain’. It wasn’t even on my radar. I can only liken it to when I was selected for the All Blacks for the first time. It was out of the blue and blew my mind.

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“The game was probably more difficult than what we anticipated and there was a lot of trouble at scrum time. I hadn’t captained the Chiefs in Super Rugby at that stage, so my experience of communicating with the referee and trying to get my point across was pretty poor, but it was a memorable experience.”

The now 27-year-old Cane considers himself lucky to still be playing rugby after breaking his neck in a test against South Africa in Pretoria last year.

The gist of it is this: Head caught in wrong position during ruck cleanout, vertebrae broken in two places and a slight dislocation.

The break was fixed by a steel plate and four screws, with the dislocated vertebrae pushed back “like the piece of a jigsaw puzzle”.

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Tough times for a tough young man. There’s no doubt it has changed his outlook.

“It has certainly made me appreciate playing rugby,” Cane says. “It’s helped me appreciate all the other things in life. Rugby is so important to me, but in that moment when I found out that I’d broken my neck, it was amazing that it didn’t matter any more. You think it means so much … all of a sudden, it was about life and quality of life. At the time, I was too scared to ask if I was going to be able to play rugby again. I was afraid I wouldn’t like the answer, so I waited a couple of days and they told me.”

After surgery the neck brace was supposed to come off after six weeks. A visit to the specialist put that back another six. None of it was easy and yet he knows it could have been so much worse.

“It didn’t take much to be thankful that I could get up and make my own breakfast. I know there are some people who have broken their necks and are wheelchair-bound for the rest of their lives. It put those things in perspective.”

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So to say he’s happy and grateful to be here is putting it mildly.

Cane was lucky to get the best medical care but he also owes a debt of gratitude to the support of his family, particularly fiancee Harriet Allen, and his coaches at the Chiefs.

Assistant Tabai Matson was a big supporter during his comeback; donning a tackle suit and being hit 200 times in just over two weeks as Cane readied himself for a Super Rugby return against the Blues at Eden Park in May.

Cane took a couple of matches to rediscover his full confidence — it came a week later in his team’s remarkably gritty win over the Reds in Hamilton — and hasn’t looked back.

He was always considered good leadership material. It’s why he was admitted into the All Blacks’ leadership group after only two years with the team, a daunting experience for a young man when the room includes such players as McCaw, Conrad Smith and Dan Cater.

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And it’s why this World Cup is different to the last for him and partly why he was so annoyed at not being able to return to the field after passing a concussion test during the 23-13 win over the Springboks in Yokohama last Saturday.

The openside flanker, who is building a cohesive and explosive partnership with fellow loosies Ardie Savea and Kieran Read, was adjudged to have taken too long to return to the field after the test, which was held in a room on the other side of the stadium. The law has since been amended and the 10 minutes allowed starts when the test begins.

“I was [annoyed] because if the officials had been in room and watched me. I couldn’t have passed the test any faster. I think because all your senses are heightened from playing, I had a better score than my baseline test.

“It’s a World Cup and all the training and things you do to stay in a position to play in a game like that — it was as close to a quarter-final as you can get — and to be denied the chance to play some minutes. They’ve put their hand up and it has changed, and that’s all you can really ask for. I’m glad we won.”

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Cane, a key part of the All Blacks pack, will see his stocks rise even further once Read leaves New Zealand to play club rugby in Japan.

And if the All Blacks go the whole way here after they backed up their 2011 triumph with success four year years ago, well, it will be very different for Cane.

“All going well, I’d have more of a role. I only got 30 seconds in the final [in 2015]. I was due to go on earlier until Bender [Ben Smith] got yellow-carded and it changed things.

“In 2015, I was stoked with the way the tournament went. I got to play every game and captained the team for the first time. Four years on, I have more of a leadership role and I want to have a big influence on our performances.”

This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and was republished with permission.

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Jon 4 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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j
john 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

29 Go to comments
A
Adrian 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

29 Go to comments
T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

21 Go to comments
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