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Why Sam Cane won't captain the All Blacks on end-of-year tour
Sam Whitelock has been announced as All Blacks captain for their end-of-year tour of the United States and Europe.
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All Blacks assistant coach John Plumtree confirmed the news on Wednesday in a move that strips Ardie Savea of his leadership duties after having captained New Zealand to a Rugby Championship title in recent weeks.
It also means injury returnee Sam Cane, the full-time All Blacks captain, won’t resume his role as skipper after having come back from a six-month sideline spell as a result of a pectoral tear.
With just one match for King Country in the Heartland Championship under his belt since March, Plumtree said appointing Cane as captain would have been too big of an ask as he continues his return to action.
Instead, the All Blacks will rely on the experience of Whitelock, who hasn’t played for the team since their second Bledisloe Cup win over the Wallabies in August after missing most of the Rugby Championship to stay in New Zealand and attend the birth of his third child.
“Sam Whitelock will be taking over the captaincy from Ardie,” Plumtree told reporters from Washington DC ahead of this weekend’s clash with the USA.
“Ardie’s been recognised for the great job that he did in Australia, winning the Rugby Championship. His style of leadership was fantastic, but it’s also great to have Sam come in with his experience.
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“He obviously couldn’t make the tour [to Australia] with his wife Hannah having a baby, but we think it’s good for the team now that Sam takes over.
“Obviously we’ve got Sam Cane here as well, but we feel that Sam just needs to focus on his game to get his game right. He’s been out for a long time and the added burden of captaincy wouldn’t be a good thing for his game right now.”
The decision to reappoint Whitelock as All Blacks captain comes after the 127-test veteran skippered New Zealand throughout the July test series against Tonga and Fiji, as well as for most of the Bledisloe Cup series.
Plumtree revealed that if Whitelock had been available for the Rugby Championship, he would have continued his role as the team’s captain in the absence of Cane, and labelled his reappointment as “the right thing to do”.
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“Had Sam been able to come to Australia, he’d still have been the captain right through until now, so the fact that his wife had to have a baby, he couldn’t travel with us,” Plumtree said.
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“It certainly wasn’t his fault, so bringing him back in, for us, is the right thing to do, and the rest of the team is fine with that.
“Ardie did a really good job, and the leaders around Ardie did a really good job, and Ardie’s got a totally different style of leadership than Sam, but both are great, and so we’re just expecting to carry on as normal.”
Despite his demotion from the captaincy role, Savea will act as All Blacks vice-captain on the tour and remains an option to take charge of the side if Whitelock is rested for matches against the likes of the USA and Italy.
The same can’t be said for Cane, who is unlikely to captain the All Blacks until next year’s July test series against Ireland.
Until then, Plumtree said he wants the 29-year-old loose forward to use this tour as a chance to progress with his injury recovery.
“He’s obviously just had a little hit out with the King Country side and I had a good chat to Sam about it and he felt really confident in his body, and I think that’s the first step,” he said.
“The next step is him just getting a little bit of time out on the field and training as well, so he’ll get integrated back into this weekend at some point. No pressure on him. He’s just got to get out there and do his thing, but it will take a little bit of time.
“He has been out for a little while and maybe that tackle’s not quite as hard as it used to before. It will take a little bit of time. He’s been out for a fair while.”
Nevertheless, fans should expect Cane to resume his captaincy duties after this tour as Plumtree made it clear that nothing has changed about his status as the permanent All Blacks skipper after having been unveiled as Kieran Read’s successor last year.
“He’s been named as Ian Foster’s captain and nothing’s changed in that space, just a massive injury that he’s had to his shoulder,” Plumtree said.
“We’ll have to give him time to come right and get his game right before he can take responsibility of leading the All Blacks, which is obviously a massive one in terms of leadership.”
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Who got the benefits out of Schmidt, Lowe, Aki, and Gibson Park?
11 Go to commentsWhat’s new its a common occurrence, just the journos out there expecting a negative spin. The outcome will be beneficial to jordie and Leinster. The home grown lads hav got some experience to step up to and be more competitive, that or spend the 6 months keeping the bench warm.
11 Go to commentsI’m all for speeding up the game. But can we be certain that the slowness of the game contributed to fans walking out? I’m not so sure. Super rugby largely suffered from most fans only being able to, really, follow the games played in their own time zone. So at least a third of the fan base wasn’t engaged at any point in time. As a Saffer following SA teams in the URC - I now watch virtually every European game played on the weekend. In SR, I wouldn’t be bothered to follow the games being played on the other side of the world, at weird hours, if my team wasn’t playing. I now follow the whole tournament and not just the games in my time zone. Second, with New Zealand teams always winning. It’s like formula one. When one team dominates, people lose interest. After COVID, with SA leaving and Australia dipping in form, SR became an even greater one horse race. Thats why I think Japan’s league needs to get in the mix. The international flavor of those teams could make for a great spectacle. But surely if we believe that shaving seconds off lost time events in rugby is going to draw fans back, we should be shown some figures that supports this idea before we draw any major conclusions. Where are the stats that shows these changes have made that sort of impact? We’ve measured down to the average no. Of seconds per game. Where the measurement of the impact on the fanbase? Does a rugby “fan” who lost interest because of ball in play time suddenly have a revived interest because we’ve saved or brought back into play a matter of seconds or a few minutes each game? I doubt it. I don’t thinks it’s even a noticeable difference to be impactful. The 20 min red card idea. Agreed. Let’s give it a go. But I think it’s fairer that the player sent off is substituted and plays no further part in the game as a consequence.
1 Go to commentsThose are pretty good draws for the two top Aussie teams. I certainly wouldn't want my Chiefs to have a quarter final in Brisbane. None of the top teams will want the Crusaders.
1 Go to commentsHonestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
135 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
11 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
11 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
135 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
135 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
5 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
135 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
11 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
11 Go to comments