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'I back the coaches': Sam Cane has no qualms with All Backs side-lining
By Tom Vinicombe
Sam Cane has backed Ian Foster's decision to pull him from the field in the final minutes of Saturday night's loss to the Pumas in Christchurch.
Cane was substituted in the 67th minute of the fixture and - not for the first time this season - was forced to watch from the sidelines as his charges fell to an unexpected defeat.
"That wasn't talked about or pre-determined or anything to do with me," Cane confirmed earlier this week. "But I back the coaches when they make a decision to sub someone, whether that's me or anyone else.
"They're doing it with the best interests of the team at heart and that's how decisions are made in this team. I don't take it personally, by any means."
Cane's comments weren't dissimilar from those he made following games against Ireland (twice) and South Africa, where was also consigned to the sidelines late in the piece.
While two of those occasions have resulted in wins for the men in black, two have ended in defeat. Perhaps coincidentally, in all four matches that Cane has been pulled from the field, the All Blacks have neither turned a win into a loss nor a loss into a victory.
Speaking the morning after the 25-18 loss at the hands of Argentina, head coach Foster made it clear that he still has full faith in his captain.
"Clearly he is under the spotlight,'' Foster said. "We are all under the spotlight when things don't go well. But behind the scenes, [he remains] strong.
"I thought a lot of his tackle and work around the breakdown was a big shift up in the last two games, and we are pleased with that.
"We just felt we needed a bit more power in our carry stuff so it was really a decision to take a fetcher off and put a ball carrier on."
Foster also confirmed that there was no preordained plan within the set-up to replace the captain at any stage of a match, suggesting that "it'll be game by game".
Seeing the All Blacks captain leave the field early in a match is becoming the new normal for New Zealand fans but it was certainly an unusual sight in the years prior to Cane taking over.
Richie McCaw was substituted just 19 times during his 110-Test tenure as All Blacks captain and in each of those matches, he didn't leave the field until NZ had established a sizeable lead.
It was a similar story for Kieran Read, who was pulled from the park five times throughout his 52 Tests as captain, with wins all but guaranteed for the All Blacks in each of those five matches when he did eventually leave the field.
Cane, by contrast, has been pulled six times while possessing the captain's armband, with the All Blacks suffering defeats in three of those matches (and only being ahead by any considerable margin in two of those fixtures).
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Dont know if the Irish players said it or not, but lets all be honest with ourselves, and hopefully both the Irish and French have healed by now, the Media did jump the gun, be realistic, according to 90% of the media it was a France and Ireland final, and the media had 1 of them winning the world cup, not even mentioning the All blacks? Just remember world cups are different, Australia was not the most in form cricket tean in the last cricket world cup, but they have a nack of winning when it matters. I wont go into whether what Etzabeth is saying is true, all I am saying is that its very easy for a team to get ahead of themselves due to the media. Nothing wrong with it, the media got the springboks over confident against England and we nearly lost that one.
Go to commentsHey Finn, Well done to the Junior Wallabies…a win is a win but it was a wet and scrappy game. Would be interesting to hear your opinion on two things from watching the game at the Not So Sunny Coast Stadium. Firstly, what is your opinion on the rule change of being able to call The Mark from a kick off and what is the reason for the change? Secondly, your thoughts on the lack of action for the high tackle on the SA fullback. I understand the TMO ruled that he had fallen into the tackle and the tackler didn’t have time to adjust but it was clearly shoulder on head and the Aussie 11 had not made any attempt to adjust his tackle height leading into the tackle. In my opinion he was never going to get his tackle technique correct to complete a safe tackle. If that tackle was made at a more senior and more scrutinised level would we have seen the same result?
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