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'Not good enough': English scribe wants Sam Cane dropped as All Blacks captain
By Sam Smith
An outspoken English rugby columnist has deemed Sam Cane as "not good enough" to carry out his role as All Blacks captain.
Instead, The Times writer Stuart Barnes believes Cane's teammate and fellow loose forward Ardie Savea would do a better job at leading the All Blacks.
In an opinion piece published this week, which labelled Cane as "a liability" in its headline, the ex-England and British & Irish Lions first-five was critical of the 30-year-old's effort in his side's 42-19 win over Ireland at Eden Park in Auckland last weekend.
Barnes highlighted a defensive mishap by the All Blacks skipper on Ireland centre Garry Ringrose, which resulted in the Irish working their way into a try-scoring position, as a blunder that Savea would not have made.
"Savea, 28, would not have missed that tackle," Barnes opined. "Cane, 30, doesn't shift a ruck, nor does he pressurise the ball-carrier with the sort of breathtaking hit he himself suffered at the shoulders of Ringrose earlier in the match."
Barnes added that Cane "makes his share of tackles but none of them are destructive", a claim that made in spite of the 78-test flanker's bone-crunching hit on Irish prop Tadhg Furlong near the end of the first half.
While praising Savea for "one of the best back-row forwards in the world", Barnes called for Cane's head to roll from New Zealand's back row contingent ahead of next year's World Cup in France.
"On the evidence of [Saturday's] game, if New Zealand are to find their best back-row blend before next year's World Cup, the hard call has to be made, with Cane relegated to the bench or jettisoned completely," Barnes wrote.
"Cane may be New Zealand's unsung hero. The trouble is, there is simply not enough to sing about."
By contrast, All Blacks head coach Ian Foster was unreserved in his plaudits of Cane's leadership during a week in which his squad were plagued by Covid.
"I just thought the work of Sam and our leaders this week was phenomenal," Foster said in the immediate aftermath of the first match of the three-test series between the All Blacks and Ireland.
Both sides will do battle again at Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin this weekend in a match that Ireland must win to keep their hopes of a first-ever series victory in New Zealand alive.
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Skelton may be brought back for the Wallabies so that would be the only reason that may hinder Wilson. Easily the form, most skilful and game IQ of any Oz 8. Valentini’s best and favourite position is 6, but lineouts may be an issue with Skelton, Valentini and Wilson. Will be interesting what Schmidt goes for but for me Wilson should be picked on form. Schmidt rewards work rate, skill and consistency. All that glitters every so often won’t be in contention. Greely is one of those players that has a knack of making the right decision. A coach is going to love him because he knows week in week out he’s going to get the job done. The second try Greely wasn’t the guy who made the initial break it was Flook, Greely was at the bottom of the ruck when Flook was off along the sideline. Greely got up and made the effort to catch up with play but also read the play nicely and hit the pass from Campbell at pace and then held the pass beautifully to Ryan.
Go to commentsSharks deserved to be far further back by the last quarter. Their tackling was awful, their set pieces were disappointing, their defensive organization was poor (especially on the Kok side of the D line), they kept making unnecessary errors, and they never looked like cracking the Clermont defense during those first 60m. Masuku kept them in touch, with some help from the Clermont generosity on penalty opportunities. Agree with the writer of this article. It was belligerence, and ability to raise their pressure game just enough, that turned the last quarter into a Bok-style shutout. Clermont have a reputation of not playing the full 80m, and there was a bit of that for sure. But, quite often when the intensity of a team drops off in the last quarter credit is due to the opponent for tiring them out. At 60m, with the Kok try, you thought that just maybe the game was on. At 70m, with the Mapimpi contribution, one felt that Clermont were fading, while facing a team that would maintain the pressure game through the final whistle. Good win in the end, but the Sharks are still playing way below their potential. And with their resources, and a coach that has had enough time to figure things out, they are running out of excuses.
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