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The moment that changed All Blacks star Sam Cane's life
By Online Editors
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".
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."
"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."
"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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To be fair it was nowhere bear the Leinster first team (for which, btw, Leinster copped nothing like the outrage that Jake White did for sending a rotated team to the UK). But it’s fun to watch the Stormers doing their thing. They are attracting big, diverse crowds of young fans, and deservedly so. Great to see.
Go to commentsIt might be legal but he’s sailing pretty close to the wind. Not a lot needs to go wrong for Finau to end up in the bin. Was it late? Not quite, but borderline. High? A couple of CM within the laws, no room for error with that one. Did he wrap the arms? There was a token effort to wrap one arm, the intent was clearly to hit with the shoulder. So yeah, it’s legal, just. But as we all know, a very slight change in the dynamics could easily have him seeing red. Hopefully not when it really matters.
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