Captain Cane thankful for Dad’s school tune-up
After a rocky start, the country kid had everyone talking about how ‘exceptional’ he was. Mark Geenty talks to the new All Blacks skipper.
Sam Cane was about to turn 17, an All Blackin-waiting with the rugby world at his feet. He’d already played three years of first XV at Reporoa College, and the tough flanker wasn’t even the star of that side.
One of Cane’s best mates, Carl Axtens, was rated even higher, having already cracked the New Zealand Secondary Schools team, some feat from a small town college when still in year 12.
Bay of Plenty Rugby Union wanted their two rising stars nearby for their final year of school, so Tauranga Boys’ College old boy and former BOP rep Dean Jennings came calling.
It was sealed — in early 2009, a few weeks after future Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson and future Team NZ America’s Cup-winning helmsman and Olympic gold medallist Peter Burling farewelled Tauranga Boys’, Cane and Axtens made the 90-minute drive from Reporoa to their new school.
‘‘Without knowing it at the time it was a really good move to develop us as people and help us grow up,’’ new All Blacks captain Cane recalled.
‘‘We were 17 and we’d almost outgrown Reporoa; we’d been in the first XV since we were 14 and played the same teams for three years and we were quite comfortable.
‘‘It felt like a massive city at the time. They had no boarding hostel and we boarded with the academy manager [Jennings’] partner Vicki Semple, an amazing lady. We had a little downstairs unit and she pretty much did all the cooking for us – it was like halfway between leaving home and fully going flatting.
‘‘It was perfect – it was on us to get to school and training, and most of the responsibility was on our shoulders, minus having to make our own food.’’
While it seemed ideal, Cane wasn’t a fan initially. It even required a decent tune-up from father Malcolm, a Reporoa deer farmer who’d coached his son
for most of his career. ‘‘It was awesome but pretty challenging too, moving out of a school where you know everyone’s names and all the teachers, to a school of 1800 boys was definitely out of our comfort zones,’’ Cane said.
‘‘It was fair to say at the start we struggled a little bit. It wasn’t till I had the hard word from the old man that if I missed any more days of school he’d pull me out of school and I’d have to go working.
‘‘He knew how much I wanted to make the NZ Secondary Schools side and there was no chance if I missed any more days of school. I put my head down after that and, funnily enough, when I did that and committed to it I enjoyed it a lot more.’’
Cane and Axtens made that squad in September 2009, along with future All Blacks T J Perenara, Lima Sopoaga, Charles Piutau, Steven Luatua and Codie Taylor who, two years later, all won a world title with New Zealand Under-20s.
At Tauranga Boys’, Cane was second-top tryscorer for the season with 11 and principal Robert Mangan vividly recalls a relentless 50m chase where he hauled down a Hamilton Boys’ High School wing in a rare win over their rivals. Hamilton BHS went on to be national champions.
Said Mangan of a young Cane: ‘‘He was the standout. Exceptional, it was written all over him that he was going to go places, without any doubt.’’
In June 2012, aged 20, Cane made his All Blacks test debut and donated a jersey to Tauranga Boys’, where it’s displayed alongside those worn by other old boys Jarrad Hoeata, Nathan Harris and New Zealand Maori captain Tanerau Latimer.
Cane’s elevation to be Kieran Read’s successor last week meant a rare treble for Tauranga Boys’, which educated the current All Blacks and Black Caps skippers and Team NZ helmsman.
‘‘Perhaps a school like Auckland Grammar who has pretty significant sporting pedigree especially in those two codes [rugby and cricket] may have, but I don’t think it would extend to sailing too,’’ Mangan said. ‘‘Yes, we’re trumpeting that as a first, absolutely.’’
Williamson was head boy and Burling sports captain in 2008, but neither were at school much. Williamson skippered New Zealand Under-19s at their World Cup – where a team also including Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Corey Anderson lost to Virat Kohli’s India in the semifinals – and Burling became a teenage Olympian on the waters of Qingdao, China.
Cane said of the school’s trio of national skippers: ‘‘It’s incredible really when you think of all the kids around that age, you’d struggle to find a stat equal to it with any other school I’d imagine.
‘‘I was aware of Kane because he was almost a child prodigy. I remember in the gym a lot of his agegroup New Zealand shirts were up on the wall. And Pete Burling was doing awesome things as well so I was aware of both of those guys for sure.’’
As far as crossover for skippers of New Zealand’s main winter and summer sports goes, the last obvious one was Auckland Grammar’s Gary Whetton and cricket’s Martin Crowe in 1990.
Cane and Kane have chatted from time-to-time, usually at BOP sports awards, where they and Burling are regular contenders in a tough field. The new All Blacks captain’s assessment of Williamson is little surprise.
‘‘Because we went to the same school, roughly the same age, we’ve always got on pretty well when we’ve chatted. We’ve had some really good conversations,’’ Cane said.
‘‘He’s probably one of the most humble, down-toearth guys I’ve ever met. You can’t say a nice thing about him without him deflecting it sideways or putting it on someone else.’’