AB legend defends Cane
Buck Shelford questions whether some of the criticism on social media is genuine
All Blacks great Buck Shelford has leapt to the defence of under-fire captain Sam Cane after his comments that some fans are “brutal” and that they don’t know as much about rugby as they “like to think”.
Shelford, who led the All Blacks 31 times without losing, told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Kiwis can be cruel to our top sporting talent — after Cane’s controversial comments after the All Blacks’ historic defeat to Argentina at the weekend.
“We’ve got some amazing fans but we’ve also got some pretty brutal ones,” Cane told Sky Sport’s The Breakdown, after the All Blacks suffered their first consecutive loss since 2011 with the 25-15 defeat to the Pumas in Western Sydney.
“With that you’ve just got to remind yourself, ‘hey, they may like to think they know a lot about the game of rugby, in reality they don’t really’. They may know the game from what they see in the 80 minutes, but they don’t see the stuff that goes on behind the scenes.”
Cane’s comments led to strong backlash on social media — with some calling for his sacking.
“I think they’re under pressure having lost two games in a row. I’ve heard a lot of comments from people saying they are useless and all this sort of stuff but it’s a lot harder than people think. It takes a long time to make it into the All Blacks and you’re the best of the best,” Shelford said.
“We’re so used to winning that when we do lose we get our hackles up and we get a bit annoyed with the boys. They will lose at times.
“I think he [Cane] is just being honest. And we can be quite cruel to our international stars, not just in rugby, but any of our sports stars.” Shelford added that the rise of social media has increased the criticism and questions whether some of it is genuine. “Now we’re living in this technology age, people are just punching out stuff all the time and sometimes do they really mean it? They don’t really think about it, they just put it in then all of a sudden it’s gone . . . They’ve got to realise it takes a long time to get into the top, a lot of pain. “[The top players] get brutally hammered every week, especially when test matches come along. We don’t have to do that. We just have to sit in the stands, eat pies and chips and watch what they do. We complain if they lose and if they win we go and get absolutely pissed.” Shelford’s defence follows that of former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith who called for fans to show patience. “These are difficult times for [coach] Ian [Foster] and Sam. One of the greatest eras in All Blacks history has ended on the back of McCaw, Carter, Woodcock, Muliaina, Mealamu, Nonu, Smith, Kaino et al retiring. Most of them centurions; all greats of our game,” Smith said.
“This is a cycle — it’s happened before and will happen again. There are future greats of our game in this current All Blacks team.
“Yes, there are mistakes being made, both on and off the field. A couple of losses amplifies those. That doesn’t mean these blokes are no good . . . this criticism doesn’t allow for . . . getting better with age and experience.”
The defeat to the South Americans gave Foster one of the worst winning rates (40 per cent) for an All Blacks head coach after their first five games.
More importantly, it occurred two weeks after an historic 38-point win over the Wallabies that locked away the Bledisloe Cup, and injected momentous positivity in the early work from Foster and his team.
The All Blacks’ fourth and final Tri Nations game comes next weekend against Argentina in Newcastle.