Play it again Sam
Sam Cane learned quickly for his debut as a 19-year-old for the Chiefs. Now he’s about to bring up his century for the franchise, as Aaron Goile reports.
Sam Cane can remember like yesterday the first time he pulled on the Chiefs jersey. Now, almost eight years on, the team’s cocaptain will wear it for the 100th time, in Friday’s Super Rugby match against the Highlanders in Hamilton.
It was as a ‘‘wide-eyed’’ 19-yearold that Cane got his first shot with the Chiefs, halfway through the
2011 season, receiving the latest of callups from coach Ian Foster for the team’s tour to South Africa.
Part of the franchise’s wider training group, Cane had been at Mt Maunganui’s Bay Park to watch the Chiefs play the Crusaders on the Friday night – a match in which Tanerau Latimer got knocked out. That very moment proved to be the dooropener to Cane’s career in professional footy.
‘‘I was out having a drink with a couple of my mates, and then Fozzy rang up and said ‘come down’, so I went back down to the sheds and they were leaving for South Africa the next morning,’’ Cane recalled.
Of all the places to debut, Johannesburg’s Ellis Park would perhaps be the most formidable, and Cane recounts just how tough his brief stint off the bench was, as the Chiefs held on for a 34-30 win.
‘‘I remember it pretty clearly,’’ he said.
‘‘I only got between five and 10 minutes, and being a young 19-year-old I went out there and ran round and tried to attend every ruck, and being at altitude, five minutes later I had nothing left in my legs. So I learnt from that one.’’
And from there, the rest is history, with Cane going on to establish himself as an instrumental openside flanker, and now leader, for the Chiefs, as well as the All Blacks.
‘‘I was just a boy when I came in, wide-eyed and learning and trying to soak it all up,’’ Cane said. ‘‘I was pretty fortunate to have Tanerau here, learning off and looking up to, and then competing for the same jersey.’’
Cane also said he was lucky to have been coached by ‘‘some pretty special men’’ at the Chiefs, labelling Dave Rennie, Wayne Smith and Andrew Strawbridge as ‘‘influential’’ to his development, which has included changing his game style to keep up with modern trends.
‘‘When I first started out my strengths were my continuity, my ball skills, my support play,’’ he said. ‘‘And as I’ve got older it’s changed to more trying to have a physical presence.
‘‘I suppose that just comes with age and also with what they want from loose forwards – at this level, but also international level – so I’ve had to look at ways to do that.’’
Off the field, Cane has this year had to establish a rapport with new coach Colin Cooper, but already his strong leadership has been clear for the incoming boss to marvel at.
‘‘Probably the first thing is, what he talks, he walks,’’ Cooper said in summing up his skipper. ‘‘When he wants physicality, he brings physicality. So when you get a leader demanding that, the rest follow. And he’s respected hugely by the group.’’
It’s a group which is relatively youthful, and Cane said reaching the three-figure mark seems ‘‘pretty surreal’’.
‘‘I’m only 26, so I don’t feel that old,’’ he said. ‘‘But if you look at past Chiefs teams – 2011, 2012, there’s only a couple of us left.
‘‘With professional rugby these days, not everyone ends up, for whatever reason, getting to play for the team that they grew up supporting. So I consider myself pretty fortunate.’’
Cane had eyed the impending milestone as far back as last year, as if he played every game, the final would have been the 100th.
As it’s transpired, he will get to celebrate it on home turf, with family and friends from Reporoa to be on hand, as he joins an elite club, with only Liam Messam (166), Hika Elliot (117), Tanerau Latimer (109) and Stephen Donald (104) having managed the feat before him.
‘‘For whatever reason, the Chiefs have only got four centurions compared to some of the other teams going round,’’ Cane said. ‘‘And those four players are pretty special here at this Chiefs club, so to be parked up alongside them will be a pretty special achievement.’’
‘‘With professional rugby these days, not everyone ends up, for whatever reason, getting to play for the team that they grew up supporting. So I consider myself pretty fortunate.’’ Sam Cane, above celebrating the Chiefs’ Super Rugby grand final triumph in 2012