Cane full of praise for old pal Anscombe

ALL Blacks skipper Sam Cane has shed new light on the seriousness of the knee injury that kept Gareth Anscombe out of action for two years.

The Wales stand-off suffered knee ligament damage in the build up to the 2019 Rugby World Cup and faced a gruelling rehabilitation that lasted until the beginning of this season.

Wayne Pivac’s side welcome New Zealand to the Principality Stadium this Saturday, with Anscombe in the frame for a return to the Test arena. It will represent a full comeback for the fly-half.

New Zealand flanker Cane and Anscombe go back a long way from their playing days together and are good friends.

He has revealed the distressing reality of the procedure that Anscombe underwent on his road to recovery.

“That injury he suffered with his ACL, particularly cruel in a World Cup year, and then the complications he had to get his femur broken, realign his knee, just horrific stuff, a total of two years out,” said Cane on Monday night.

“I’m talking after coming back back after six or seven months and how challenging that was. He is a tough little character. It’s just awesome to see him back playing footy.

“To see him in the Welsh squad would be just reward for countless thousands of hours of hard work.”

And Cane, who takes credit for “toughening him up” during their time together in New Zealand, has said it will be “awesome” to see his friend back in the red jersey again.

“Gareth and I go back a wee while,” he explained. “We played New Zealand Schools, under-20s and then Brodie Retallick and myself took him under our wing at the Chiefs and toughened him up from a city kid into the player he is today!

“Nah, we’ll be looking forward to it.

“Brodie and I were talking, hopefully one of us can get out there and play on the weekend and get a hold of him at a ruck maybe.

“With the Covid restrictions and the bubble, there probably won’t be any catching up prior to the Test match.”

All Blacks lock Retallick added: “It’s awesome.

“We played age-group footy and for the Chiefs.

“He’s a good friend of mine and we still keep in contact pretty regularly.

“I know it has been a long battle for him.

“I think he got man of the match in his first club game back, and to do that after two years (out with injury) says just how classy he is.”