My secret weapon... Deer antlers that my mum grinds down into pills!
Sam Cane’s amazing diet
Sam Cane was on his family deer farm in Reporoa when he discovered the secret ingredient of an all Black.
His mother, Kathy, had been concocting it in their workshop in the heart of new Zealand’s north island.
‘The antlers can grow up to two centimetres a day so there’s a lot of good stuff going around them,’ Cane told Sportsmail. ‘mum grinds them down to a fine powder and puts them into capsules. She’s been packing me up with bags of them for 10 years now.’
The antlers have healing properties which help with the demands of being an all Blacks flanker.
‘We also breed trophy stags,’ he added. ‘my parents try to create the best animal with the biggest antlers. It’s like trying to create the perfect rugby player. You want to cross a fast guy with a big guy.’
Cane is neither the fastest nor the biggest but he is regarded as an all Blacks captain in waiting.
He inherited Richie mcCaw’s no 7 jersey after the World Cup although, growing up with homemade rugby posts in the field, his childhood dream was to emulate winger Jeff Wilson.
‘When I was seven or eight, we had “pet day” at school,’ said Cane. ‘It was pretty normal out in the country.
‘I had a pet calf that I was trying to teach to go around obstacles. everyone took a sheep or a calf into school — or lazy ones took their pet dog. I decided to name mine after Jeff.’
Locals have now taken to naming their sheep ‘Sam Cane’, with the 25-year-old shunted into the spotlight and tasked with being the heir to mcCaw, who lifted two World Cups.
Speaking to Sportsmail, mcCaw described Cane as ‘a calm head on young shoulders’.
He added that he is ‘ bloody good at the ugly stuff’ and put him on a pedestal with Sonny Bill Williams and Beauden Barrett.
‘I don’t really see it as extra pressure,’ said Cane. ‘There’s no hiding from the fact that a lot of people talk about “The next Richie” but I don’t see it that way.
‘He’s maybe the greatest all Black ever. There’s no point trying to play how he played. It just won’t work.
‘You put enough pressure on yourself to play to a high standard every time. all I can do is play the way I play and hopefully that’s good enough to pull on the black jersey with no 7 on it.’
Since hanging up his boots in
20152015, McCaw has become a helicopter pilot.
And Cane shares his petrolhead passion — often driving to training in Hamilton on his Harley Davidson Fat Boy.
‘I had a couple of dirt bikes growing up,’ said Cane. ‘I made some tracks around the farm and went pretty hard on them. A couple of years ago I sold my scooter and I’d been thinthinking about buying a Harley for a while.
‘I ummed and ahed about it; thinking if I fell off a Harley I’d probably have to get a new job. But I thought that’s a pretty rubbish way to look at life so I did a bit of research and ended up buying one.
‘Tawera Kerr-Barlow bought onone a year later so we often ride together. ‘I met some older gguys who are part oof a motorcycle cclub and I’ve been oout with them. ThThere’s a nice ride we do out to the coastcoast.’ It is a 65-mile ride out to WaihiWaihi, wherwhere Cane’s girlfriend has a beach house next door to Warren Gatland’s property. The Lions coach invited Cane around for drinks over the summer but now they will be going head to head. The Lions stage will provide the ultimate test of Cane’s credentials — with Sean O’Brien his opposite number at Eden Park tomorrow.
Speaking before his starting place was confirmed, Cane said: ‘Playing the Lions would be a dream. I’m from the Bay of Plenty where they played their first tour game in 2005. I was 13 then. I went to watch and one of my best mates from school got to be ball boy. I think there was a bit of “who you know” going on!
‘We were all pretending to be pleased for him but really we were dead jealous. It was the game when Lawrence Dallaglio broke his leg.
‘They only come here every 12 years so I feel privileged to have an opportunity to play them. In rugby and life, a lot of it is about timing. The next few weeks will be massive.’