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Play it again, Sam

Inquest into recent failings begins as All Blacks captain signs on for four more years

Marc Hinton

The deep dive has begun into the All Blacks’ shortcomings of 2021, with re-signed loose forward Sam Cane indicating key areas had already been identified for the offseason fix-it list.

Cane spoke to media yesterday after announcing he had re-upped with New Zealand Rugby for the next four years through until 2025, remaining on board with Bay of Plenty and the Chiefs, as well as Ian Foster’s national team, for the foreseeable future.

As well as indicting he had unfinished business in the black jersey, with that 2019 World Cup semifinal defeat to England remaining a big part of his motivation, the 29-year-old, 77-test international offered a frank assessment of the All Blacks’ 2021 campaign.

Foster’s men won 12 of their 15 tests in 2021, dropping their second Rugby Championship clash against the Springboks, after winning nine straight hitherto, and then ending their campaign on a dud note when they lost back-toback tests to Ireland (29-20) and France (40-25).

The three defeats were the most suffered by the All Blacks since their four of 2009.

Cane, who captained the All Blacks in 2020 but spent much of 2021 on the sideline recovering from chest and shoulder surgery, said the recent week spent in MIQ in Auckland had given the team’s senior leadership an ideal chance to debrief the campaign.

‘‘When things don’t go as planned a couple of times, you feel like you need to break down every component and change lots of different things, but often it’s only two or three small tweaks which can make a big difference.’’ Cane told Stuff when asked his assessment of the All Blacks year.

‘‘While we were in MIQ there were a lot of zoom calls, meetings, reviews, and a lot of time to think as well. We felt like we turned over every rock and had every conversation we could have, between coaches, leadership meetings and player-driven stuff.

‘‘Hopefully in two years’ time, when we’re exactly where we want to be holding a World Cup, we can look back at this point and say it was one of the better things that happened for this group, even though it hurt at the time.’’

Asked to delve deeper into ‘‘key areas identified’’, the 126-game Chiefs forward chose skillset execution and game management as two shifts emphasised.

‘‘If one of us makes an error each game, all of a sudden that’s 15 errors. We can all be better at minimising those ... and we had a chat around game-management, particularly after the Ireland loss.’’

Attack structure had been the third emphasis, Cane confirmed.

‘‘We’re still up there with the best in the world when we get front-foot ball. It only needs to be two or three quick phases and we’ve got guys who can exploit that. But when we get drilled behind the gain-line we become like every other team and have to resort to contestable kicks, or kicks not on our terms.

‘‘So it’s about making small tweaks to our attack structure. We’ve identified we need to be better at creating two or three rucks of quick go-forward ball.’’

Cane said the All Blacks did that well for long periods against Wales and in the third quarter against France. ‘‘We almost surprised ourselves how well we went with our pick-and-goes, con

‘‘The boys have a good relationship with [Foster] that allows us to have honest conversations without fear of putting ourselves in jeopardy. He’s outstanding at taking emotion out of things.’’

SamCane

sidering it’s not traditionally how we play.

‘‘So, maybe it’s about shortening up some of our attacking stuff to bring in defenders and find space elsewhere.’’

The 2020 skipper, who played only three times for the All Blacks on tour (against the US, Italy and France), said the seven days in MIQ had been productive. ‘‘We had a lot of time to think and hopefully we came up with some good stuff. The boys have a good relationship with [Foster] that allows us to have honest conversations without fear of putting ourselves in jeopardy. He’s outstanding at taking emotion out of things.’’ Cane also offered a telling summary of where the All Blacks forwards were at midway through the World Cup cycle.

He said statistically the set piece had improved from 2020, though two rolling maul tries against France had presented one clear area of concern. ‘‘But we’ve got to make sure we’re physically dominant every test match, and can’t have lapses, and times we don’t front up,’’ Cane said.

‘‘When the All Blacks pack wins the physicality battle, we normally win test matches. ‘‘The other thing is there were a lot of guys who got opportunities, so there is going to be massive competition throughout Super Rugby. Depth has been built, and next year will be about guys putting their hands up and solidifying those spots in that pack.’’

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2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282024740553087

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