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A ball may not even have been kicked angrily under Sam Cane yet, but you can bet some other things have.
The new All Blacks captain is still a week and a half away from leading his team on the field for the first time as a full-time skipper, but his leadership has already been put to the test, thanks to the Championship programming saga. Rugby.
Speaking Wednesday during the All Blacks’ camp in Hamilton, Cane said the team was “shocked” by Sanzaar’s announcement of the matches last Thursday, which had New Zealand playing their last game of the tournament on December 12 and it meant that on Christmas Day he would be quarantined.
Michael Bradley / Getty Images
All Blacks captain Sam Cane said his team will not accept the Rugby Championship draw that is on the table.
New Zealand Rugby understood that the tournament would be shortened to five weeks, with its last game on December 5, although there is debate as to whether this was ever fully signed, with all four Sanzaar countries having to agree.
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“Obviously that surprised us a bit,” Cane said. “Our expectation and understanding had been that we would be out [of quarantine] the 20 or 21 [of December].
“We were a little taken aback.”
Michael Bradley / Getty Images
The All Blacks are being dragged in all kinds of directions by all the stages they go through in regards to their journey.
There isn’t exactly a chapter in the All Blacks captain’s manual for handling situations like this. But Cane revealed how he tried to fix his team’s mess.
“The first reaction was, ‘Hey, that’s not what I understood, where is this coming from?’
“So I phoned Fozzie [coach Ian Foster] pretty fast, and he was pretty much in the same boat, he said, ‘We didn’t see it coming, we’re working on it.
Michael Bradley / Getty Images
The All Blacks have had to deal with the distraction of the Rugby Championship schedule problem during their camp in Hamilton.
“And he has a pretty cool head, so we talk about it, and we talk to the leaders pretty quickly and we just reconfirm that, ‘Hey, this is not the plan, we are not going to turn around’ and accept this. ‘
“All it can really do is try to reassure everyone that we will do everything we can to control it and achieve it in areas that ideally suit us, ideally. We don’t consider it a big question, considering what we’re going to do there. “
The most extreme answer to the problem is that the All Blacks boycotted that final round match at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. Some have suggested that a simple solution would be to award Rugby Championship points for one of the two Bledisloe Cup games being held in New Zealand and then discard the December 12 game. Or by then, a travel bubble through Tasmania might even have opened and quarantine wouldn’t be a problem.
But while Cane agrees that he feels like Sanzaar’s relationship is breaking down rapidly each day – “Yes, I agree it seems a bit like this” – he feels comfortable with the work that is being done to come up with a viable solution. .
“We have been assured by New Zealand Rugby and the RPA [New Zealand Rugby Players Association] who are working closely with Australian Rugby, with South African Rugby, to come up with some terms of agreement that are a bit mutual and hopefully that means we go home on the 6th or 5th [of December] or something.”
“That is not our fight to fight. Our thing is to prepare for these two test matches. “
Seasoned running back Aaron Smith said that he, along with Cane and the rest of the leadership group, had been pushing the team to “stay in the day, stay in the moment.”
Michael Bradley / Getty Images
Aaron Smith does his training job Wednesday as he tries to forget about travel problems.
“You guys want to talk about all the ‘what ifs’ and this and that,” he said.
“As players, we have to focus on this week – we’re still learning all the new moves and structures, we’re still trying to learn names, still trying to learn how guys like the ball and all the trends. I just know that if we focus on what could be, or this and that, we won’t get the job done right.
“I know that for me, personally, in the past, energy is wasted by thinking too much about the future. So we’ve had the talks, we’ve had the honest talks.
“We have to trust that NZRU and RPA are going to do a good job for us.
