New Zealand: All Blacks legend Sir John Kirwan praises ‘outstanding’ Sam Cane

All Blacks great Sir John Kirwan has praised captain Sam Cane’s performance in Saturday’s win over Argentina after criticising the flank after their loss to Los Pumas a fortnight ago.

Kirwan said Cane was sluggish in the All Blacks defeat against Argentina in Christchurch on August 27 but was “outstanding” in the 53-3 win in Hamilton on Saturday.

Standing up to criticism

The All Blacks skipper has been under enormous pressure this year, with fans and pundits questioning whether he was playing well enough to start for New Zealand, let alone lead the side, but the flank has answered his critics.

“One of the concerns I have for Whitelock and Cane is we’ve got to get them to the World Cup, so he hasn’t had a rest and I thought he had a tired performance the week before. I’m sure he’d have been disappointed in himself,” Kirwan said on The Breakdown.

“[But] he was outstanding last night. He played with energy. He didn’t do anything flash early, really set the tone defensively and that’s what you want from a leader. Often people talk about captaincy and who makes the decisions to kick for the corner or for goal, but it’s about leadership without talking, and he was really solid last night.

“It’s the hardest job in the world … he was not at his best the week before and I thought it was fatigue. But he came out last night and absolutely set the standard for the team on defence and then his support play later on… he got those little lollies in support.”

Meanwhile, fellow All Blacks legends Justin Marshall and Mils Muliaina echoed Kirwan’s sentiment and praised the All Blacks captain.

”It was a faultless performance,” said Marshall. “He’s always had that game. Everybody else within the mix helped him perform his role to the max. [They] fronted, they offered themselves, cleaned rucks, and it enabled him to play that role he plays so well.

“Ardie [Savea] was off the back of the scrum, and we hadn’t seen [that] in three test matches. Shannon Frizell was growing into his work again, nice and physical. He was carrying tight, the odd pick and go, which freed up Sam. Somehow the loosies got that balance right.”

Pushing through turmoil

Muliaina said Cane was under the pump during the South African tour, and it is good to see him come out so impressively after what would have been a mental hurdle.

“If you think about what he went through in South Africa, perhaps when he came back that was a big downer mentally. He’s always had that in his game – he hits hard, he tackles hard,” he said.

“When you go into a game where you’re comfortable without the ball and you’ve got other guys who can get over the ball… he goes I’m going to lead from the front, I’m going to smash bodies and I’ll lead like that.”

Kirwan agreed with Muliaina outlining where all the different avenues of pressure come from for a captain of an underperforming time with lofty standards to maintain.

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“Who do you think the chairman rings? The coach rings? It all goes on to Sam Cane, and then you get last week’s performance that he wouldn’t have been happy with himself. That’s a huge amount of pressure, but that’s how you should react – by leading your team, by changing your game, by being really solid on defence. I was just really pleased for him as a person,” said Kirwan.