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'Horrible feeling': Sam Cane says 'time will tell' whether Springboks loss was beneficial
By Ben Smith
All Blacks captain Sam Cane says the team was digesting a ‘horrible feeling’ as they arrived in Germany for the pre-World Cup camp.
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Despite sweeping aside their Rugby Championship rivals on the way to four Test wins to start the year, the side were deflated by a Springboks team in Twickenham by the tune of 35-7.
That heavy loss left a sour taste as they headed to Adidas HQ to train at the home of their sponsors in Germany, but Cane is hopeful they’ll look back soon and be “glad” it happened when it did.
“It was a horrible feeling on Friday night and the next day,” Cane told 1News from All Blacks camp.
“With a couple of days to settle I think we’ll look back and hopefully take the lessons we have from the game and implement them… then I really hope that we can look back and say we’re glad it happened when it did.
“But only time will tell.”
After a turbulent 2022 and a 12-game undefeated streak, the All Blacks up-and-down journey to this Rugby World Cup has been ‘a long time coming’.
After the disappointment of the 2019 semi-final to England, New Zealand finally have a chance to atone for the missed chance in Japan.
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Cane said all the focus is now on “nailing” their key pool clash against France in the tournament opener.
“I think it’s probably natural. The build up has been a long time coming,” Cane said.
“There is a lot riding on it. We know that but we’re pretty excited by the challenge and we know that anything can happen.
“All our efforts are going into nailing this first game and we’ll reset and continue that path. It’s cool that it’s finally here.”
The team was boosted by the news that Scott Barrett had escaped further punishment after his two yellow cards against South Africa.
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The Crusaders lock can now suit up against France which was shaping to be a problem for the All Blacks with Brodie Retallick and Shannon Frizell nursing injuries.
The selectors opted to select an extra outside back in the World Cup squad over a lock.
Josh Lord was called upon to play against the Springboks, but the Chiefs’ second rower is not in the official 33-man squad.
Prop Tyrel Lomax, who suffered a deep cut to the thigh against South Africa, is not expected to be fit in time to play against France and remains the casualty from the one-off Test.
If it was so horrible why was Ardie winking and Aaron Smith grinning like a Cheshire cat the whole way through the game? Sounds like a lot of sulking for domestic consumption to me.
It will definitely help.
For starters, it should bring their supporters back down to Earth who, after the ABs beat a rusty bok team in Auckland and disposed of a weak wallabies team, all but started pencilling the ABs down as RWC winners on arrival.
The ABs don’t perform well at World Cups when their public expectations are excessively high. This AB team has been very unconvincing over the past 4 years and Foz has had an axe hanging over his head almost since the start of his tenure. Compared to other teams who have consistently shown their class like Ireland and France - the recent hype over the ABs has been grossly exaggerated.
The ABs 4th in the world ranking is accurate of their current status in the world and their chances of winning the World Cup (3 other teams are better than them).
The France game is going to be huge. I will be rooting for the ABs - because of my loyalties to the SH. Just wish their fans would reel it in though. Curb their expectations and be humble. It will help their boys chances.
I think it's a bit of a bold statement to say the public are expecting the ABs to win the World Cup. It was some of the northern scribes who suddenly labelled them as favourites just because they started playing well this year, even though they haven't been able to beat France and Ireland (apart from a first test at Eden Park last year), struggled against Japan and Scotland and gave away a big lead against England. The public just started to believe this year that they might have a chance, that's all. It's some of the northerners who were worried that they might fly under the radar so they labelled them as favourites. Well, the ABs have been done by a record margin - so they can't be favourites now - of course all those scribes who sang their praises are now putting the boot in. But then again you can win a World Cup by playing badly early on and playing well when it counts - after all SA only really played well in the final last time whereas the ABs played well in the quarters and were done by England in the semi. It's a long shot for the ABs, but who knows.
The expectation on the All Blacks is always at the same level at every World Cup.
Excessive.
That’s got nothing to do with how good or bad they’ll be. It just is what it is, they’ll deal with it.
Have you paid any attention to the ABs fans over the past 4 years? We know exactly where we stand in the pecking order, we’ve got the players and coaches to win it but we’re inconsistent and undisciplined/struggle to adapt to refs - it’s the bookies not the fans pumping up the ABs chances. Bring it on though, should be a cracker
Rubbish most of us AB fans acknowledged that the Boks were underdone and the Wallabies are useless. I expected us to make the semi-final..but after the hiding that the Boks gave us I will settle for the quarters...if we go further then that is a bonus...
Boks look unstoppable vs 14 or 13
Agreed. Moral of the story:
Don’t get sin binned.
The fact of the matter is that Foz, Ryan and the forwards got it wrong. At the lineouts in particular and in defense of the mauls.
Three penalties for shoving early on the mail defense = a clear strategy to do so to nullify the Bok maul.
The fact that they did it 3 times = inability to change tactics.
The Boks look unstoppable when your tactics/strategy going into the game are shit. No wonder Foz isn’t panicking. It was his fault and he’s going on retirement in a few weeks. Piss poor.
it was befical and it woke the allblacks up from their dreaming before the world cup