With their pre season first trail game approaching, Chiefs co-captain Sam Cane isn’t looking any further than doing his job at Super Rugby level.
The 24-year old flanker believes the Chiefs are in a good position to return to the top of Super Rugby after two disappointing seasons following their back-to-back championship run. But Super Rugby takes on a whole different look in 2016 with new teams, a new conference structure, and a controversial revamp of the bonus point system.
The Chiefs still haven’t been officially informed by SANZAR of the new bonus-point system that requires sides to score three or more tries than their opponents in a match.
“We haven’t been told ourselves, I’ve seen a wee bit about it in the news,” Cane said.
Cane didn’t want to comment when asked how the new system would affect teams in the competition, but his concern over the changes was clear.
Cane will co-captain the Chiefs throughout 2016 alongside Aaron Cruden. Roles differ, with Cane, a flanker, focusing on leading the forward pack and Cruden, a fly half, in charge of the backs.
“We’ve got a great group of men and a good core of leaders so it makes things a lot easier for Aaron and myself,” Cane said.
Brodie Rettallick is also a key part of the Chiefs leadership group.
The biggest issue the Chiefs had last season was their shocking run of injuries. 2016 hasn’t started any better with the loss of new signings Nepo Laulala and Dominic Bird during pre season, but Cane says a lot of those injuries just cannot be avoided.
“It is up to our training staff to manage our training load, but the couple that we have had were just bad luck and it is part and parcel of playing footy,” Cane said.
Recently, the Chiefs took a summer road trip into the regions that the Chiefs cover. From highly populated urban areas to small country towns, the Chiefs were on the road for a busy week of social commitments.
Cane says that it was good to get into the smaller towns in particular.
“Everyone put on a great show for us, coming from a small town myself it was enjoyable, we got to mix and mingle with a good turnout everywhere we went. To know we have supporters in so many areas stirs on the boys.”
Sam Cane is destined to go far in rugby and already has an impressive resume under his belt.
Cane could potentially take over All Black captaincy in 2016, replacing the legendary Richie McCaw and the famous No. 7 jersey, but the flanker says he isn’t focused on any commitments in international rugby at this moment in time.
“Absolutely not, my focus is to make sure I hit the ground running for our first Chiefs game against the Crusaders,” Cane said.
The Chiefs begin their Super Rugby campaign with a clash against the Crusaders in late February.
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