Sam Cane has played down the verbal spat between himself and Peter O’Mahony in the 76th minute of Ireland’s 23-12 victory in the second test in Dunedin last Saturday, describing it as “good rugby banter”.
After O’Mahony saved a try by holding the ball up over the line, a clutch of players became embroiled in a bout of shoving and some verbals. During this exchange there have been innumerable suggestions on social media that the Irish flanker rather impolitely informed the All Blacks captain he was not an especially good version of Richie McCaw, his predecessor as New Zealand’s 7 and skipper.
When Cane was asked about this incident after the All Blacks’ training session in the Hutt Recreation Ground in Lower Hutt during a brief pitchside interview on Tuesday, he responded: “No, it’s just good rugby banter, it’s all part of the game, I don’t mind it. It’s good stuff.”
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When another reporter asked if he was aware of O’Mahony’s alleged words, and was about to inform Cane of the wording, the interview was cut short by a press officer.
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The rain was pelting down as Cane spoke, as it had during the All Blacks’ training session, although in windy ‘Welly’ locals maintained this was not especially severe. Given the second Test had been protected from the elements by the Forsyth Barr roof, Cane said this could prove ideal preparation for the series decider in the Sky Stadium on Saturday.
“We had a good day yesterday highlighting the areas that we want to get better at so better way than to practice them than in conditions like this, and there’s every chance it could be like this on Saturday as well.”
“The drive is massive,” Cane added with regard to the mood in the All Blacks camp. “We are hugely disappointed with what we dished out on Saturday. Credit to Ireland, they played really well, but we need to be so much better and our drive is the fact that we have pride in the jersey and we’re not happy with what we put out so we’re working really hard to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.”
After days of bleating about the flurry of yellow and red cards in last Saturday’s first-half, and the All Blacks wanting an explanation as to why Ardie Savea was not allowed back onto the pitch when the All Blacks went back to 14 players, Cane provided an overdue dose of reality about his team’s performance.
“Rugby can be a simple game and we had 27 unforced errors. If you think about how many minutes we had the ball, that’s just ridiculous. Our discipline let us down massively.
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“A lot can change in rugby in seven days. We have to make sure we fix it up, but the belief is strong, the group is tight, we are together. I don’t feel like there are any chinks inside the camp.”
The All Blacks will bring plenty of anger and physical intent to this series decider, as they did on their revenge mission to Dublin a fortnight after Ireland’s historic win in Chicago in 2016, and as Cane acknowledged too much fire and brimstone has potential pitfalls if the officiating is strong.
“It’s just about channelling our emotions in the right way. Like we’re angry and disappointed with ourselves but there’s no point dwelling on that performance for too long. We have to pick ourselves up and shift the mindset really early to highlight the things we need to get better at, and that’s quite energising and exciting, and then we save those other emotions for Saturday night.”
There will be huge focus on next Saturday’s referee, Wayne Barnes, once upon a time Public Enemy Number One in New Zealand in the fall-out from France’s stunning quarter-final victory over the All Blacks in the 2007 World Cup in Cardiff. The English referee wasn’t allocated a game in New Zealand until Ireland played the All Blacks in New Plymouth in June 2010, when he sent off Jamie Heaslip in a 66-28 win for the home side. But now Barnes is being love bombed in a way that would have been inconceivable circa 2007 to 2010.
“We’ve got massive respect for Wayne Barnes as a referee and obviously he has so much experience. (We are) Really comfortable with his refereeing style. I’m looking forward to working with him,” said Cane when fed the question.
Amid the complaints about World Rugby’s laws and the officiating last Saturday, and the criticism coming the way of Ian Foster and his coaching ticket, one of the positives hereabouts as a result of last week’s defeat is that it has set up a series decider rather than a dead rubber.
“The situation is not what we wanted but we look at it now and embrace it, said Cane. “It’s a good challenge for us. It’s just like World Cup stuff. Looking forward to it.”
