Rugby: Sam Cane eyes humble Heartland return this weekend before joining All Blacks

Sam Cane is set to make his long-awaited rugby return from injury. Photo / Photosport

Sam Cane hopes to make his long-awaited comeback this weekend with a rare grassroots appearance but he will not immediately regain the All Blacks captaincy when he re-joins the team for their northern tour.

Cane has not donned the boots since undergoing surgery to repair the pectoral injury he suffered playing for the Chiefs in March. He was due to make his comeback in the NPC with Bay of Plenty, having trained with them in recent weeks, but with his local province on a bye this weekend, Cane is instead eyeing a surprise Heartland Championship match to make his return.

Turning out for King Country against Whanganui in Taupo this weekend is the obvious team for Cane to represent, but that situation was complicated when much of the Waikato was plunged into alert Level 3 after community Covid-19 cases were found in Hamilton east and Raglan.

Former Chiefs hooker Hika Elliot is the last player picked from the Heartland Championship for the All Blacks after playing for Poverty Bay in 2014.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster remains hopeful Cane can get a hit out this weekend before flying out next Thursday to meet the squad in Washington DC, where the All Blacks begin their five-match northern tour with a money-spinning test against the USA. They then progress to play Wales, Italy, Ireland and France.

"We're looking around to see if he might be available to play a game of Heartland rugby," Foster said on Monday. "I'm not sure on the latest on that, but he's desperate to do that. We'll see how the bureaucratic cogs chug their way through that one."

All Blacks Luke Jacobson, Sam Cane and Codie Taylor. Photo / Photosport

Sam Whitelock and Dane Coles, the latter absent since the second test against Fiji in July with a calf strain, are due to play for Canterbury and Wellington on Friday night before joining Cane, Highlanders loose forward Shannon Frizell and 20-year-old Chiefs lock Josh Lord on the plane to Washington DC.

Lord was called up as a squad bolter to cover Scott Barrett and Patrick Tuipulotu, both of whom are returning home following the Rugby Championship for family reasons.

In Cane's absence Foster has used four All Blacks captains this season - Whitelock, Aaron Smith, Brodie Retallick and Ardie Savea.

Initially at least, Foster will allow Cane to settle back into the squad before he regains the captaincy which is likely to leave Whitelock and Savea to share the role.

"At the moment we're going to go with the status quo," Foster said. "The players we're bringing over are joining this group. Ardie will carry on leading this team in the short-term future. Once we get to Washington and Wales and make some assessments of where the other guys are at then we'll let people know.

"Clearly we've got some really good leaders in this team. Ardie has done a great job; Sam Whitelock was outstanding in the early part of the year. Sam Cane we're likely to just let him come back into the environment for those first two or three weeks. He's got to find his feet and get his confidence. We'll juggle that as we go along but we've got a clear plan."