Reporoa All Black Sam Cane will take the Webb Ellis Cup to his hometown tomorrow.
The proud Reporoa product has decided to visit his two former schools, Broadlands Primary and Reporoa College, with the Rugby World Cup trophy. He will also visit Reporoa Primary School.
Cane said he wanted to take the trophy back home, where he'd received so much support since he was young.
"Growing up I don't even think I met an All Black," he said.
"I'm really proud of where I'm from, so I'm pretty excited to take the trophy back home.
"I grew up around there and always had some pretty big dreams [to play for the ABs], and thought it would be pretty cool to go back and share the cup with them."
Cane played in every game for the All Blacks at the World Cup in September and October and captained the side against Namibia in pool play. He received plenty of messages of support from the schools in Reporoa.
"I got plenty of messages and pictures of the kids, so I'm really looking forward to going to the schools and seeing their reactions."
Cane said the trophy was in hot demand at the moment and he would only have it for about five hours.
Reporoa College principal Steve Lewis said they were all buzzing about seeing Cane back at the school.
"We are absolutely delighted as a community to be able to welcome him back to his school of origin," Lewis said.
"You can appreciate we are a small rural community so his name in the community is huge."
Tomorrow marks the final day of school for all the juniors at the college, and Cane will get the opportunity to say a few words during the awards ceremony.
"That will effectively be the closing of the year, " Lewis said.
"Our school motto is 'small school, big achievements' and that links in nicely to Sam Cane."