All Blacks: Sam Cane gives thoughts on Lions 'skipper'

All Black Sam Cane talks with media. Photo by Greg Bowker

All Black flanker Sam Cane now knows who the Lions captain will be in Saturday's first test - or at least he thinks he does.

At a press conference in Auckland today, Cane was asked by a British journalist what he made of Irish flanker Peter O'Mahony.

The journalist said that with O'Mahony to be named skipper, and opposite him in the loose forward battle, what did he think of him as a player.

Cane looked slightly bemused for a moment then: "Have they named the squad?'
The journalist replied that "he's going to be the captain."

"You're telling me? Cheers coach, you heard it here first," Cane quipped.

That banter out of the way, Cane confirmed O'Mahony, who led the Lions against the Maori last weekend, is "obviously a very strong lineout forward, an uncompromising type of player who leads by example.

"He's got quite a rugged approach to the game and he does it very well.

"I'm sure if - like you tell me - he's the skipper and he's on the side of the scrum, we'll do our best not to let him disrupt us."

Cane said the big focus early in a test week was getting his, and his team's pattern and approach right before looking at what the opposition might bring.

"It's pretty important I know my stuff and help my team do our best. Once you've got your head round that you can start looking at the opposition, the referee, things like that."

Experienced lock Sam Whitelock chipped in, in similar vein.

"I know myself when I was younger I'd worry about who I was playing against and you'd be more worried about them and your own game would suffer," he said.

"It's about getting all your ducks in a row, then you can start worrying about those things later in the week."