WELLINGTON: Of all the boots that All Blacks coach Steve Hansen needed to fill following the retirement of a string of stalwarts after last year's successful World Cup campaign, the biggest belonged to Richie McCaw.
McCaw bestrode the All Blacks for 14 years, spending 10 seasons as captain and becoming the first man to win World Rugby's Player of the Year award three times. He also led the All Blacks to successive World Cup victories.
In short, when McCaw decided after the second of those triumphs that enough was enough, Hansen had to set about replacing one of the greatest rugby players of all time.
It was not unexpected, however, and Hansen's succession planning has been in place since he assumed the second-most scrutinised job in the rugby mad country in 2012.
It would therefore be a major shock if Sam Cane is not the inheritor of the number seven jersey McCaw wore for 138 of his 148 tests.
Opensides Ardie Savea and Matt Todd are also likely to be in contention for the squad for next month's tests against Wales when it is named on Sunday but it is the 24-year-old Cane who is the heir apparent.
Cane was originally something of a left-field selection when Hansen named him in his first squad in 2012.
After all, the then 20-year-old was in just his second season of Super Rugby and struggling to get any significant playing time behind the experienced Tanerau Latimer.
Hansen saw it differently.
He felt Cane would grow into the role and prove his detractors wrong, just as McCaw had when he was a surprise selection on New Zealand's 2001 end-of-year-tour without a single game of Super Rugby under his belt.
"When he first came in he was only a baby and not a lot of people knew a lot about him," Hansen said last year.
"He coped with that well. He coped with all the criticism early in his career from the media because they didn't know him.
"But he never deviated off the game plan. To me that is mental fortitude - to stay on task when everything around you is imploding."
PARALLELS
Since his debut, which came like McCaw's against Ireland, Cane has played 31 tests, 18 of which have been from the bench. Few would argue he has played badly in any of them.
Cane has quietly gone about his job, whether attacking a ruck to secure possession, making a tackle around the fringes or in open field, or, more and more in the last two years, carrying the ball.
That he is developing his own game while mirroring the play and influence of McCaw should not be a surprise given the mentoring role the former captain played with Cane.
As well as their left-field initial selections for the All Blacks, there are other parallels.
They are almost the same build and height. They both grew up in rural New Zealand.
Both were identified early on as being imbued with the leadership qualities and mental toughness required to succeed at the highest level.
"I just thought he was a pretty special player," Hansen said of his first impressions of Cane.
"It's an overwhelming place to come into the All Blacks and special players sometimes don't make it.
"But sitting back and watching him, he had the mental fortitude to cope with it ... and he thrived in the environment.
"I don't think he's ever played poorly for the All Blacks and he has got a tricky job in the team following the skipper.
"Whenever he gets his opportunity, he plays well."
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