'Good rugby banter:' Sam Cane laughs off verbals with Peter O'Mahony

The All Blacks captain admitted his side were 'angry and disappointed' after their defeat to Ireland last Saturday in the second Test.

Tue, 12 Jul, 2022 - 09:04

Simon Lewis, Wellington

All Blacks captain Sam Cane has dismissed his heated exchange with Peter O’Mahony during Saturday’s second Test as “just good rugby banter”.

Ireland were on their way to a 23-12 victory that sends their series with New Zealand into a deciding final match at Sky Stadium this Saturday when the back-rowers clashed under the Irish posts late in the game after O’Mahony had prevented a home try by holding up an All Black attacker.

The Irishman is understood to have delivered a withering assessment of Cane’s abilities but the All Blacks flanker laughed it off on Tuesday at the end of a pitchside media session as he looked forward to the upcoming rematch.

“No, it's just good rugby banter, it's all part of the game, I don't mind it. It's good stuff,” Cane said.

Asked what exactly O’Mahony had said as an All Blacks media officer was bringing the session to a close, Cane repeated the question put him, replying: “What did he say?” before the media officer intervened to end the interview.

Cane had earlier addressed his team’s determination to right the wrongs of a poor performance in Dunedin as they were outplayed by Ireland while losing replacement prop Angus Ta’avo to a first-half red card in addition to yellow cards for Leicester Fainga’anuku and Ofa Tu’ungafasi.

“The drive is massive,” the captain said. “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 hard to make sure that that doesn’t happen again.” Cane described the feeling within the All Blacks camp as “really focused and determined” and added: “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.”