All Blacks captain Sam Cane is adamant he's ready to go, despite being out of rugby for more than a month due to another head knock.
Cane has cleared his return to play protocols and will turn out for Bay of Plenty this week before the opening round of the Mitre 10 Cup, which will feature almost all of Ian Foster's 35-man All Blacks squad.
And the 28-year-old is determined to hold nothing back in his first Steamers appearance in four years.
It's not something Cane thought would happen this year, but it's a rare opportunity he's cherishing.
"It's nice to come in for the full week," Cane tells Newshub. "I'm sort of the new kid on the block trying to come in and learn everything and get up to speed."
Cane will be the first permanent All Blacks captain to play provincial rugby in more than a decade, since Richie McCaw appeared for Canterbury in 2009.
But Cane is focussing less on his own involvement and more on the smattering of 30 All Blacks set to play in the opening round, which starts Friday.
"With all these different things that COVID-19's thrown up there's certainly some positives and that's the way we've got to look at it," Cane says.
"I think there'll be some real excitement around these first couple of weekends of Mitre 10."
It's game time he feels he desperately needs, after he was knocked out by a nasty collision with the Hurricanes' Jordie Barrett in the early stage of Super Rugby Aotearoa.
The All Blacks captain is determined not to let his latest head knock hold him back.
"I've found with any injury you've got to go and put that out of your mind and just rip in and play your natural game… my natural game is to throw myself around a wee bit…. maybe that does increase my chances a wee bit."
Just how long Cane will throw himself around against Taranaki on Sunday is yet to be decided, but his mere presence in camp is being relished by the rest of the squad.
"He's a great role model first and foremost but he's got an aura about him as most All Blacks captains do," says teammate Clayton McMillan. "The boys really respond to him."
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