Sam Cane concedes that he's going to have to work to get the All Blacks' No. 7 jersey back, following his return to test rugby after his long injury layoff.
Cane played 30 minutes of the All Blacks' 104-14 victory over USA Eagles on Sunday morning in Chicago, his first taste of test rugby in 2021.
With the exception of less than an hour's worth of game time for King Country in the Heartland Championship, Sunday was Cane's first taste of competitive rugby since rupturing his pectoral muscle in Super Rugby back in March.
In that time, the All Blacks have gone on to sweep Tonga and Fiji, as well as win the Rugby Championship over in Australia.
But even after having to watch from the couch as the likes of Ardie Savea, Dalton Papalii and Ethan Blackadder showed their wares on the openside of the scrum, Cane is appreciative of just being back involved with the All Blacks.
"To be honest, I love getting out there with the boys," Cane says.
"You never take it for granted, pulling on the All Blacks jersey, but you certainly appreciate it a little bit more getting it back on after just knowing how much hard works gone into [getting] back there.
"[I] loved it, the lungs and legs even got a little bit of a workout in the game that was, [there was] a little bit of rust in terms of timing and stuff.
"[I'm] looking forward to another week of training with this squad and getting better."
Having now relocated to Europe for the rest of their end of year tour, the All Blacks are this week based in Cardiff before facing Wales on Sunday morning.
While Cane himself concedes that he's no longer a first-choice starter in coach Ian Foster's plans, the reality of the All Blacks being one game into a schedule of playing five tests in five weeks means that he's prepared to wait for his chance to come.
But having been an All Black since the age of 20, and having initially had to walk in the shadow of Richie McCaw, Cane has had more than enough practice at biding his time in the hunt for his starting spot.
"People almost expecting that I'd come in and push for a starting spot right off the bat probably don't appreciate how tough test match footy is," Cane adds.
"I'm not quite in good enough shape, or sharp enough to be playing test match footy right now, that's for sure.
"I've set around another week of training with the All Blacks. My mindset is similar to when I first made the squad and knew I was going to get bugger all game time, to target each day and each week, and try to be a better rugby player by the end of the week. Hopefully, if I do that, I'll get up to speed reasonably quickly.
"But there's no expectations or pressure, internally or from the coaches' point of view to take off immediately where I left off.
"As long as I'm improving every week, and getting better, hopefully [I'll] get some game time at some point, and we'll just go from there based off merit and how I'm playing really."
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