EXCLUSIVE: VIDEO – Sam Cane water skiing in New Zealand

RugbyJP has unearthed a video of All Blacks captain Sam Cane water skiing in New Zealand in February. 

Suntory’s absent star last played rugby 82 days ago as he helped his side come back from a 0-29 deficit to edge past Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars (20 January). 

Cane, 32, watched the Cross Border Rugby fixture against the Blues from the stands in Tokyo as the Super Rugby outfit eased past the League One high-flyers 43-7 on Saturday 3 February. 

On 15 February the 2015 World Cup winner was named in Suntory’s starting line-up to play leaders Saitama Wild Knights on 17 February. 

The following day Suntory changed their team as Cane was replaced by Sota Oketani at open-side flanker with no reason given. 

Reports of injuries to Cane and his teammate Cheslin Kolbe were first reported by journalist Rich Freeman on 5 March who said that the former would be sidelined for 10 weeks with a back injury while the latter would be out for 4-6 weeks with a hand injury. Kolbe has since made a try-scoring return on 23 March. 

Click here to view the video on Instagram The video of the former Chiefs standout water skiing in Hamilton, New Zealand, was posted online on 11 February. 

RugbyJP contacted Suntory and Cane’s agent to ask for clarification on his injury status but both parties declined to comment. 

Suntory defeated Ardie Savea’s Kobe Steelers on Sunday and post-match the players and wider squad members as well as the coaches and staff members gathered for a team photo (above) to mark scrum-half Yutaka Nagare’s 100th game for the club. Cane did not feature in the photo which suggests that he’s still in New Zealand. 

Despite Cane’s long-term absence and the club’s refusal to provide any information about his status and whereabouts, he’s still being featured in promotional materials including the poster for next week’s game against Shizuoka Blue Revs.  

Third-placed Suntory have four regular season games left before a likely play-off semi-final on 18th or 19th May at Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium which will be dictated by their final position in the division one table. 

The two semi-final winners will meet in the League One division one final at the National Stadium in Tokyo on 26 May. 

Fourth-placed Yokohama Canon Eagles, much like Suntory, lost their two leading names to injuries in January but announced that Faf de Klerk and Jesse Kriel would temporarily withdraw from League One to undergo surgery in South Africa.

Upon their recent return to Japan the transparent club issued video updates on their social media channels from both players.