All Blacks captain Sam Cane was delighted to get his first taste of the World Cup in New Zealand’s third Pool A game and said there was still room for improvement after Friday’s spectacular win over Italy.

Cane, a late withdrawal from the opening loss to France due to a back problem, returned off the bench as the three-times world champions ran the Italians ragged in Lyon to put one foot in the quarter-finals.

“There will absolutely be areas where we will pat ourselves on the back and we executed things well,” the flanker told reporters on Saturday.

“But knowing our coaches, they will be looking through things with a fine-tooth comb and highlight things that we may have done or probably won’t get away with against better teams.

“I don’t really see this team right now getting ahead of ourselves based off one performance. It wasn’t very long ago we put in one against France that wasn’t quite good enough.”

After a record 35-7 loss to South Africa in their final warm-up match and a 27-13 reverse at the hands of the hosts in the tournament opener, New Zealand had drifted out of the title contender conversations.

The nature of Friday’s 96-17 win over Italy, however, brought them right back into it ahead of what should be a straightforward final pool game against Uruguay next week.

Cane, though, was just happy to be back on the pitch after kicking his heels for three weeks.

“The night before we were watching the Samoa game and I just thought ‘Man, I can’t wait to get out there’. The excitement levels were a wee bit higher than normal,” he said.

“Nothing like having a few games off to make you appreciate how good it is out there. To come through unscathed is a bonus as well.”

Hooker Dane Coles, who scored a try off the bench against Italy, revealed the team had celebrated lock Sam Whitelock overtaking Richie McCaw as the most-capped All Black after his 149th test appearance.

“He’s not one for the spotlight so he was kind of in his own little world during the week. Even on the bench I was trying to get a laugh out of him but there was not much going on,” Coles said.

“We did a special presentation in the sheds with him. I actually had a whisky. I’m not a big spirit drinker, I don’t really drink, but I said ‘Mate, I’ll have a drink with you’.”

– Reuters