Richie McCaw's legacy was built on leadership, durability, ability at the breakdown and a refusal to concede a centimetre to the opposition and he deserves to be considered our greatest All Black and the best to wear the No7 jersey, but a generation ago Michael Jones' athleticism and ability to anticipate play several phases ahead re-defined what is possible for an openside flanker.
Like McCaw, Jones adapted his approach as rugby developed and his body changed. Like McCaw, Jones was a great, and Savea can be one, too, as he forges a new frontier.
It is his pace which sets him apart – as anyone who watched him score his two remarkable tries against the Highlanders in Dunedin last weekend will attest. He also scrambled back to haul down wing Tevita Li – one of the quickest backs on the field. Other international opensides might have the ability to make one or perhaps two of those plays but I can't think of anyone else who could have done all three.
But it is also his power in carrying the ball in traffic, and ability to win turnovers either by holding up an opposition ball carrier or putting his head in what these days are very dangerous places which can give his teams enormous lifts.
Where does Cane fit into all this? Before his injury last October he had developed into probably the best front-on defender the All Blacks have, a man an opposition player would rather not run in to.
Cane has provided a fear factor in the close channels that the All Blacks haven't seen on a consistent basis since Jerome Kaino retired four years ago and, given Liam Squire's injury worries and the inexperience of possible blindside flanker replacements Vaea Fifita, Jackson Hemopo and Shannon Frizell, the importance of that defensive steel cannot be underestimated.
Either in starting big World Cup tests and making way for Savea or easing the workload in other areas, Cane has a big part to play in Japan. Together they can be greater than the sum of their parts.
To change tack slightly in terms of geography, tone, sport and era, Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, a loving ode first published in 1932 on the intricacy and art of bullfighting in Spain, describes how every bull enters the ring with the utter confidence he will dominate the matador, but usually discovers that he himself is dominated.
If Savea is the sword which makes the final, fatal incision in Japan, Cane is the cape which physically and mentally wears out the opposition. You can't have one without the other.
