Sam Cane takes Richie McCaw's place as captain - does he have what it takes?

So the bloke wearing No 7 will captain the All Blacks against Namibia. The world's used to this of course, except this time the bloke wearing No 7 is going to be Sam Cane - and the world is most definitely not used to that.

To those outside the camp, the elevation of Cane to the captaincy has most likely come as a giant surprise. The 23-year-old, who made his début in 2012, has mostly operated off the bench, winning only a handful of starts in his 25 test appearances to date.

That doesn't scream captaincy material. But those inside the camp see Cane's elevation as a natural and expected progression. He's been part of the leadership group for a few years now - and All Black coach Steve Hansen made that decision because he saw Cane as a potential long term All Black captain further down the track.

A strong and independent thinker, Cane is his own man and yet he can't help evoke comparisons with the man he will be replacing in both the No 7 shirt and as captain.

The respective careers of Richie McCaw and Cane have a thread of comparison that is hard to ignore. Like McCaw, Cane was picked by the All Blacks as a 20-year-old who hadn't fully proved himself at Super Rugby. Like McCaw, Cane had his doubters when he ran on to make his début against Ireland in June 2012 and like McCaw he silenced them quickly with an impressive performance.

On Friday at Olympic Stadium, he will follow in McCaw's footsteps again. McCaw was 23 when he was handed the All Black captaincy for the first time - in a test against Wales in 2004.

The All Blacks would like the comparisons to continue - both as player and captain.
In regard to the former, Cane has similar physical attributes but is a significantly different player. He's more of a genuine fetcher, quick around the field, alert to the opportunity to pilfer. He's strong and technically excellent over the ball and showed throughout Super Rugby that he's probably New Zealand's best out and out ball thief. The closest thing the country has to a Michael Hooper.

Cane's other key attribute is the smartness of the support lines he runs. He dropped a dolly pass at Wembley, which wasn't impressive: the angle he took his awareness he had to be on Aaron Smith's shoulder was.

As for his leadership, the All Blacks see Cane as having a similar temperament to McCaw. He's a young man with a fierce desire to impose himself but not tell the world all about it.

He's calm, measured and unflappable. Maybe it's got something to do with growing up on a farm but Cane and McCaw give the impression it could be raining balls of fire and they would still be calmly directing others without the first hint of being alarmed.

Inevitably Cane's promotion will promote questions about whether he's now the natural heir apparent to all of McCaw's kingdom next year. The answer to that remains no, only half.

Kieran Read is still going to be the next captain of the All Blacks once McCaw retires, but in Cane, he will have a more than able deputy.