When Sam Cane leads the All Blacks on to the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday (NZ time), it will mark the culmination of a challenging - albeit character building - year.
Appointed Kieran Read's successor as captain in May 2020, Cane was only able to play his prestigious new role a handful of times, before injury came back to haunt him.
In Round Five of this year's Super Rugby Aotearoa, the Chiefs loose forward was forced from the field at Eden Park with a pectoral injury that would ultimately sideline him for the next eight months.
Earlier this month, that long road to recovery came to a head against the USA Eagles, when he was finally able to don the black jersey again, ticking off one of the last boxes in his list of goals.
This weekend he'll tick off the final item, when he captains a new-look All Blacks side against the Italians in Rome.
"Once it was established I was going to be coming on tour, [All Blacks coach Ian Foster] and I set out a bit of a three-game plan, and this [captaining the All Blacks] was part of that plan," Cane says.
Cane entered the match against the Eagles with just a half of Heartland Championship rugby for King Country under his belt and - while the USA are far from a top-tier side - that long-awaited taste of test rugby has whet his appetite for more.
With the benefit of that test match and a few more weeks within the All Blacks environment, the Chief loose forward believes he's now primed and ready to put his foot on the gas against the Azzurri.
"I'm in a way better spot than I was three weeks ago. It's all part of it, and now I'm ready to rip in," Cane said prior to the match against Italy.
"I think a couple of weeks ago against the States, with not much rugby training under my belt compared to where I'm at now, I'm miles ahead."
It's unclear where Cane now sits in both the No. 7 and captaincy pecking order. Sam Whitelock and Ardie Savea have filled in admirably in his absence as leaders, while Luke Jacobson, Ethan Blackadder, and Akira Ioane have made the selectors' job even more difficult when it comes to settling on a first-choice loose forward trio.
Either way, Cane will put his best foot forward again on Sunday and strengthen his case for selection for the final stretch of the tour against Ireland and France, after a testing several months of rehabilitation.
"It challenges you in all sorts of ways mentally and physically...if anything, probably more mentally," cane notes.
"I tried to focus on the process and celebrating small improvements, and get satisfaction and motivation from seeing the little bits of hard work improve rather than focus on the end result."
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