Rugby Championship
All Black Jane wants more of the ball
August 23, 2014
Cory Jane will be celebrating his 50th Test when he takes the field for Bledisloe II © Getty Images
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All Blacks winger Cory Jane has one big wish for this milestone 50th Test - he wants to get his hands on the ball. Jane did plenty of work in the 12-12 draw against Australian in the Bledisloe Cup opener in the wet in Sydney last weekend, but most of it was without the ball.

"It was a very frustrating game," he said. "Our trainer said I had run the second most metres in the whole game. I was chasing kicks, doing work off the ball, chasing everything I had to and stuff like that, and got the ball two or three times."

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Jane, 31, will bring up his half-century of caps when he runs out for the return match in Auckland on Saturday night. It was against the Wallabies that he made his debut in November 2008, coming off the bench with five minutes to go in a 19-14 victory.

"I remember running out about an hour and a half too early to warm up because I was too nervous and we won - it was in Hong Kong," he said. "Now there's a little bit more pressure in the 50th as a team, because we were average last week, so we'll try and get the job done and I'll worry about the milestone afterwards."

Jane said the All Blacks did have their chances in Sydney, but their execution let them down. "Our skill set was our main factor," he said. "We had opportunities where we could have dictated the game and build a few phases, but we didn't."

He said it wouldn't take too much to produce an improved performance at Eden Park.

"Just a couple of passes, holding on to the ball, a couple of kicks need to be a bit more precise, the chase needs to be a little bit better," he said. "We just do a little bit on each of those and I think we'll be fine."

© AAP

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