All Blacks captain Sam Cane has sent a stern message to the group of "brutal" fans criticising him, his team and head coach Ian Foster for their rough form of late - the only opinions that matter are those inside the squad.
Cane spoke on SKY Sport's The Breakdown following Saturday's shock 25-15 loss to Argentina in Sydney which was the All Blacks' first defeat at the hands of the Pumas in 30 encounters.
The result was met with plenty of criticism with some commentators even going as far to say that Foster should be sacked.
But Cane said the outside noise isn't being heard in camp.
"To me, if I am having my leadership questioned in the public, people’s opinions that really matter to me are my teammates and my coaches, who I work with every single day," Cane says.
"I’ve got a lot of confidence from them we’re on the right track. We understand being in this role comes with a lot of pressure and a lot of public scrutiny - so, it’s not like it’s a shock."
Cane added he has ways to address any criticism that does make it through though, taking aim at couch coaches.
The All Blacks captain says he has confidence in the coaches and believes the team’s on the right track.
"I think we’ve got amazing fans, but we’ve also got some pretty brutal ones. With that, you’ve just got to remind yourself that, 'hey, they might like to think they know a lot about the game of rugby, but in reality they don’t'.
"They may know the game from what they see in the 80 minutes, but they don't see the stuff that goes on behind the scenes."
Cane's only concern is when so-called fans get personal with their messages to players and staff.
"For us as a team, it certainly doesn't help if we're spending our time online reading hateful, disrespectful comments."
Such comments have been firmly directed towards Foster this week who now has just two wins from his first five Tests since taking over the All Blacks at the start of this year by pipping other top candidate Scott Robertson.
Cane said the camp fully supports their coach.
"I've personally been very impressed with Foz," Cane said.
"He's given us really clear focusses about what we need to get better at, it doesn't feel as if we are bogged down and don't have the answers. A week's a long time in sport, it was only two weeks ago everyone was singing praises."
The All Blacks have this week off to help them rediscover that form before they finish their 2020 season against Argentina next Saturday.
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