Hurricanes loose forward Ardie Savea made his much awaited return from injury for his Wellington Super Rugby franchise over the weekend, but the No. 7 admits he is far from his best.
Savea, 24, said he was kicking himself after falling off a one-on-one tackle on Sunwolves' Lappies Labuschagne which lead to the visitors leading 7-0 early last Friday.
"I was pretty disappointed. But in the game, I had to flush it, and try and move on, and thought I dealt with that pretty good during the game," said Savea.
"But tell you what, over the weekend I was sitting there, it was haunting me a little bit, but it was good to catch up with the coaches and see what I could do better in that situation."
Savea revealed that he has most likely slipped down the All Blacks' pecking order as the preferred openside flanker.
"To be fair, probably - at the end of the year. Obviously with selection, but hey that's something that I like, and I see as a good challenge for me.
"I don't like to back down. But at the moment it's just trying to obviously get in good game time with the Canes, and just try to perform to the best of my ability and just nail my role really well, and hopefully that can flow on."
Savea injured his ribs against the Highlanders on March 24.
The Hurricanes sit second on the New Zealand conference ladder, one point behind the Crusaders.
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