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‘There’s no guarantees’: All Blacks coach provides injury update on Sam Whitelock
By Finn Morton
Assistant coach Jason Ryan has provided an injury update on lock Sam Whitelock ahead of the All Blacks’ opening Bledisloe Cup clash with the Wallabies in Melbourne.
After signing with French club Pau, Whitelock almost had his final season with the Crusaders cut painfully short by a persistent Achilles injury.
But to the surprise of many, including All Blacks coach Ian Foster, Whitelock started for the champion franchise in last month’s Super Rugby Pacific final against the Chiefs.
Playing his 178th and final match for the Crusaders, Whitelock was named the Player of the Final after helping the team win their seventh title in as many years.
But Whitelock wasn’t out of the woods just yet. After joining the All Blacks in Auckland, Whitelock missed some training sessions – and ultimately the opening Test of the year against Los Pumas.
Coach Foster confirmed that the veteran was available for last weekend’s Test against the Springboks, but the All Blacks decided to give Whitelock more time to recover.
With a fortnight between that match and the All Blacks’ date with the Wallabies in Melbourne, Whitelock appears to be tracking towards a return to the international arena.
“Sammy’s coming along nicely now,” coach Jason Ryan said on Sky Sport’s The Breakdown. “It’s done him the world of good to get the best work into his Achilles possible.
“He’s selectable, we know that. What we’ve shown is that we’ve got depth in locks and there is genuine competition in this team right now and that’s exciting.
“We had a catchup this morning as selectors and there’s some headaches and that’s how it should be with the All Blacks.
“We’re pretty happy with how things are progressing there and guys are competing every day at training, and if they’re doing that they might get an opportunity in the black jersey but there’s no guarantees.”
Fletcher Newell, Joe Moody and David Havili have also been sidelined with injuries this season, and are yet to don the black jersey in 2023.
But as coach Ryan confirmed, all three players are “definitely in our discussions” ahead of this year’s Rugby World Cup in France.
“They’ve been in with us all last week as well, same with Davy Havili, he’s been in as well,” he added.
“It’s been great for them to see what we’re doing, sitting in the meetings.
“They’re definitely in our discussions, 100 per cent they are.”
The All Blacks take on fierce rivals Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground later this month. Then, the New Zealanders will return to Aotearoa for the reverse fixture in Dunedin.
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Latest Comments
The manner of all these comments is that it doesn’t matter who plays No10 for the All Blacks, apparently they are all rubbish!
Seriously, people need to get a grip and stop obsessing over every tiny error made from an overscrutinised position. DMac was good this year for the most part, as was Beauden Barrett. Mo’unga was good last year and would be an asset in the group if he did come back. I don’t see it as an area of concern.
The main concern in 2025 is finding another world class lock and loose forward, followed by some scrutiny over the midfield combination in my view.
Go to commentsI was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
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