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All Blacks duo ruled out for Super Rugby final and bulk of Rugby Championship
By Online Editors
By Patrick McKendry, New Zealand Herald
Key Crusaders and All Blacks Ryan Crotty and Scott Barrett have been ruled out of Saturday's Super Rugby final against the Jaguares and, in Crotty's case, the entire Rugby Championship after X-rays on their hands confirmed the worst.
Midfielder Crotty suffered a fractured thumb during the Crusaders' 30-26 semifinal victory over the Hurricanes and underwent surgery on Sunday. He is out for up to eight weeks, a time-frame which will rule him out of all rugby until early September, when he will hope to be available for the All Blacks' World Cup warm-up test against Tonga in Hamilton on September 7.
Lock Barrett suffered a fractured metacarpal at the base of his index finger in the same game and is out for five to six weeks which means he will be touch and go for the All Blacks test against Australia in Perth on August 10. The All Blacks also face the Wallabies a week later at Eden Park.
Neither Crotty nor Barrett would have been considered for the All Blacks' first Rugby Championship test against Argentina in Buenos Aires on July 21 due to the Crusaders making the final. The All Blacks play the Springboks in Wellington a week later.
The news will be extremely disappointing for both men, and in particular Crotty, who won't get to play in Super Rugby's showpiece before moving overseas next year. However, on the plus side they are both likely to be available for the World Cup which kicks off for the All Blacks on September 21.
The injuries put a new slant on tonight's All Blacks Rugby Championship squad announcement, with Blues lock Patrick Tuipulotu and Highlander Jackson Hemopo set for big roles over the next few weeks.
As for the midfield, Sonny Bill Williams and Anton Lienert-Brown are likely starters for the first test against the Pumas, while Ngani Laumape and Jack Goodhue are almost certain to be included and possibly new cap Braydon Ennor, who has impressed hugely for the Crusaders this year and could start in Saturday's Super Rugby final in Christchurch.
The Crusaders will be big favourites to win title No10, and their third in succession, despite facing a near Argentina test-strength team.
Veteran Ma'a Nonu, 37, remains on the All Blacks fringes, but probably needs another injury to force his way into the squad despite impressing on his return to the Blues this season.
This article first appeared on nzherald.co.nz and is republished with permission.
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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