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All Blacks lose two ahead of Wales clash
By Jack Davies
Rieko Ioane and Luke Romano have been ruled out of New Zealand's final Test of the year against Wales on Saturday.
Wing Ioane - nominated for World Rugby's Player of the Year award last week - played the full 80 minutes as the All Blacks edged Scotland 22-17 at Murrayfield on Saturday.
However, a shoulder issue will see him miss next weekend's trip to Cardiff, while lock Romano, who was replaced early in the second half in Edinburgh, has a foot injury.
Wales, meanwhile, could be without influential back Liam Williams, who was withdrawn just short of the hour mark in a 13-6 victory over Georgia.
Williams was the only man to start against Georgia who had also been part of the XV against Australia a week earlier.
"I'm not sure about Liam Williams," coach Warren Gatland said of Williams. "He is hobbling around."
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Latest Comments
i think Argentina v France could be a good game too, depending on which Argentina turns up. The most difficult to call is Scotland Australia.
Go to commentsSmith is playing a different game with the rest of the backs struggling to understand. That's the problem with so called playmakers, if nobody gets what they're doing then it often just leads to a turnover. It gets worse when Borthwick changes one of them, which is why they don't score points at the end. Sometimes having a brilliant playmaker can be problematic if a team cannot be built around them. Once again Borthwick seems lacking in either coaching or selection. I can't help but think it's the latter coupled with pressure to select the big name players.
Lastly, his forward replacements are poor and exposed either lack of depth or selection pressure. Cole hemorrhages scrum penalties whenever he comes on, opponents take advantage of the England scrum and close out the game. Is that the best England can offer?
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