1
TJ Perenara summoned back into All Blacks as injury strikes
By Tom Vinicombe
Despite initially being released to play provincial rugby for Wellington this weekend, an injury in the All Blacks camp has seen TJ Perenara quickly recalled back into the national squad.
Perenara's contract with New Zealand Rugby finished last year and the former Hurricanes captain spent the formative part of 2021 representing the NTT Red Hurricanes in Japan's Top League.
While he signed a new contract with NZR in May, Perenara wasn't eligible to represent the All Blacks during their recent Pasifika series due to not playing Super Rugby earlier in the year (and not operating under a sabbatical arrangement, like Beauden Barrett and Brodie Retallick).
As such, Blues tyro Finlay Christie earned an All Blacks call-up and made two appearances off the bench in July.
Having signed to play for Wellington in the NPC, Perenara became eligible for The Rugby Championship and has been recalled for the upcoming tests at the expense of Christie.
Given Perenara's recent lack of game time, however, he was always expected to make his return to NZ rugby with Wellington and was named to start at halfback in their clash with Northland on Saturday, with Christie joining the All Blacks camp as cover.
It's likely that the 29-year-old won't be available for the Lions now, however, with Christie injuring his shoulder during training on Thursday and Perenara rejoining the squad.
Aaron Smith and Brad Weber have been named as the halfbacks for Saturday's clash with the Wallabies but, should either one of them catch Christie's bad luck, Perenara could be in line to make a surprise return to the national team, far sooner than expected.
The extent of Christie's injury is yet unknown and is currently being assessed by the All Blacks' medical staff.
Should he remain unavailable indefinitely, the All Blacks could consider bringing in another halfback such as Mitchell Drummond, who played a single test match against Japan in 2018.
Otherwise, Perenara may have to make his return to the field in the tough cauldron is test rugby.
Perenara last played for the All Blacks in the latter stages of 2020, coming off the bench in New Zealand's 38-0 win over Argentina.
His new contract means he'll remain in NZ until at least the end of 2023, when the All Blacks will travel to France to try and reclaim the World Cup after ceding it to South Africa in 2019.
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Stuart Lancaster takes giant stride towards immediate Racing 92 exit
3
Rugby Australia CEO Phil Waugh on Joe Schmidt’s future post-Lions
4
Glasgow coach jumps to defence of McDowall who faces possible huge ban
5
Latest Comments
Nice! Should be an even more exciting season that last year. Who have Verblitz got to replace Beauden Barrett? They should be a lot better this year. Tiaan Falcon might be able to run the ship.
Is Ben Herring still their coach? I was hoping he would return to NZ with Fosters addition to the team but a recent article seemed to suggest he was still just an assistant.
Appreciate the player insights for the up and commers. Been a bit dreary watching Champions Cup rugby so can't wait for it to start.
Go to commentsThru 2021 I naively became optimistic, not before that.
The biggest issue is the fact he was that being the skipper shouldn't have had anything to do with it. Big deal if your chosen skipper is injury for large majorities and you have to use pro's like Whitelock (who would otherwise have been skipper anyway if Razor got the job), and up and comers like Barret and Ardie, is no reason to jettison Cane.
The problem was that the All Black coach didn't even realise this fact, and continually included Cane, because he was skipper, as soon as he was back from injruy. When he should have helped develop some more 7s and only playing Cane with some came time under his belt. He wasn't Riche McCaw after all, though he did play pretty well in that Irish series after coming straight back in. Hell everyone was getting critized by everyone for the fact Foster SUBBED him after 60. It was a ridiculous period as Yeow mentioned.
Go to comments