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All Blacks duo ruled out for Super Rugby final and bulk of Rugby Championship

Ryan Crotty. (Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

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.

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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.

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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.

In other news:

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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