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'Huge news' - All Blacks Savea surgery boost

Ardie Savea. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

All Blacks flanker Ardie Savea could be back from knee surgery earlier than first thought, according to his former Wellington Hurricanes coach.

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Savea, who was named last week as New Zealand Rugby’s Player of the Year, was initially expected to be out of action for up to six months.

However former Hurricanes coach, John Plumtree, told reporters in Auckland the dynamic loose forward could be back within four months.

Plumtree was elevated into an assistant coaching role with the New Zealand team under new coach Ian Foster on Thursday.

“His operation wasn’t as bad as they thought it was going to be, and we’re hoping he’s going to be right back into the Hurricanes set-up in about three-and-a-half months,” Plumtree told Stuff Media.

“That’s huge news for the Hurricanes because he is such an important player for them … they won’t rush him back if he’s not right.

“Initially it was looking close to 5-6 months which is close to season ending. But it’s not going to be that long.”

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Plumtree’s move to the All Blacks continued a tumultuous off-season for the 2016 Super Rugby champions after influential All Blacks flyhalf Beauden Barrett chose to join the Auckland Blues.

Savea’s injury, which he sustained in the Rugby World Cup semi-final loss to England, and Plumtree’s move to the All Blacks, only added to their woes.

Plumtree’s former assistant Jason Holland was promoted to the head coaching role at the Hurricanes.

Holland said that a possible transition had been discussed over the last few weeks as they looked ahead to the 2020 Super Rugby season.

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“We never really knew what was going to happen,” Holland told reporters.

“Nailing our stuff here between Plum and myself has been our focus and that’s made this transition a lot easier.”

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Flankly 2 hours 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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