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Ryan Crotty set to return from injury this weekend

Ryan Crotty. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Injured All Blacks midfielder Ryan Crotty is set to make his long awaited return to rugby this weekend after two months out of action with a hand injury.

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The 30-year-old fractured his thumb during the Crusaders’ 30-26 Super Rugby semi-final victory over the Hurricanes in June, and was given a recovery timeframe of eight weeks.

Subsequently, he has missed all of the All Blacks tests to date this year and didn’t play in the Super Rugby final, where the Crusaders notched their third consecutive title with a 19-3 win over the Jaguares in Christchurch.

Crotty will return to action this weekend, though, after being made available to play for Canterbury in their Mitre 10 Cup clash against Southland at Orangetheory Stadium on Saturday.

Canterbury – and Southland – are yet to taste victory this season, so the presence of Crotty, who is one of five midfielders vying for four spots in the All Blacks’ World Cup squad, in their backline will be of immense value for the hosts.

The 44-test veteran is believed to be a frontrunner to make Steve Hansen’s final 31-man cut to travel to Japan for next month’s tournament alongside fellow midfielders Sonny Bill Williams, Jack Goodhue and Anton Lienert-Brown.

However, the consistent form of blockbusting second-five-eighth Ngani Laumape, who has impressed for both the Hurricanes and All Blacks this year, may be enough to push Crotty out of contention.

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Crotty, who will depart New Zealand to join Japanese Top League club Kubota Spears following the World Cup, was involved with the All Blacks during their successful Bledisloe Cup series earlier this month, but wasn’t available for selection.

The All Blacks’ World Cup squad will be announced at midday on Wednesday at Eden Park.

In other news:

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Tom 59 minutes ago
England player ratings vs South Africa | 2024 Autumn Nations Series

I'm not sure about the Earl incident. I recall him missing an important tackle but he's certainly a quick flanker. SB has him cover centre when doing 6-2, fortunately we've never had to see how that would play out.


I'm not getting on board I'm afraid. The fact that England are scoring tries and being competitive despite being so amazingly disorganised and managing to lose every match is even more frustrating. The players front up and make a good account of themselves physically but the defence since Felix Jones is so much less organised. Players are flying out the line all over the place, there is no cohesion at all... And the attack... Literally it's just Marcus Smith.. and a bit of Feyi Waboso. Almost every player in the backline has done nothing offensively because the structure just isn't there for it, there's nothing creative or innovative to challenge the defense. The last 20 mins against the Boks it was just runners on crash ball off the 9, over and over getting smashed behind the gainline and turned over. These players are capable of doing much better.


We did score tries under Eddie but the backs didn't create anything. It worked well for a while but when we no longer had a big pack with the likes of Haskell and the Vunipolas playing well, it stopped working very rapidly. Once we started losing the gainline and couldn't exert so much pressure through bullying, they suddenly all looked clueless and we finished 5th in consecutive six nations.


I'd love to be on board, I've watched every game for the last 15 years and what I see is just super frustrating. It's groundhog day. The same mistakes over and over and no sign of progress. They've pushed some good sides close in this series but there is no acknowledgement of the issues, they keep saying how close they are and they're a growing team etc... he's been in charge for 2 years and has hundreds of caps in the side. This will end poorly, he's not the right guy, but thank you for trying.

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