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Super Rugby Aotearoa: Nehe Milner-Skudder 'potentially available' for Hurricanes clash despite fresh knee injury

(Photo by Dianne Manson/Getty Images)

Star Highlanders recruit Nehe Milner-Skudder could be “potentially available” to play against the Hurricanes in his side’s final Super Rugby Aotearoa clash next week despite picking up a fresh knee injury.

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The 29-year-old former All Black wasn’t included in the Highlanders side to face the Crusaders in Christchurch this weekend, with head coach Aaron Mauger revealing on Friday that he had sustained an MCL tweak earlier in the week.

“He picked up an MCL tweak the other day, so he’s back on that injury list,” Mauger told media.

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Josh Ioane on Crusaders derby

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Josh Ioane on Crusaders derby

“We’re hoping to get him right for some club rugby tomorrow, but he’ll be unavailable for the weekend.”

The news comes after Highlanders assistant coach Tony Brown last week said that the 13-test outside back was preparing to return to contact training after enduring a 21-month recovery spell from a troublesome shoulder injury.

Milner-Skudder’s last appearance came in November 2018 when he played for the All Blacks in their 69-31 victory over Japan in Tokyo, and hasn’t featured since as he continues his rehabilitation.

Mauger indicated that the injury isn’t too significant, and that the 2015 World Rugby Breakthrough Player of the Year, who signed a two-season deal with the Highlanders in May, may be free to play against his former side, the Hurricanes, next Saturday.

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Should he fail to prove his fitness by then, though, Milner-Skudder will have to wait until 2021 to make his Highlanders debut.

His injury woes echoes that of other prominent figures who have returned to New Zealand to play in Super Rugby Aotearoa but are yet to feature in the Kiwi league.

Former All Blacks and Crusaders legend Dan Carter was a surprise signing by the Blues shortly before the competition kicked off, and was expected to make his franchise debut against the Hurricanes in round six.

However, a calf injury ruled him out of that fixture, and with only one more round to play after this weekend, the 38-year-old has conceded it might be too big of an ask for him to recover in time to face off against the Crusaders in the final round of action.

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Elsewhere, the Hurricanes re-signed franchise icon Julian Savea on a short-term deal last week, but having not played since leaving French club Toulon, he failed to make the match day squad to play the Chiefs in Wellington on Saturday.

The 30-year-old will only have one more opportunity to make an appearance for the side he played 116 times for between 2011 and 2018 when they travel to Dunedin to face off against Milner-Skudder’s Highlanders in eight days’ time.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
The revitalised Australians are pushing a Super Rugby revival

I’d have to get my head around it, but for simplicity and continuity sake, I’ll pose if we take your description and apply that it means a team like SA simply chooses to scrum and lineout more often, and perhaps take longer in doing so, then that would be a very obvious circumstance to have verified, but I have not seen anything like that. I mean we did agonize over scrums nearly taking a minute to set in that semi final, but that was two sides happy to play (at) the same game (/pace).


My assumption was it was rather a symptom of how they play, a combative tight contest results in more errors/scrums, kicking inclination and tall timber means more ball dead lineouts (playing for penalties?), if the game is '“slower” because of ‘legitimate’ factors, a low BIP is fairly irrelevant, you’re both still getting your bang for buck of a great contest, and those contests are very absorbing and energy zapping, which doesn’t align with your theory. You’re on the edge of your seat waiting to see one team get smash in the scrum, or if the other can secure good ball, just as you are waiting for a phase or two to build before pressure a ruck for a turnover etc. I’m sure they would loved a higher BIP if that was the symptom of their style, just as long as they got those rest breaks still.


But I could always have had the wrong perception of it being based on the fact I’ve only notice BIP improving when refs started stopping the clock (instead of berating the teams to hurryup), so the BIP obviously improves when doing that, but the game still looked to take as long, meaning that 1 or 2 minutes saved was always going to be largely ineffectual. It has also always appeared to me that what defines teams like SA is the amount of time the clock is stopped (even before refs tried to combat them by blowing the whistle more often) in their games, and therefor how long their games last. This is a stat/factor that I have seen analyzed and proven, but your articles have also highlighted the odd thing or two (scrum frequency dropping etc) that I would be very interested in a comprehensive analysis on effects of a test involving SA (compared to before), I certainly can’t remember any extra fatigue showing in their games last year after a raft of changes to stop scrums from being taken etc.

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