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Wallace Sititi reacts to All Blacks' loose forward injury crisis

Wallace Sititi and Sam Cane wreste at All Blacks training. Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images

Former All Blacks captain Sam Cane has been ruled out of the coming France Test with a head injury sustained against Ireland.

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The injury blow comes at a time when the team faces an injury crisis in the loose forwards, with Dalton Papali’i, Ethan Blackadder and Luke Jacobson also unavailable for the rest of the Autumn Nations Series.

Thankfully for Kiwi fans, the back row is one of the country’s deepest positions, and even with Super Rugby Pacific MVP Hoskins Sotutu also unavailable due to injury, the team have been able to call in some quality injury reserves.

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Hurricanes duo Peter Lakai and Du’Plessis Kirifi are with the team in Paris, and so too is Crusaders No. 8 Christian Lio-Willie.

The three have each excelled at Super Rugby level, but have just one Test appearance off the bench between them – Lakai’s recent debut against Japan in Tokyo.

While the trio can step in and bring some fresh energy to the environment, there’s no replacing Cane’s Test centurion temperament on game day.

“He’s a big loss for us this weekend, he holds a lot of respect in our team. He’s a strong figure in our team and our country, so to not have him out there is a big loss for us in terms of leadership as well as experience,” All Blacks rookie loose forward Wallace Sititi told media at team training on Tuesday.

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“It’s just something that we’re going to have to deal with and we’ll do our best to do him justice in his absence.”

Head-to-Head

Last 5 Meetings

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3
Draws
0
Wins
2
Average Points scored
25
28
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Cane spent the club season in Japan, where he’ll soon return to begin his three-year contract, so the veteran missed Sititi’s breakthrough season with the Chiefs, but the 22-year-old says Cane had previously made a strong impression during the previous preseason.

“When I went in for my first preseason with the Chiefs, he’s someone that’s calm-headed, loves to chat as well so it was really easy getting along with him. He’s just somebody you gravitate towards, someone you would follow into war and somebody you would die for.

“he’s just a good person first and foremost and his leadership is top-notch.”

It’s a powerful sentiment for the former captain, who has ended up playing a big role in the All Blacks’ 2024 campaign after some pundits suggested it was time to move on given Cane’s impending ineligibility for selection.

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Sititi says Cane’s advice for him in his young international career was “just to enjoy the moment.”

“Take a step back and look at the situation for what it is and he’s really been driving that for me and keeping my feet on the ground,” Sititi said.

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With just two games remaining in a titanic 2024 schedule, the All Blacks are building well, but also fighting any late-season fatigue that comes with having played 12 tough Tests since July. Sititi says the environment is built to shoot down any shortcomings in energy.

“I think we’re a really tight group, so that helps us. We hold each other accountable, have fun when it’s time to have fun, and I think that’s important within a quality side and within a high-performance environment.

“We’ve really grown a lot together, grown tighter relationships so I think that’s what’s going to hold us accountable going towards these last two games.”

With Cane out, there’s a fair likelihood of a shift in the loose forward mix to move Sititi to No. 8, with Ardie Savea filling the vacant No. 7 jersey and Samipeni Finau coming in at blindside flanker.

Sititi played No. 8 all season for the Chiefs and certainly has the game to play it at the international level, as he did against Japan in Tokyo. He says there are some key differences between the two positions, but a similar idea around the park.

“I think the obvious core roles between scrums and lineouts, otherwise it’s about keeping the game simple. At the end of the day just make sure you carry hard, tackle hard and play the game the right way.

“I think the thing about the loose forwards is you’ve got to be able to do the tight stuff and then be able to play out wide as well, so as a loose group we’ve all focused on being able to do both and wherever we’re required we’ll make sure we do it to the best of our abilities.”

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Comments

3 Comments
B
B 8 days ago

It will be a Wallace Sititi benchmark 9th All Black game vs France.

Given the nod to play at #8 will see him scoring a try from an attacking dominant scrum situation.

B
Bruiser 8 days ago

Wallace is team bus driver and is also on delegation to Middle East to solve world peace :)

U
Utiku Old Boy 8 days ago

LOL

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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