Liam Napier in Hamilton
The All Blacks are sweating on a spate of further injury setbacks in the wake of their series sweep of France.
All Blacks coach Scott Robertson indicated starting tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax, who returned from injury for the 29-19 third-test victory in Hamilton, needed an X-ray on his thumb and first-choice playmaker Beauden Barrett will be sidelined for several weeks after fracturing his hand in training.
“I can’t medically say how long he’ll be out for but it’ll be a few weeks to heal,” Robertson said of Barrett, who suffered the same injury for the Blues this season.
“It’s the same hand and the same fracture. We had a couple of injuries early in the piece but the guys battled on.”
The All Blacks have almost four weeks before their opening match of the Rugby Championship, the first of two tests in Argentina on August 17 in Cordoba, which should allow many battered bodies to recover – but Lomax and Barrett will now be considered doubtful.
Barrett did, however, take part in warm-ups in Hamilton, which included fielding high balls.
Chiefs captain Luke Jacobson was a late withdrawal from starting at No 8 on Saturday night after an innocuous incident in a maul during the All Blacks’ warm-up damaged his quad.
That forced a loose forward reshuffle that promoted Du’Plessis Kirifi to start at openside and sent Ardie Savea to the back of the scrum.
Savea acknowledged the pressure the All Blacks endured from the understrength French, after falling 10 points behind early before gaining the lead for the first time midway through the second half and then pushing clear, thanks to notable impact off the bench from Jordie Barrett and the replacement front row.
“You play the same team three times but each test is different,” Savea said. “We got punched in the nose in the first half and we came back in the second.
“You’ve got to credit the French defence from stopping us scoring a few tries on their goal line that shows character but I’m proud of our men for rolling their sleeves up and coming away with the win.
“The French put us under a lot of pressure. They’re spirited, physical, menaces at the breakdown. They disrupted our ball a few times. They stripped the ball once when I carried it. The message was to carry lower and get the ball out of the breakdown.
“We spilled the ball and gave them opportunities, gave them scraps. They kept compounding their threes and got out to a good lead. That was a moment where we as leaders took a big breath and used the tools we have. I’m really pleased we scored just before halftime and then came back to finish the job.”
Ten starting changes clearly disrupted the All Blacks after their impressive second-test win in Wellington last week.
Robertson handed many fringe players opportunities in a bid to build depth but that came at a cost to cohesion with frequent handling errors, lost lineouts and clunky attack leaving the All Blacks chasing the game.
Jordie Barrett’s impact from the bench proved pivotal after he pulled off a try-saving tackle on French replacement Émilien Gailleton and then made the defining break to send Brodie McAlister over for a try on debut that belatedly allowed the All Blacks to breathe easy.
Barrett was called into the squad on Friday after Rieko Ioane’s hamstring tightened late in the week.
“We know how important the [match-day squad of] 23 is,” Robertson said. ”Jordie was so professional when he came on, he made a massive difference for us.
“Some of that wasn’t pretty – we understand that. But there was a lot of character and effort on the back of a lot of care.
“Brodie McAlister’s try was great. He looked like he was on a treadmill for a bit but he got there and slid in nicely. Those are big moments. The whole front row, we rolled them early and they were superb. There were some great cameos off the bench.”
In a match that effectively pitted the All Blacks’ and French B teams against each other, it’s difficult to take too much from this clunky contest in the context of what’s to come this year.
The All Blacks fell well short of their desire for continued improvement with a significant regression from Wellington evident in their attacking accuracy, breakdown work and option-taking but players such as Kirifi and rookie lock Fabian Holland will soak in their added test experience while Samipeni Finau was one of few promoted prospects to shine.
“The goal was to go three-from-three and not just win but win in [a] great way,” Kirifi said. “We had a lot of changes this week and we wanted to continue the momentum and put a quality performance out there.
“It wasn’t perfect by any means but plenty to be proud of and a lot of character shown in the second half to fight out of a hole and finish out on top.”
Liam Napier is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast.