Jeff Wilson is not surprised by the number of injuries suffered by the All Blacks with the players “throwing themselves into contact” under new boss Dave Rennie.
New Zealand’s head coach has continually rotated since taking on the role from the sacked Scott Robertson earlier this year.
Part of that is the new boss looking at players and combinations with the Rugby World Cup now under a year away but he has also been hampered by injuries.
They have already lost Ardie Savea and Ruben Love for the season, while Luke Jacobson, Anton Lienert-Brown, Billy Proctor, Patrick Tuipulotu and Caleb Clarke are other individuals who missed out on the wider Bledisloe Cup training squad due to issues they picked up.
Richie Mo’unga was then ruled out of the two Wallabies games and could miss the Nations Championship, and he has been joined on the sidelines by Leroy Carter, Anton Segner, Asafo Aumua, Ethan Blackadder and Fehi Fineanganofo.
Wallabies’ injury issues under Dave Rennie
It is a lengthy injury list and is slightly reminiscent of Rennie’s time at Australia where he continually saw players go down.
Wilson certainly reckons that the All Blacks head coach has them working harder than previously but is not concerned by the number of injuries.
“Friendly fire when you get a head clash (Segner and Aumua), you can’t avoid that… but there’s no doubt they’re asking them to put their bodies on the line and they’re certainly throwing themselves into contact, consistently more than I’ve seen from an All Black team,” he said on The Breakdown.
“Particularly defensively, we were a little bit on our heels from time to time over the last couple of years, but there’s none of that. They’re trying to improve themselves in the tackle.
“Head clash, two guys coming around, which ruled two players out, that’s just unlucky, but overall we’re turning to our depth and our depth is going well.”
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Despite now being without some gifted players, the All Blacks were boosted by the return of Scott Barrett last weekend, who had not played since last November.
Barrett took a non-playing sabbatical before back surgery in May ruled him out for five months. He made his Test comeback in Auckland and impressed as New Zealand retained the Bledisloe Cup with a 50-19 triumph.
The former skipper once again starts in Sydney on Saturday and will look to build on what Wilson’s fellow All Blacks great, Justin Marshall, felt was a hugely impressive display.
‘Scott Barrett down to the ground’
“He showed how much work ethic he’s got in him and you need that within the side. What we tend to do is show the things that people see as being relevant, which is the carry metres and the hardness and the toughness in defence, but what you don’t see in the middle is the work ethic in the cleanouts,” Marshall said.
“If you went through that game again and just watched him at clean, that’s the reason we can get tempo ball, because guys like Scott Barrett are hitting those rucks and moving bodies, and we’re punching onto the ball.
“Without a shadow of the doubt, the hardest part of the field to play through is the middle and I thought the fact that the All Blacks were able to play with width was because of what Scott Barrett did through the middle and Wallace Sititi.
“That’s Scott Barrett down to the ground.”
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