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Overlooked Du’Plessis Kirifi earns All Blacks call-up amid injury crisis
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All Blacks concede latest injuries have left leadership hole ahead of decider
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When All Blacks captain Ardie Savea left the field injured on Saturday at FNB Stadium, Luke Jacobson took over the captaincy duties only to also suffer a tour-ending injury. Also losing Quinn Tupaea in the Test left New Zealand with a significant hole in their leadership group heading into the decisive final Test in Baltimore.
It’s a leadership deficit that both supersub Wallace Sititi and head coach Dave Rennie have conceded will hurt the team, which faces a 2-1 series deficit after consecutive losses in Cape Town and Soweto.
Savea’s 112 Tests make way for Peter Lakai’s 13 in the No.8 jersey, while Jacobson’s 30 are replaced by Ethan Blackadder’s 14. Sititi, now with 22 Tests to his name, will offer impact off the bench for the second straight game in the decider.
“Obviously, we’ve got some great calibre there with Luke and Ardie, and even Quinn as well,” the explosive loose forward told reporters earlier this week in Washington.
“So we definitely lose a lot – a bit of quality there. At the same time, there’s a lot of competition here in that loose forward group, and obviously a few young boys in there, but also a bit of experience as well. So we’ve been together long enough to know that when it’s time to step up, it’s your time to step up, and we’ll make sure we hold each other accountable. And Ardie and Luke will do the same from wherever they are.”
Codie Taylor will step back into the captaincy role against the Springboks at M&T Bank Stadium with a historic tour result on the line, after sitting out the third Test. Rennie said that backing Taylor as Savea’s replacement was a straight-forward decision to make.
“Well, he’s the tour captain, so that made sense to us,” said the coach. “Obviously, we’ve lost a fair bit of experience over the weekend, with Luke and Ardie out. With both of them unavailable, we felt Codie coming back in – he’s an excellent player and gives us a lot of leadership and experience, and that’s been really vauable throughout the week.
“We’ve got Asafo (Aumua) to come in late in the game to provide impact.”
Taylor’s leadership hasn’t been the only influence on the week’s preparations, with what Sititi described as a “stern review” of the Soweto loss setting the tone on Tuesday.
“Every game is a must-win in this black jersey, in this environment,” Sititi added. “So that’s the mindset we’re going into this weekend with. We had a pretty stern review, and now it’s about moving forward. We’ve got a big Test on Saturday.
“I think our penalty count definitely has to improve. I think it was about even, the penalty count between the two teams, but the Springboks just took the opportunities a bit better than we did.
“Anywhere you give away penalties, it’s always an issue. And I guess we’re just giving them easy entries into our 22, and like I said, they’re capitalizing a bit better than we are.
“It’s a bit of mindset, a bit of accuracy. There’s rules there for a reason, and we’ve got to make sure we follow it to the best of our availability. And when we get pinged from the ref, we’ve got to be able to adapt there. And at the moment, we’re just not doing it good enough.”
