All Blacks forced into late change ahead of game one vs Boks

What an incredible 1st half of rugby at Ellis Park!! The ABs look shell shocked by the sheer physicality of the Boks. As an England supporter, it reminds me of the Nations Cup match a few weeks ago .. when England were stunned by the Bokke! England bounced back in the 2nd quarter with some physicality of their own. Can the ABs do the same?

Sounds like gout

So disappointing, his last game he played was awesome and with him being in the reserves for today’s game I was looking forward to seeing him possibly play in his first test match. I really think he’ll add a lot to the squad after he recovers. Hope he has a speedy recovery for the upcoming tests. 🖤

It shows how far Sititi has fallen in the eyes of this regime that Sititi is not regarded as one of the best 6 loose forwards.

I would have replaced Segner with Ethan Blackadder personally. Both are physical with huge work rates, plus both cover 6 and 7, like for like

Rennie boxed himself in when he selected only 5 locks (including Vaa’i who is his starting blindside) for the tour so he could select 7 wings (Ioane was originally selected as a wing before Proctor’s injury). This was a ridiculously stupid decision. This forced him to not select two locks for the first test so he would have 2 starting locks for the meaningless match vs Lions- Tuipulotu and Darry.

Guy’s like Segner for Nz and De Villiers for Sa are superstars in waiting. I saw Segner as a huge threat and was looking forward to seeing him play against a team like the Springboks. Hope he recovers for the second test but for the first that is one less worry for the Springboks.

This swop out of players might just be the change the bench did not need… I dont see Parker doing anything great this game, he has been average in franchise games.

Parker’s selection also shows that Sititi is losing ground. A fully fit Sititi would have been selected. He hasn’t been at 100% since his concussion.

Bugger, firstly really sorry for Anton, he earned that spot.

Also I was liking the idea of a Dutchman and a German to combat the Afrikaners. It’s such a «fight fire with fire» strategy 🤣

That’s a real blow. Segner was really ideal on the bench. His work rate, and above all his exceptional ability to contest the ball.

I hope we’ll see him in the following Tests.

Parker has a completely different profile… big and slow. Honestly, I’m not really sold on this player. He was probably selected as some extra second-row cover in case of injury.

When there are so many ex and current Chiefs players in the squad – loss is guaranteed.

Two average players swapping places is no big loss.

Ufff, that seems like a blow.

I guess they've kept their game plan fully intact, and have gone for a similar player (ie a loose forward)

But wasn’t this an opportunity to get Darry on the bench…

Segner seemed to be the player with the most potential impact on that bench. Hope the injury is not too bad; was looking forward to seeing him on the big stage.

‘Acute inflammatory Arthritis’ - so Gout then ?

I wanted more mass on the impact bench - but not dumb mass.