All Blacks lock stocks looking grim after Brodie Retallick injury
New Zealanders country-wide held their breath as Brodie Retallick was escorted from the field in Saturday’s match between the All Blacks and the Springboks.
Retallick, who was on the receiving end of a reckless-at-best ruck clear-out from RG Snyman, had dislocated his shoulder. The big man is probably one of the most resilient in the country – it takes a huge hit to keep Retallick down.
Shoulder dislocation normally require 12 to 16 weeks of rehabilitation. Irish centre Robbie Henshaw bucked the trend and was back playing 10 weeks after suffering his own dislocation against Italy in last year’s Six Nations.
Coach Steve Hansen has revealed on Sunday that shoulder scans show no major damage to Retallick – which means the Chiefs co-captain could be back a little sooner than expected.
Still, the Rugby World Cup kicks off on September 20 – that’s less than eight weeks away. Even in a best-case scenario, it would be a major surprise if Retallick was back and ready for the All Blacks’ rematch with the Springboks in Yokohama on September 21.
A quite year for Brodie
Retallick has already spent plenty of time on the side-lines in 2019. Ten weeks into the Chiefs’ Super Rugby campaign, Retallick tore a tendon in his wrist against the Blues. He didn’t take the field again until the final round of the regular season.
The former World Rugby Player of the Year has now managed just four matches since April 13 – and it’s shown. Whilst he hasn’t been putting in awfully poor performances since his return, Retallick certainly hasn’t looked like the best second-rower in the world. Even top rugby players can’t be expected to find top gear straight away, which is why Retallick’s latest injury will be a major concern for Hansen.
Even if Retallick is fit for the World Cup, his injury will force the selectors’ hands when it comes to the composition of the squad.
The All Blacks coaches will cut the current squad down from 39 players to 34 on Wednesday. Retallick won’t be taking up one of those spots, thanks to his injury. Once the Bledisloe series comes to an end, the squad will be reduced further down to 31. This selection will take on Tonga on September 7 then travel to Japan for the World Cup.
World Cup squad make-up crucial
The selectors have probably been weighing up for some time whether they need to take three or four second-rowers to the World Cup. In 2015 they opted for the former, with just Retallick, Sam Whitelock and Luke Romano selected. Kieran Read and Victor Vito were considered the locking back-up in the squad – and that’s a tactic that the All Blacks may have opted for this year, too.
Retallick, Whitelock and Scott Barrett are the three premier locks in New Zealand – head and shoulders above the competition. The next cab off the ranks is Patrick Tuipulotu, who has 22 caps to his name. Luke Romano is the only other specialist lock in the country who has actually been capped for the All Blacks but he’s fallen down the pecking order considerably since his last test in 2017.
Jackson Hemopo made his international debut against France last year and now has four caps to his name. He’s been used both in the second row and on the blindside flank and was listed as a ‘utility forward’ when the All Blacks named their first squad of the year.
Were Retallick, Whitelock and Barrett all fit, the All Blacks would be seriously considering just travelling to Japan with those three men as their locking options. For the lesser matches, Read or someone like Shannon Frizell could provide second row cover off the bench, if need be. Hemopo’s chances of travelling would also be quite high, given his utility value.
If there were a fourth lock putting his hand up for selection then perhaps the All Blacks would opt for four specialists (as was the case in 2007 and 2011) – but that isn’t the case this year.
Plenty of options – few obvious ones
Tuipulotu has been given multiple opportunities to push his case at the top level but the Blues captain has never really taken his chances. Tuipulotu needed to make a statement in last weekend’s game to show that he deserved to go to the World Cup – but that didn’t happen. Vaea Fifita was selected to cover lock against the Springboks – which seems to indicate that Tuipulotu wasn’t at the level that the All Blacks needed from him.
Retallick’s injury could change everything.
If Retallick isn’t fit for the start of the World Cup then the selectors will likely have to take four specialists to the flagship tournament – including Retallick. The All Blacks won’t be able to go into their first match of the competition against the Springboks without specialist locking cover, which could mean Tuipulotu retains his space in the squad, despite his lack of impact.
If, as is entirely possible, Retallick is invalidated for the whole World Cup, then the All Blacks may end up scraping the barrel for cover. You would have to think that Hemopo would be an automatic selection, but if the selectors want a strictly specialist lock then there are few options on the table.
Locking conundrum incoming
A number of promising second-rowers showed off their wares throughout the Super Rugby season, but none of them looked ready for test football. Pari Pari Parkinson shone out at times for the Highlanders but faltered as the season progressed while Mitchell Dunshea looks like a solid option out of the Crusaders. Perhaps next year they’ll appeal as options – but few New Zealanders would feel comfortable with either of those players locking a scrum in a World Cup knockout match.
Whatever the case, New Zealand will need cover in the second-row for the upcoming matches against Australia – which means at least one of Hemopo and Tuipulotu will be retained in the 34-man squad. Prior to Retallick’s injury all the money would have been on Tuipulotu to get the cut, but that may no longer be the case.
Perhaps Retallick will make a remarkable recovery in the coming months and be fit and ready come the World Cup. He is one the great physical specimens of the rugby world and he certainly has the desire and commitment to get himself fit. Still, a shoulder dislocation is no laughing matter. Whatever the outcome, we likely won’t know what to expect for some time now. In the meantime, Kiwis just have to sit and pray.
Comments on RugbyPass
Hold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
39 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
1 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
39 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
39 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
39 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
39 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to commentsThanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause
39 Go to comments