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Cullen Grace's All Blacks re-call hopes dashed by season-ending injury

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

One-test All Blacks loose forward Cullen Grace’s chances of a test re-call this year have ended prematurely after sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury.

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The 21-year-old injured his sternoclavicular joint in a pre-season match against Tasman in Hanmer last month, leaving him sidelined for the entire NPC season, which only kicked-off last week.

It is the latest injury blow for Grace, who missed a large chunk of last year’s Super Rugby Aotearoa due to a fractured thumb.

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Will Jordan named to start for the All Blacks in second Bledisloe Cup clash against Wallabies

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Will Jordan named to start for the All Blacks in second Bledisloe Cup clash against Wallabies

That wasn’t enough to stop All Blacks head coach Ian Foster from selecting him in last year’s Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship squad, though.

The youngster went on to make his test debut off the bench against Australia in the final Bledisloe Cup clash at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, making a five-minute cameo appearance in the 24-22 defeat to the Wallabies.

Despite starting in most matches for the Crusaders this year, Grace struggled to impress as much as he did the year beforehand.

In the midst of what appeared to be a case of second season syndrome, Crusaders boss Scott Robertson called for more from the utility forward – who can cover blindside flanker, No 8 and lock – in April.

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While the Crusaders went on to claim their second successive Super Rugby Aotearoa crown, their fifth Super Rugby title in a row, Grace didn’t show enough to win a place in Foster’s All Blacks squad this year.

He was subsequently named in Canterbury’s NPC squad for the 2021 season, and was expected to feature heavily for the red-and-blacks as they target their first provincial title since 2017.

Grace will have to watch his side’s title tilt from the sidelines, though, as he aims to return to action with the Crusaders in next year’s revamped Super Rugby competition.

At his best, Grace is a hard-hitting defender whose presence at the set piece and breakdown is a highly-valued asset for whichever team he plays for.

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Grace joins a lengthy list of names on Canterbury’s injured list, with flanker Tom Christie (shoulder) and lock Mitchell Dunshea (neck) also out for the NPC season.

Loose forwards Reed Prinsep and Billy Harmon, hooker Brodie McAlister, Fijian international Manasa Mataele and lock Zach Gallagher are other injury concerns.

Canterbury kicked-off their NPC season with a 35-24 defeat at the hands of Auckland at Eden Park last Sunday, but will look to utilise the likes of Waisake Naholo and Braydon Ennor to overcome Manawatu in Christchurch on Saturday.

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RedWarriors 27 minutes ago
'Not a normal rugby team' - The Leinster flex that floored Jake White

I was actually at the match. Leinster were the outstanding team in the league stage. Leinster’s squad depth meant the Bulls could only nick a late win in Pretoria against an understrenght Leinster. Simple put, Leinster are significantly better this year compared to last. The Dublin match last year was a big win by Leinster. Yes they won by a point in the RDS three years ago but thats not relevant to yesterday.

As Leinster are such a dangerous team, it forces an opponent to focus on a strategy to undermine them and that way get their game on the pitch. Leinster allowed that against Northampton. But that was not going to happen again. The Bulls attack in last 10 minutes of the first half was as savage as anything in the URC this year. Yet Leinsters coaching plan repelled them allied to savage commitment from the players. The defense was outstanding, pressure at breakdown outstanding. Leinster did not win the European cup but arguably at their best this year no other European team could reach that height. They reached that yesterday. Leinster completely removed Bulls ability to hurt them.

And Croke Park….100 years ago the Brits fired machine guns into spectators injuring 100s and killing loads. No Irish team ever performs badly there. Same with Irish supporters. Opposition players might as well be Brit Tommies with machine guns.

I think a great Leinster team, played a great game plan, to the height of their power in a horrible stadium for opponents. If Bulls score before half time they were back in the match. They went down, but they went down fighting.

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