Overlooked Du’Plessis Kirifi earns All Blacks call-up amid injury crisis

The All Blacks have been forced to make four changes to their travelling squad for the second Bledisloe Cup Test against the Wallabies in Sydney.

Ethan Blackadder, Anton Segner, Leroy Carter, and Asafo Aumua will all stay in Auckland ahead of the second Test, with Du’Plessis Kirifi, Jamie Hannah, Anton Lienert-Brown, and George Bell joining Dave Rennie’s team in Sydney.

It’s Kirifi’s first call-up in 2026, after being consistently overlooked by Rennie and his coaching staff. The loose-forward hasn’t featured for the All Blacks since the 2025 end-of-year tour under former head coach Scott Robertson.

Hannah returns to the All Blacks environment having featured in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, while Lienert-Brown has made a swift recovery after injuring himself in the fourth-and-final Test match against the Springboks in Baltimore.

Blackadder won’t travel due to a calf injury, which the Crusaders loose-forward picked up in the warm-up at Eden Park. Segner and Aumua both failed late-game HIA’s, and have mandatory twelve-day stand-downs after a head clash between the two All Blacks while making a tackle.

Carter’s injury will be the one that Rennie and the All Blacks coaching staff sweat the most, after being helped from the field following his second-half try.

Rennie said post-match to media that they will be more aware of the extent in the coming days.

“Yeah, it didn’t look good. Sort of what you call a hip drop type tackle, landed on the back of his ankle,” Rennie said in Auckland.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to the doc yet, but it looked reasonably serious.”

The All Blacks head coach also said Scott Barrett failed his HIA late in the Eden Park battle, but were confident that he would pass the protocols heading into the second Test.

“Yeah, so Scott failed his test. He’s pretty good, we think, and so he’s still an option for this week, assuming that he passes all the protocols. And Anton was keen to play on, but got told to go.

“So those guys will have to get through a few tests niggly, because we’ve got a limited number of guys travelling, so we’ll know a bit more about tomorrow.”