Rennie shares update on Damian McKenzie's injury and Billy Proctor's replacement

The All Blacks appear to have emerged from their second game of the Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry tour close to unscathed, with only a question mark over star fullback Damian McKenzie’s health coming from the Durban win.

The tour has already claimed two victims for the All Blacks, with George Bell leaving before the first game with a training-ground injury and Billy Proctor coming away from the win over the Stormers with a broken shoulder.

McKenzie looked as though he could be the next to go when he struggled to get up after a high-ball contest early against the Sharks. It was for just the second of many contestable kicks in the game when McKenzie jumped and collected the ball, claiming the mark in the process.

The 31-year-old wore a grimace on the ground and struggled to put any weight on the injured ankle once he got to his feet, eventually handing the ball to Ruben Love for the kick to touch after realising he required some medical attention.

But McKenzie played on for another 30 minutes, getting over the try line twice, although one try was disallowed, before he was taken out of the action seven minutes shy of halftime. McKenzie’s Chiefs teammate Emoni Narawa played the rest of the game at fullback.

“He just twisted his ankle when he came down from that high ball in the first minute,” All Blacks head coach Dave Rennie told reporters after the match.

“He was running around; we had it strapped, but it was just a little bit ginger. So, we decided just to play it safe. He’s not too bad. We’d expect him to be fine for the first Test.”

The coach was also asked for an update on the impending decision to select a replacement for Proctor, who has now flown home.

“We decided we wouldn’t make a decision on Billy’s replacement until after tonight’s game,” Rennie responded. “Mainly to see what came through here and if we got a couple of other injuries that might decide what direction we go in.”

While Narawa has played just 10 per cent of his professional career at fullback, he was only called upon to make one kick in the match, and the New Zealand backfield enjoyed one of its stronger recent performances.

Rennie said he was pleased with how the game was managed, happy with the All Blacks’ kicking game despite the sodden turf making things difficult at times.

“In the conditions I thought we kicked really well, even in the first half,” he reflected. “We knew they’ve often got a 14:1 defence, so the fullback gets caught really central. So we found a fair bit of space, and maybe if it wasn’t for those puddles we would have got a few more 50/22s.

“Look, you’ve got to play to conditions. We’ve talked a lot about balance. When we kicked, we wanted to either find grass or be contestable, so it wasn’t always perfect, but I think the option-taking generally was pretty good.

“We got a lot of reward from good kicking in the second half.”