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What you didn't see: The pain behind Ardie Savea's crucial play that saved All Blacks from defeat

By Online Editors
(Photo by Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images)

It was the crucial play that saved the All Blacks from a possible defeat to the Wallabies and footage has shown the pain New Zealand number eight Ardie Savea was going through in the closing stages at Sky Stadium.

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Sky Sport‘s player cam was focused on Savea for Sunday’s test including the key moment when he turned the ball over with the Wallabies just metres out from the tryline with time up on the clock.

Australia were close to the posts and in prime drop goal territory when Savea pinched the ball which led to an All Blacks counter-attack and almost stealing a late win down the other end of the field.

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Shortly after the turnover, Savea struggled with cramp as play continued before teammate Anton Lienert-Brown checked on him.

The test continued for an extra five minutes after the turnover with Savea again on the spot when the Wallabies turned the ball over to begin another All Blacks counter.

Savea led the match in defenders beaten, after slipping through five Wallabies tackles.

Both sides went on to draw the match 16-all, and are set to face off again in Auckland this Sunday in the second test of a four-match series.

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Nickers 5 hours ago
All Blacks sabbaticals ‘damage Super Rugby Pacific when it is fighting for survival’

Sabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.

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