All Blacks prop Tamaiti Williams is out of the French series due to a knee injury which requires surgery.
Described today as one of the best looseheads in the world by head coach Scott Robertson, Williams’ withdrawal due to a torn meniscus comes after he started for the Crusaders in their Super Rugby Pacific final victory over the Chiefs.
Williams, who suffered the tear in the qualifier win over the Reds, probably surprised Robertson by making himself available for that match in Christchurch recently and afterwards struggled to straighten his leg.
Asked today ahead of Saturday’s first Test against France about the wisdom of Williams playing, Robertson replied: “Well, he played and we’re here right now, so they’re the facts.”
The similarities with the case of Crusaders lock Sam Whitelock, who played in the 2023 Super Rugby final despite an Achilles injury and was then unavailable for several Tests afterwards, are obvious.
“Players want to play and they want to compete,” said Robertson, who was Whitelock’s Super Rugby coach at the time. “That’s the scenario at the moment.”
Williams will be sidelined for up to eight weeks.
George Bower has been called into the squad to replace Williams and is the latest to be included in what was originally a 33-player squad.
Loose forward Wallace Sititi was ruled out late last week due to an ankle problem, leading to the inclusion of Dalton Papali’i as cover.
No.8 Christian Lio-Willie was already in as cover for Luke Jacobson, who is following concussion protocols and will be unavailable for the first Test in Dunedin.
Williams’ injury means Ethan de Groot will almost certainly start the Test on home soil, with Ollie Norris likely to make his debut off the reserves bench.
Elsewhere, the drums are beating for Billy Proctor to start at centre, with incumbent Rieko Ioane starting on the left wing.
Sky Sports presenters and former All Blacks Jeff Wilson, Justin Marshall and Mils Muliaina claimed on last night’s Breakdown show that Proctor would be given the nod to start by Robertson, who will officially announce the team on Thursday.
Such a scenario after he named six midfielders and only two dedicated wings in Caleb Clarke and Sevu Reece (assuming Will Jordan is regarded as a specialist fullback) in the squad, would not be a huge surprise.
Should Proctor start, Jordie Barrett is almost certain to be named alongside him at second-five which would open up an opportunity for Quinn Tupaea to resume his Test career from the bench or possibly Timoci Tavatavanawai to make his international debut from there.
For the All Blacks, the Test is an opportunity to put to use some harsh lessons from last year – Robertson’s first.
They won 10 from 14 Tests last year and had halftime leads in the games they lost – twice to the Boks, once to Argentina in Wellington and France in Paris.
Such is the relative inexperience of this France squad that the All Blacks are unlikely to be under as much sustained pressure as they were the last time they played the Tricolors, but Robertson had a word of warning, saying: “This is probably when they’re at their most dangerous – when they’re underestimated.”
Referring to that 30-29 defeat to the Stade de France, Robertson said: “A lot of our review in the off season was on that game because we gave ourselves so many opportunities to win it and we didn’t.
“We probably had our best two weeks with the Irish [victory in Dublin] and the French but we probably didn’t get the result we deserved and sometimes you get that in Tests.”
SHARE ME