{"id":110001,"date":"2025-09-01T03:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T03:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/110001\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T03:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T03:32:11","slug":"all-blacks-vs-springboks-injury-news-new-zealand-vs-south-africa-squad-updates-for-eden-park-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/110001\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks vs Springboks injury news, New Zealand vs South Africa squad updates for Eden Park Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leicester Fainga’anuku and Faf de Klerk have earned international recalls ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster Test between the All Blacks<\/a> and Springboks<\/a> at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

Fainga’anuku played the last of his seven Tests in New Zealand’s epic Rugby World Cup<\/a> quarter-final win over Ireland in Paris in 2023.<\/p>\n

He then spent 18 months in France playing for Toulon before returning home.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 Rugby Championship with every match streaming live and on demand on the home of rugby, Stan Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Leicester<\/p>\n

Leicester Fainga’anuku of New Zealand scores his team’s ninth try.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The centre\/winger provides cover for Timoci Tavatavanawai, who will miss the remainder of the Rugby Championship with a fractured arm.<\/p>\n

Fainga’anuku’s call up is one of many moving puzzle pieces for All Blacks coach Scott Robertson, who is under immense pressure after the historic loss to Argentina in Buenos Aires last month.<\/p>\n

Lock Patrick Tuipulotu will miss another month following surgery on his facial fracture while loose forward Luke Jacobson (thigh) and winger Caleb Clarke (ankle) aren’t being considered for the Test in Auckland.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Take it on the chin’: Norris disaster puts Aussie in box seat<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Female player sent off for X-rated referee allegation<\/a><\/p>\n

THE MOLE: Why I have to admit I was wrong on NRL’s oldest man<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott Robertson at Jose Amalfitani Stadium.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

But Robertson has regained prop Tyrel Lomax (hand) and centre Anton Lienert-Brown (concussion), allowing him to release George Bower.<\/p>\n

Finlay Christie, Kyle Preston, Sam Darry, Tevita Mafileo, Josh Lord and Leroy Carter remain with the squad as injury cover and have now been joined by the uncapped Xavier Roe as Robertson sweats on the health of fellow Chiefs halfback Cortez Ratima.<\/p>\n

Ratima fractured a rib in Buenos Aires but may be pushed to play with fellow No.9s Cam Roigard (foot) and Noah Hotham (ankle) no good.<\/p>\n

\"Cortez<\/p>\n

Cortez Ratima of New Zealand celebrates with teammate Jordie Barrett after scoring.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“He is going to go to the wire on that, so we are going to give him every opportunity,” Robertson said.<\/p>\n

“He is pretty important. He obviously played sore, that last 10 minutes of that game. But he is tough. That is one great thing about Cortez. We will give him every opportunity to play.”<\/p>\n

Robertson said Roe was a “trusted pair of hands” who had “a good boot on him as well.”<\/p>\n

“Every team goes through injuries, we have just got them in one spot, in one position. It’s a contact sport. Things are going to happen.”<\/p>\n

Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus has been targeting Saturday’s match as one of the final frontiers for his champion team to conquer.<\/p>\n

The All Blacks haven’t lost at Eden Park since France beat them in 1994 and South Africa haven’t won at the venue since 1937.<\/p>\n

\"Faf<\/p>\n

Faf de Klerk of South Africa.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

De Klerk, 33, joins Grant Williams, Cobus Reinach and Morne van den Berg as scrumhalf options.<\/p>\n

Experienced hooker Bongi Mbonambi has not travelled with the group “to attend to family matters.”<\/p>\n

Malcolm Marx and Jan-Hendrik Wessels are the two hookers currently in New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leicester Fainga’anuku and Faf de Klerk have earned international recalls ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster Test between the All…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-110001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}