New Zealand\u2019s halfback stocks are being thoroughly tested this Rugby Championship, but the injury count has not been added to this week despite speculation.<\/p>\n
Both the New Zealand<\/a> and South African media descended on Albany for the All Blacks<\/a>\u2018 Tuesday media session and witnessed uncapped Crusaders<\/a> halfback Kyle Preston<\/a> receiving treatment on his ankle.<\/p>\n The sight of the All Blacks\u2019 fifth-choice halfback suddenly coming under an injury cloud was cause for concern, but RugbyPass noted Preston walking off the training field without assistance or much issue. Still, rumours started to swirl that former All Black Folau Fakatava<\/a> was on standby.<\/p>\n While assistant coach Scott Hansen was unaware Preston had received attention from the physios on site, his colleague Jason Holland later cleared the air.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we\u2019ve had a couple of dings, but I wouldn\u2019t get too excited about the information that you\u2019ve got, because four nines started training today and were pretty all-go through the whole session. We\u2019ve got four nines who are in pretty good nick. So we\u2019re pretty happy about the boys we\u2019ve got here,\u201d he told the Sport Nation radio station.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure about the info around KP, I hope his parents don\u2019t think that he\u2019s injured.\u201d<\/p>\n The All Blacks have confirmed that both Cam Roigard<\/a> (foot) and Noah Hotham<\/a> (ankle) will not be available in either of the upcoming Tests against the Springboks, and the team will wait until the last moment to decide whether Cortez Ratima<\/a> (rib) is fit for the match.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still keeping our eyes close on him,\u201d Hansen told reporters when asked for an update on Ratima. \u201cHe\u2019s a brave, young man, he\u2019s running around looking pretty happy. We know he\u2019s pretty sore.\u201d<\/p>\n Xavier Roe of the Chiefs<\/a> joined the All Blacks squad this week to provide additional injury cover, becoming the sixth halfback involved in the Rugby Championship<\/a> campaign.<\/p>\n If Ratima is deemed unfit for action, the All Blacks will require the services of one of their uncapped reserves. Hansen had a simple message for his rookies should they take the field.<\/p>\n \u201cPass the ball well, kick the ball well and be you. It\u2019s not about cluttering the young No 9s. It\u2019s about giving them the frame, the confidence in who they are and why they\u2019re here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have a massive opportunity in the environment and know they\u2019ll take the ownership when the opportunity is there for them to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s halfback stocks are being thoroughly tested this Rugby Championship, but the injury count has not been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-114149","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\/114149","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=114149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}