{"id":277045,"date":"2025-11-11T06:18:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277045\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T06:18:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T06:18:15","slug":"at-least-one-injury-enforced-absence-looms-for-all-blacks-at-twickenham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/277045\/","title":{"rendered":"At least one injury-enforced absence looms for All Blacks at Twickenham"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All Blacks<\/a> head coach Scott Robertson<\/a> has issued an injury update following his side\u2019s win over Scotland, revealing some mixed news for the side.<\/p>\n

New Zealand<\/a> will square off with England<\/a> at Twickenham in their penultimate Test of the 2025 season, hoping to win both remaining fixtures and emerge from the season with just two losses from 13 games. Two further losses would equal their defeat tally from last year\u2019s season, the coach\u2019s first in charge of the team.<\/p>\n

But as Robertson revealed from the All Blacks\u2019 training base in Teddington, there will be at least one absentee from this weekend\u2019s Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott Barrett\u2019s making great progress,\u201d the coach told the media on Monday evening. \u201cTomorrow\u2019s training is important for him to get through, for him to be available. But he\u2019s tracking well.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaleb Clarke\u2019s unavailable for this Test match; he\u2019s got a 12-day stand-down and is looking good for the next Test match.\u201d<\/p>\n

The coach also mentioned that there were some considerations to be made regarding fatigue, given his side is now 11 games deep in the Test season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we\u2019re a few games in. You\u2019ve got a decent Test schedule, and you manage them through training, mental load, and physical load. And your meetings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great here, you walk off the back deck and you\u2019re at training. You\u2019ve got no bus time. It\u2019s a beautiful little village.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great we had that four-week period before we came over, to get ourselves physically ready and freshen up, and get a bit of UV before we head over here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been good. The boys are fresh, but battle-hardened.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

England <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

While New Zealand selectors will have to weigh up their options on the left edge in Clarke\u2019s absence, there will also be emphasis on keeping the bench loaded with the required firepower.<\/p>\n

The reserve unit was instrumental in New Zealand\u2019s Edinburgh<\/a> win over the weekend, and Robertson is expecting another tight game in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the recent history of England Test matches, they come down to small margins at the end of games, and it was like that very much against Scotland, wasn\u2019t it? There were big momentum swings, and a couple of moments, and we fought our way back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just really pleased with the calmness of the leaders and the ability to take moments and execute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robertson went on to highlight how being named on the bench in Test rugby has become as big a role as starting, and acknowledged the All Blacks\u2019 struggles in the final quarter of games last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the balance. We\u2019ve known that. The Test matches that were in our hands, we\u2019d led; the execution hadn\u2019t quite gone our way. Not being able to stack positive moments together and then getting a group to come on and swing momentum and stay on top of it and execute at key times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019ve really focused on, and it\u2019s great to see that change. It\u2019s really critical for us. You definitely look at it when you name your side, probably with more focus than you normally would, because you know how those margins are. Test matches are made in the last 20\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a 23, isn\u2019t it? And it\u2019s a 36 that gets you ready for the week, 23 on game day. Who\u2019s starting, who\u2019s finishing is just as important.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at Keven Mealamu<\/a>, he\u2019s a prime example. A humble hero, tough, whatever\u2019s best for the team, and he\u2019s a fine example of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks head coach Scott Robertson has issued an injury update following his side\u2019s win over Scotland, revealing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-277045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277045","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=277045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}