{"id":61522,"date":"2025-08-12T03:13:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61522\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T03:13:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T03:13:16","slug":"two-in-two-out-for-rugby-championship-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/61522\/","title":{"rendered":"Two in, two out for Rugby Championship opener"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The All Blacks<\/a>\u2018 injury list has eased slightly ahead of The Rugby Championship<\/a> opener against Los Pumas<\/a> in Corboda, but a couple of big names remain sidelined for round 1.<\/p>\n

While Tyrel Lomax<\/a>, Luke Jacobson<\/a>, Cam Roigard<\/a>, Noah Hotham<\/a> and Caleb Clarke<\/a> stayed in New Zealand<\/a> to rehab their respective injuries, there were a few players whose recovery timeframes made them possible inclusions in the Argentina<\/a> Tests.<\/p>\n

Of the travelling rehabbers, both Beauden and Scott Barrett<\/a> have been cleared as available for game 1. As for the others, fans will have to wait at least one more week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWallace (Sititi) is still not available for the first Test,\u201d Robertson told reporters on Monday evening local time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Tamaiti Williams<\/a> has still got another week of full training with us before he becomes available for the second Test as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Rugby Championship<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Argentina <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tupou Vaa\u2019i, who missed the third and final Test against France<\/a> in July with a concussion, is also cleared to play for the coming weekend\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n

Robertson went on to confirm that the trio of players who arrived in Argentina late were also available for selection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys off the plane who played NPC, Simon Parker<\/a>, Peter Lakai<\/a>, and Josh Lord<\/a>, made it pretty well. They travelled with us today and they were great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The late contingent stayed in New Zealand for another run in the NPC, having each recently overcome injuries and therefore lacking in recent gametime.<\/p>\n

The number of injuries the team has suffered over the past two months has led Robertson to adopt a more fluid selection strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I have learned in the last three Tests is that you are never guaranteed it\u2019s going to be the same (players available),\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play rugby, and it is a game of brutality, and that is a beautiful part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuys have to play well. It is a competitive squad and we will look to have some continuity, and if people perform and we need to build some depth, there could be a couple of changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The All Blacks\u2018 injury list has eased slightly ahead of The Rugby Championship opener against Los Pumas in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-61522","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\/61522","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=61522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}