“He’s got a big vertical fracture through his shoulder blade. It’s a 10-to-12-week injury. It won’t require surgery but that’s the sort of timeframe so we’re devastated for him. He’ll head home on the same plane as George Bell.”
Losing Proctor is a blow but with Jordie Barrett, Quinn Tupaea, Anton Lienert-Brown, Rieko Ioane and Timoci Tavatavanawai remaining in the squad, the All Blacks may believe they have enough midfield cover to last the tour.
AJ Lam’s departure to France also leaves no obvious next-in-line replacement.
David Havili, before he departs to Japan, is one potential option.
Since assuming charge of the All Blacks earlier this year Rennie has made no secret of his desire to select Mo’unga from the outset of his tenure.
Mo’unga attended a camp with the All Blacks prior to the Super Rugby final.
New Zealand Rugby rules stipulate that Mo’unga, having not committed for two years, had to first return home from Japan to play a full NPC season for Canterbury before becoming eligible for the All Blacks.
Mo’unga has now, however, featured twice for Canterbury – the last of which he played a part in wrestling the Ranfurly Shield from Otago.
Rennie selected four playmakers – Ruben Love, Damian McKenzie, Beauden Barrett and Josh Jacomb – in his original 44-man South African touring squad, all of whom remain fit.
But with a view to next year’s World Cup, Rennie would love to get Mo’unga involved as soon as possible.
Rennie confirmed the All Blacks planned to replace Proctor: “Yeah, we will. We’re working through that process.”
Asked specifically if Mo’unga would receive the call-up, Rennie chuckled and said: “We’ll work through that process.”
For that to transpire, Rennie would need the New Zealand Rugby board to grant the All Blacks an exemption to select the 56-test playmaker.
Ten days out from their opening battle against the Springboks, the All Blacks have selected a shadow test team for the Sharks but front rowers Tyrel Lomax, Xavier Numia and Codie Taylor as well as outside back Will Jordan were held back due to niggling injuries.
Reflecting on the widespread scratchy elements of their first up win over the Stormers, Rennie expects the All Blacks to be better for the challenging experience and deliver a vastly improved performance.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who have never played over here. You can talk about the challenges you’re going to face up front and you don’t really understand it until you experience it.
“We’re confident we’ll do a better job staying in front of the maul. We did better in the second half. The scrum stuff we can tidy up.
“We weren’t clinical enough on the edge. We created a number of opportunities. A couple of them were three-on-ones and five-on-twos and we didn’t nail it. We’ve spent a bit of time on that.
“The high ball, I don’t think we caught one so that’s going to be important for us. We take a lot of lessons from it.
“When we were down to 13 the boys barred up for each other and when it mattered we finished strong.”
All Blacks team for the Sharks:
1. Ethan de Groot, 2. Asafo Aumua, 3. Fletcher Newell, 4. Josh Lord, 5. Sam Darry, 6. Tupou Vaa’i, 7. Luke Jacobson(c), 8. Wallace Sititi 9. Kyle Preston, 10. Ruben Love, 11. Caleb Clarke, 12. Jordie Barrett, 13. Quinn Tupaea, 14. Fehi Fineanganofo, 15. Damian McKenzie
Reserves: 16. Bradley Slater, 17. Ollie Norris, 18. Pasilio Tosi, 19. Ethan Blackadder, 20. Semisi Ta’eiloa, 21. Cam Roigard, 22. Timoci Tavatavanawai, 23. Emoni Narawa
Liam Napier is a Senior Sports Journalist and Rugby Correspondent for the New Zealand Herald. He is a co-host of the Rugby Direct podcast.