{"id":514105,"date":"2026-07-07T12:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514105\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T12:42:15","slug":"all-blacks-after-wallace-sititis-head-knock-his-mother-wanted-him-out-of-rugby-for-a-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/514105\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks: After Wallace Sititi\u2019s head knock, his mother wanted him out of rugby for a \u2018long time\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

He then rolled into the recovery position before visibly shaking, eventually making it to his feet and being carted from the field.<\/p>\n

\"WallaceWallace Sititi was carted off the field after suffering a head knock in the Chiefs’ Super Rugby quarter-final game against the Reds. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

Sititi was taken to hospital and then ruled out of his side\u2019s 49-12 semi-final victory over the Crusaders and their 60-5 loss to the Hurricanes in the grand final, but was still selected as part of Dave Rennie\u2019s first squad as All Blacks coach.<\/p>\n

He came on to the field just before the 55-minute mark against France and had told reporters after a midweek training session he was nervous about returning but probably not as much as his mother was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a nervous player and I always get nervous before every game, but definitely before that last weekend<\/a>,\u201d Sititi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I know my mum will be happy to see me get through that game, and it was definitely a good feeling out there as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old said it was a proud moment for him to pull on the black jersey again<\/a> but his mother wasn\u2019t keen on him returning to the field.<\/p>\n

\"WallaceWallace Sititi\u00a0came off the bench for the All Blacks against France in Christchurch. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t want to watch another rugby game in a long time, so I\u2019m just happy to get through that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know my mum will be relieved, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about the injury<\/a>, Sititi said there were parts of the evening he couldn\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sort of remember everything that happened right up until then, and then I don\u2019t remember anything after that until coming to at the hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s pretty scary for myself and my family, I\u2019ve received a lot of love and support, that\u2019s for sure, and I\u2019m just grateful for everyone that reached out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all good to go and ready to put that behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chiefs and All Blacks teammate Luke Jacobson said after Sititi had been taken to hospital that it had been one of the scariest things he\u2019d seen on a rugby field, something 23-year-old Sititi reflected on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a tight group at the Chiefs and I\u2019ve grown really close with Luke as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to hear that and to hear how much they care is special.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, like I said, it\u2019s just good to have put that behind us and keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the unsettling experience, Sititi said he\u2019s since been able to watch replays of the game and the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cScary times and it was a scary moment, but I think a part of moving on is being able to see what happened in the past and leave it back in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sititi has played 20 times for the All Blacks and is in contention to start for New Zealand against Italy this weekend in Wellington. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He then rolled into the recovery position before visibly shaking, eventually making it to his feet and being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[255547,74,5263,8136,2082,106,42,16718,293,1224,70338,2190,6178,43,1118,3111,6327,1534,255546,2044,40,38,41,39,12884,5828],"class_list":["post-514105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-510pm","tag-after","tag-all","tag-blacks","tag-for","tag-head","tag-headlines","tag-him","tag-his","tag-italy","tag-knock","tag-long","tag-mother","tag-news","tag-of","tag-out","tag-rugby","tag-saturday","tag-sititis","tag-time","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wallace","tag-wanted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=514105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}