{"id":565334,"date":"2026-08-11T04:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T04:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565334\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T04:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T04:22:13","slug":"roigard-pulls-out-of-all-blacks-match-against-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/565334\/","title":{"rendered":"Roigard pulls out of All Blacks match against Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top All Blacks halfback Cam Roigard has withdrawn from tomorrow\u2019s game against the Sharks in Durban due to a tight calf muscle.<\/p>\n

An All Blacks\u2019 spokesperson said this morning the move was precautionary. <\/p>\n

Cortez Ratima, who started the 38-21 victory over the Stormers<\/a> in Cape Town, will replace Roigard, who had been named on the reserves bench<\/a>. Kyle Preston will start the match.<\/p>\n

Roigard\u2019s injury comes in the wake of Will Jordan\u2019s back problem, revealed yesterday by head coach Dave Rennie.<\/p>\n

Ring wing Jordan would have played in tomorrow\u2019s match had he been fit but Rennie expected him to recover in time for Sunday\u2019s match against the Bulls in Pretoria.<\/p>\n

The latest issues to two of the All Blacks\u2019 best players, while apparently minor, will add to the workload of the squad\u2019s medical staff ahead of the first Test against the Springboks in Johannesburg on August 23.<\/p>\n

And they come after midfielder Billy Proctor (shoulder fracture) and hooker George Bell (calf strain) prepare to travel home to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Bell has already been replaced by Bradley Slater, who is in line to play his first match for the All Blacks tomorrow, but an announcement on Proctor\u2019s replacement has yet to come.<\/p>\n

The silence may be connected to the continuing negotiations over Richie Mo\u2019unga joining the squad<\/a> after his three years in Japan, a reunion that will require sign-off from New Zealand Rugby\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

\"Richie<\/p>\n

Richie Mo’unga celebrates the end of Canterbury’s successful Ranfurly Shield challenge against Otago. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Mo\u2019unga has fulfilled his part of the deal by playing two matches for Canterbury in the NPC, the second one a successful Ranfurly Shield challenge<\/a> against Otago, and, while the first-five would not be a like-for-like replacement, the alternatives pale in comparison. Canterbury make their first Shield defence on Saturday against Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n

One player almost on his way is skipper Ardie Savea, who has spent the past fortnight resting and conditioning after a heavy recent workload.<\/p>\n

Savea has been posting videos of his training sessions with several of his friends including former All Blacks loose forward Victor Vito in Wellington on his Instagram account and is set to depart for South Africa today with a view to playing the first Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a village, eh?\u201d Savea says in his final video in reference to the support he has received on the training pitch over the past few days. \u201cNow it\u2019s up to me to back it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, heavy rain in Durban has caused flooding in the build-up to the match against the Sharks.<\/p>\n

Asked about the weather, Luke Jacobson, who will lead the All Blacks for the first time, said: \u201cWe\u2019re professional athletes, this is what we train for. We back ourselves to perform in any conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including why power prices are unlikely to fall, and a bizarre twist in an Australian homicide investigation. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Top All Blacks halfback Cam Roigard has withdrawn from tomorrow\u2019s game against the Sharks in Durban due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[789,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-565334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565334","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=565334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}