{"id":606586,"date":"2026-05-27T12:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606586\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T12:44:09","slug":"all-blacks-captain-scott-barrett-ruled-out-of-springboks-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/606586\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks captain Scott Barrett ruled out of Springboks tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett has been ruled out for the next five months after suffering a back injury which will require surgery.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders forward will go under the knife to correct a troublesome issue he picked after returning to training following a non-playing sabbatical.<\/p>\n

Barrett decided to take a break and miss the majority of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season in order to correct ankle and Achilles problems.<\/p>\n

Barrett out until October<\/p>\n

He intended to be back in the mix ahead of the inaugural Nations Championship, where the All Blacks<\/a> will face France, Italy and Ireland.<\/p>\n

However, the 32-year-old has been ruled out of those internationals and will now sit out the whole of the South Africa tour with New Zealand set to face the Springboks<\/a> in four Tests.<\/p>\n

Dave Rennie, who has replaced Scott Robertson as All Blacks head coach, will therefore definitely be naming a new captain for the upcoming campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s tried every non-invasive trick you could do to get right and it just hasn\u2019t come off, so he\u2019ll be in the operating theatre by the end of the week,\u201d Crusaders boss Rob Penney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in great shape, he had a great break, and he\u2019d come back very excited. He\u2019s still contributing as he does really meaningfully behind the scenes, but he\u2019s as frustrated as all of us are for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got his head around it now, I guess a pretty special trip to South Africa that he\u2019s going to miss and some other bits and pieces, but ultimately he\u2019s just got to get himself right.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks: Ex-manager on \u2018awesome\u2019 Graham Henry confession, why Ian Foster \u2018didn\u2019t have a chance\u2019 and \u2018skill\u2019 that transformed Richie McCaw\u2019s captaincy<\/a><\/p>\n

As well as Barrett<\/a> and the All Blacks, it is also a blow for the Crusaders, whose injuries are starting to mount at an important time of the season.<\/p>\n

There were suggestions that if all went well the lock would be in contention for the Super Rugby run-in, but that will obviously not now happen.<\/p>\n

Other significant injuries<\/p>\n

Will Jordan is another key player who will miss the rest of the domestic campaign after reaggravating a calf problem which will keep him on the sidelines for the next few weeks at least.<\/p>\n

That will also concern Rennie with the Nations Championship beginning just two weeks after the Super Rugby final.<\/p>\n

The Crusaders are also without another All Blacks star with prop Tamaiti Williams being ruled out because of discitis, an infection in a disc in his spine, and his return date is unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing those men is without question disappointing, but it\u2019s allowed a whole other group to step up and take a leadership role and put their own stamp on it, and that\u2019s what you require,\u201d Penney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we go any further into the competition post this weekend, it\u2019ll be on the back of those men really stepping up, and they\u2019re certainly capable of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Will Jordan OUT? Ranking five All Black full-back options as Dave Rennie sweats over key man\u2019s fitness<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Blacks captain Scott Barrett has been ruled out for the next five months after suffering a back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[140886,348,3482,620,50,5903,206730,101,74606,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-606586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-crusaders","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-scott-barrett","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}