The All Blacks captain scored both New Zealand tries in the first half hour at FNB Stadium and left holding his arm. Dave Rennie’s injury update at the post-match press conference on Saturday 5 September took two sentences, and one of them ended his series.
Ardie Savea scored both All Blacks tries in the first half hour at FNB Stadium on Saturday 5 September. He will not be on the plane to Baltimore.
Dave Rennie gave the Ardie Savea injury update at the post-match press conference after South Africa’s 29-24 win at FNB Stadium, the result that put the Springboks 2-1 up in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry with one Test left.
“His shoulder. I’m not sure whether it’s dislocated … he certainly won’t be travelling to the States.”
Savea went down after a clean-out at a ruck just after the half hour, with the score at 12-5 to New Zealand, and walked off with his arm held across his body. Wallace Sititi came on. The second of his two tries was his 35th in Tests and, by the Guardian’s count, more than any forward has scored in Test history, which is why the 8.5 the ratings gave him for 31 minutes was the joint-highest All Blacks mark of the night.
Rennie was asked how big a loss it was in the context of the game.
“He was massive, wasn’t he? But Wallace came on and played well, so we’re certainly not going to use that as an excuse.”
Sititi’s 49 minutes
Sititi’s Saturday was his first involvement of the series after a hard start to the tour. He carried into the Springboks 22 twice inside three minutes of coming on, ripped the ball from Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu on 42, picked off a pass on 43, and made the break after the hooter that set up Samisoni Taukei’aho’s try. Rennie’s “played well” undersold it. In Baltimore the No 8 jersey is his to lose.
The captaincy is the other vacancy. Luke Jacobson took it when Savea left on 31 and sat beside Rennie at the press conference, three days after he named the fix for his Cape Town clean-out penalty and after leading the All Blacks against the Sharks in Durban in August with Savea resting in New Zealand. Codie Taylor, who has captained on this tour and has more than 100 Tests, was left out of the 23 for Soweto. Rennie was not asked who leads next week, and did not say.
After the Ardie Savea injury, Tupaea’s knee is the second question
Quinn Tupaea went down three minutes into the second half and Anton Lienert-Brown replaced him. Rennie had less to give on that one.
“The report we heard during the game was MCL. I’m not sure of the extent. He wanted to try and get up and run, but we just ended up making a call. I’m not sure of the severity and whether that’ll affect him going to America or not.”
A medial ligament report from the sideline is not a diagnosis, and Rennie did not treat it as one. Tupaea had been penalised in the second minute for a high tackle on Feinberg-Mngomezulu and had rushed out of the line on Jesse Kriel in the first half. Whether he boards the charter is the first All Blacks team-news question of the week.
South Africa lost a player too. Cheslin Kolbe left inside the first ten minutes for a head injury assessment and did not return, and SA Rugby magazine’s Simon Borchardt reported on Saturday night that he had broken his jaw.
Read also: the coaches had a beer after Cape Town and share the charter to the United States. Rennie said on Saturday that the beer stands.
“I said to Rassie we’d have a beer afterwards regardless of the result. So we’ll do that.”
Baltimore without the captain
Savea fronted the media alone on Friday and did the arithmetic himself: lose in Soweto and the best New Zealand can do is draw the series. They lost, and now they do it without him. A draw at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday 12 September hands South Africa the series. New Zealand have to win. The full run of results is in every fixture and result in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry.
Read next: both camps called Baltimore the decider before Soweto, and only one of them ruled out a draw.
“The room’s pretty gutted”
Rennie had been in the changing room before he walked into the press conference.
“It’s hard when you’ve lost the test. It’s easy to reflect on all the negative things. I can guarantee you the room’s pretty gutted. I just walked in there before and there’s a lot of heads down. There’s no doubt our mindset will be to bounce back next week.”
The Ardie Savea injury takes the captain and the joint-best All Black of the night out of that room for the decider. Sititi and Jacobson have a week.
Your turn
Luke Jacobson or Codie Taylor for the armband in Baltimore? Jacobson led for 49 minutes on Saturday and led the tour side in Durban. Taylor has the caps and was not in the 23. One name below.
