All Blacks coach issues definitive fitness update on Scott Barrett with key Springboks clashes on the horizon

Colin Newboult
All Blacks captain Scott Barrett and forwards coach Jason Ryan.

All Blacks captain Scott Barrett and forwards coach Jason Ryan.

All Blacks assistant coach Jason Ryan has confirmed Scott Barrett’s timeframe for recovery after the captain was ruled out with a finger issue.

The second-row had surgery on the injury which was picked up in the dominant victory over Fiji last month.

It has been confirmed that Barrett will miss the Rugby Championship opener against Argentina, with Ardie Savea being named captain in his absence.

Springboks coming up

However, Ryan stated that the lock will be available for the crucial encounters against the Springboks in rounds three and four after providing a frank response to the question of Barrett’s fitness.

“He’s out for two Tests, Argentina one and Argentina two,” was the coach’s forthright answer.

The All Blacks not only lose the edge that Barrett brings via his intensity and physicality but also the skills he offers at the lineout.

That area of the set-piece was an issue for New Zealand against England but Ryan hopes that they rectified their problems in the Fiji clash.

“We’ll learn a bit there. We tipped our hat to [Maro] Itoje, we thought he did some good stuff, but we’re 17 out of 18 in our last Test – 98 per cent – so we’re looking at building on that,” he said.

“Argentina will bring a little bit of a different defensive system.

“We’ve definitely got to build up where we’ve left off pretty quickly. Argentina, they bring a different intensity to the first three Tests that we’ve had, so we’re looking on improving on the areas that we need to.”

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Scott Robertson’s men are expected to beat Los Pumas, particularly with the matches taking place in Wellington and Auckland, but Ryan knows that the visitors will bring an edge to the encounter.

‘Abrasive players’

“They’ve always been a passionate side the Argies, they bring a lot of energy and they like to play with momentum. [Marcos] Kremer and [Pablo] Matera are big, abrasive players around the breakdown,” he said.

“We’ve got to get into our rhythm pretty quickly but it’s good to reconnect again, the boys have done the training they needed to in this time off.”

Despite scoring some fine tries against Fiji, the All Blacks struggled to find their rhythm in the England series, but Ryan believes that their attack will be better this weekend.

“We learned a lot around our carry and clean game and getting some momentum there. We thought we were really accurate around our decision-making, which was good, and we’re looking forward to build off our scrum and set-piece,” he added.

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