All Blacks star handed fitness boost ahead of Rugby World Cup quarter-final with Ireland

New Zealand have received a fitness boost with the news that first choice tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax will be considered for selection for their Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Ireland in Paris on Saturday.

Lomax sustained a second knee injury in his country’s 73-0 victory over Uruguay in their pool game in Lyon on October 5.

The 27-year-old returned to action in the All Blacks’ win over Italy the previous week, after he was sidelined for a month due to a freak knee cut which needed 30 stitches in their 35-7 Rugby World Cup warm-up loss against the Springboks at Twickenham in August.

Set to return to action

However, All Blacks forwards coach Jason Ryan said Lomax trained well on Tuesday and is in line to return to action in their highly anticipated knockout encounter with the men from the Emerald Isle.

“If you’re heading to a final, which this is, it’s important you have the luxury of picking from a fully available squad, which is what we want to be,” he said.

“[There’s] always going to be niggles but it’s great in this player’s point of view and in regards to Lowy [Lomax], it’s great he has got through today. We have a pretty high intensive training on Thursday, so he’ll have to tick that off as well.”

When asked about the different approaches which Ireland and New Zealand had taken to team selection during the World Cup and what effect that might have on the outcome of Saturday’s clash, Ryan said: “We like to keep everyone hungry. It is important that everyone is competing in training, and we have given everyone a crack in this World Cup.

“We are clear on who our starting lineup is, and it is full steam ahead for this final. This is where you want to be. It’s where the players want to be in a final.

“It’s where you want to be as a coach, and it’s where the All Blacks want to be. That is an opportunity we are looking forward to against the No 1 team in the world.”

Ryan spoke about former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt’s role as one of the All Blacks’ assistant coaches and said Schmidt had concentrated on driving the three-time world champions’ game and what they could do better.

“He has challenged the group, as we all have as coaches, and how the All Blacks can be better so there hasn’t been any of that chat [about Ireland],” he added.

Ryan also revealed that the All Blacks were not scared of failure.

Legacy of the All Blacks jersey

“The All Black jersey means a lot to us. We have talked a lot over the last few months about the legacy of the black jersey and what it means,” he said. “You talk about someone like Sean Fitzpatrick; he properly set the All Blacks legacy alight with what he did.

“Are we scared of failure? No.

“But do we want to embrace the legacy and what we want to achieve?

“Yes, and we want to walk towards it.”

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