TJ Perenara injured... Weepu is back

Photo courtesy of Zimbio.com

The seemingly cruel blow of another injury has seen TJ Perenara drop out of the All Blacks squad for the remainder of the Rugby Championship with a stress fracture in his left foot. It has been confirmed that this is the same foot that  Perenara broke last year in a friendly game for the Hurricanes and saw him needing surgery in his recovery. He is now in a race to be fit and firing for selection on the end of year tour. Something I hope he can achieve.

As Steven Hansen said in an interview yesterday "Its obviously a huge disappointment for him and us because, even though he hasn't had any game time yet for the All Blacks, he has been developing well within the squad".

I feel for TJ, his injury luck is pretty disappointing but from all accounts he seems like the type of player that will just get on with his recovery once again, a testament to his character and hopefully by the spring tour he will finally get his chance in the black jersey.

This sees the return of Piri Weepu into the Squad, with Shag justifying his selection by saying "we have seen advances in his game we asked him to improve on". Not a huge surprise to the rugby public that he has been brought in as cover, there are no other halfbacks knocking on the door for selection so perhaps its time for the old RWC slogan to come back... Keep Calm Piri's On.

Tom Taylor comes in as expected for the injured Dan Carter, hopefully he can see some game time after his fantastic effort's against Australia in his test debut at the Cake Tin.

The only other surprise selection has been to keep injured Captain Fantastic Richie McCaw with the squad for the tour, seeing Cantab No7 Matt Todd drop out of the squad and return for ITM Cup duty. This means that Sam Cane currently remains the only fit and available No7 in the squad, leaving a bit of a hole if he too goes down injured. Lets hope that doesn't happen. 

The coaching team outlined Richie's remaining spot, they believe the best chance of him recovering in time for a possible outing against South Africa at Ellis Park in a fortnight was to have him remain with the team and receive treatment from the AB's medical team, rather than have him remain in Christchurch.

With no test match rugby this weekend, I will be glued to the ITM Cup and might even finally get round to re watching last weekends performance.
What do you think?

All Blacks SquadForwardsHookers: Dane Coles, Andrew Hore and Keven Mealamu.Props: Wyatt Crockett, Charlie Faumuina, Ben and Owen Franks, Tony WoodcockLocks: Brodie Retallick, Jeremy Thrush, Sam WhitelockLoose forwards: Sam Cane, Steven Luatua, Richie McCaw, Liam Messam, Kieran Read

BacksHalfbacks: Tawera Kerr-Barlow, Aaron Smith and Piri WeepuFirst 5's: Beauden Barrett, Aaron Cruden and Tom TaylorMidfield: Ma'a Nonu and Conrad SmithOutside backs: Israel Dagg, Charles Piutau, Julian Savea, Ben Smith