SBW in doubt for rest of tour

Slowing the game down, through legal means, was required and they did it well, taking their time to form lineouts. Ireland may have taken some notes.

‘‘But they will argue that they were just trying to get their calls, because of the crowd [noise] and that,’’ Hansen said.

‘‘But there is a fine line between doing that and slowing the game down. So it is up to the adjudicator at the time to make sure he has control over it because you don’t want games that are stop, start all the time.’’ Sonny Bill Williams has joined Joe Moody in the All Blacks’ Hard Luck Club.

A shoulder injury forced second fiveeighth Williams to depart the test against England in the 30th minute yesterday, and he may take no further part in the tour.

All Blacks coach Steve Hansen confirmed that Williams, 33, could be unavailable for the remaining tests against Ireland and Italy in Dublin and Rome.

‘‘He’s got a grade one AC shoulder [injury]. He may be [unavailable] for a week, maybe two,’’ Hansen said.

Williams, like prop Moody who was ruled out of the rest of the tour after splitting his eye at training last week, has suffered a multitude of injuries this year.

Ireland have injury problems of their own with back row star Sean O’Brien to miss next week’s All Blacks test with a broken arm, suffered in the win over Argentina. Influential halfback Conor Murray is ‘‘highly unlikely’’ for the New Zealand match.

At a glance

PHOTOSPORT/ GETTY IMAGES Midfield back Ryan Crotty shows the All Blacks’ sense of relief and jubilation as the fulltime whistle blows after their titanic tussle with England at Twickenham in London. The All Blacks scraped home 16-15.