All Black backline
Israel Dagg (Crusaders): Knee Lima Sopoaga (Highlanders): Hamstring Waisake Naholo (Highlanders): Hamstring Nehe Milner-Skudder (Hurricanes): Ankle prognosis, but he and the Hurricanes outside back looked in severe pain.
Crusaders coach Scott Robertson, who witnessed a second thrilling comeback from his team in the space of two weeks, said yesterday that Dagg would miss several matches at least.
“Israel will get an MRI but it didn’t look great, so that’s an indication of what we are dealing with. It’s not a major-major but it will be a few weeks for sure,” Robertson said.
The hamstring injuries to Sopoaga, Naholo and Tamanivalu could keep them out for anything up to six weeks.
“It doesn’t look good,” Highlanders coach Tony Brown said after watching his team outlast the Blues for a win he suggested neither team deserved. “It looks like Lima will be out for a while; Waisake the same.
“They don’t come right overnight,” Brown said of hamstring injuries. “Those guys are going to be tough to replace but we’ll have to wait and see [today].”
Brown at least had the consolation of knowing his team had battled to their first win of the season against a Blues team which failed to fire.
The Highlanders showed grit on defence in the final 10 minutes and held on despite losing loose forward Gareth Evans to a late yellow card.
For the Crusaders, it was another incredible comeback at Suncorp Stadium after their heroics in coming back from a 21-point deficit to beat the Highlanders in Dunedin last weekend.
All Blacks coach Hansen will have little choice but to take a philosophical view at the series of injuries to his outside back contenders for the Lions tour, and Brown said: “To me, that’s just footy.”
But for Milner-Skudder, the ankle injury follows a serious shoulder problem this time last year which ruled him out of the game for almost 12 months. Naholo has had wellpublicised issues with broken legs, and Dagg has also had shoulder and leg problems for much of his career.
All three, plus No 10 Sopoaga, are key players for Hansen, and he is likely to be awaiting their injury reports with a mixture of hope and nervousness.