Nonu suffers major setback
Comments
0
All Black centre Ma'a Nonu may be sidelined for the remainder of the Rugby Championship with a suspected broken forearm after a bruising encounter with the Springboks in Wellington on Saturday.
Nonu did not emerge from the changeroom in the second-half of the tense 14-10 victory over the Springboks and coach Steve Hansen later revealed the severity of the injury.
"We've got a pretty good idea of Ma'a's prognosis," Hansen said.
"We think it's probably broken. He felt sore and the doctor decided he wasn't right at halftime."
The exciting encounter between the world's two best teams saw many players limping off the field with injuries.
There are concerns over Springboks Ruan Pienaar and Francois Louw with the former having to be carried of the field with a knee injury while the latter was sent for scans after the game.
Besides the injuries on both sides, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen was elated with his team's character – giving them an A+ for their performance.
"The character of the side has been tested a few times over the last couple of years and they keep coming up with an A+ pass mark," Hansen said.
"Once again they did that tonight.
However, Hansen, always the perfectionist, was not ready to say that it was a perfect performance by any stretch of the imagination.
"We put themselves under pressure at times, making poor decisions with our kicking.
"In doing so that allowed the Boks to attack us from unstable platforms and defensive platforms and yet we showed a lot of courage to keep them out.
"It is one thing we're very proud of."
The Springboks, trailing by four points in the dying stages of the game, had a number of opportunities to snatch the game away from the World Champions, but in the end it was the All Blacks who won the arm wrestle.
"You often talk about test matches being an arm wrestle and the arm wrestle was won in the last 100th of second of the game," Hansen said.
"They could have easily scored right at the very end and won it.
"It's shame in a game like that that someone has to lose but I'm just happy it wasn't us."
ADVERTISEMENT
