Rugby-New Zealand pair could miss Wales clash after injuries

The New Zealand pair of Jordie Barrett ​and Will Jordan could miss next weekend's ​Nations Championship clash with Wales, ‌after ​they picked up injuries at Murrayfield against Scotland on Saturday. Jordan suffered a suspected hamstring injury in the second half of the ‌All Blacks’ convincing 43-21 victory, while Barrett was taken off for a head injury assessment (HIA) which he failed. He had a clash with Scotland substitute Blair Kinghorn.

"Jordie failed his HIA, so it’s not ‌sure whether he’ll be available this week, but we’ll get a bit of clarity ‌later,” the All Blacks coach Dave Rennie said. On Jordan, who is the All Blacks’ leading all-time try-scorer, the coach added: “He might have tweaked a hamstring. We’ll assess that, and I’m not sure of the severity of it.”

New ⁠Zealand ​are already without several ⁠key players, including inspirational loose forward Ardie Savea, for their four-match November programme in Britain, but had little problem ⁠shrugging off the Scottish challenge, even though their hosts were within three points at halftime. “It was an ​ill-disciplined first half with a couple of yellow cards,” said Rennie of his team, ⁠who had both Wallace Sititi and Peter Lakai sent to the sin-bin. “You give Scotland opportunities near finish zone, they're ⁠going ​to hit you, but we were better in the second half.

“We went to a contestable kick game to limit their time from a counterattack point of view, and were ⁠a lot more clinical, and we dominated territory a bit better. “You just saw us lose our ⁠shape a couple ⁠of times, and from turnover we had two or three really gilt-edge opportunities that we spilt,” added the coach.

The All Blacks play against Wales ‌in Cardiff ‌on Saturday. (Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; ​Editing by Sonali Paul)