The All-Black management are beginning to get a little fed up at the constant scrutiny over the fitness of captain Richie McCaw.
McCaw has been struggling with a problem in his foot throughout the tournament, having had a screw inserted into the fifth metatarsal in his left foot earlier this year. He missed games against Japan and Canada earlier in the tournament and has been absent for some parts of All-Black training this week.
The growing concern of All-Black followers has been added to by the presence in the camp of Matt Todd, with speculation suggesting that the Canterbury flanker has been called in to cover New Zealand’s inspirational captain.
All-Black coach Steve Hansen, however, insists that there is no problem with McCaw and that he will be fit to face the Wallabies on Sunday.
“Richie McCaw’s foot is fine,” Hansen said a tad bullishly.
“Matt Todd is training with us, as you all know. Matt Todd is in Auckland and it just made commonsense to have him here.
“Now that does not mean to say Richie’s foot is worse than it was. It does not mean Richie is not playing on Saturday, it just means Matt Todd was in Auckland and we wanted to use him in training as opposition.”
Considering that talisman Dan Carter has already been ruled out the tournament, the loss of McCaw would be catastrophic.
Are the All-Blacks starting to feel the pressure?
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