Injury crisis forces All Blacks into four squad changes ahead of second Bledisloe Test

The All Blacks have been forced into four squad changes ahead of the second Bledisloe Cup Test against the Wallabies in Sydney, with a cluster of injuries and head assessment failures leaving coach Dave Rennie reshaping his travelling group.

Ethan Blackadder, Anton Segner, Asafo Aumua, and Leroy Carter will all remain in Auckland, replaced by Du’Plessis Kirifi, Jamie Hannah, Anton Lienert-Brown, and George Bell.

Kirifi’s inclusion is the most notable addition. The loose-forward has been consistently overlooked by Rennie and his coaching staff throughout 2026 and had not featured for the All Blacks since the 2025 end-of-year tour under former head coach Scott Robertson. His call-up is a direct consequence of the mounting injury toll rather than a change in selection philosophy.

Blackadder will not travel after picking up a calf injury in the warm-up at Eden Park. Segner and Aumua both failed late-game Head Injury Assessments following a head clash between the two while making a tackle, triggering mandatory twelve-day stand-downs.

The injury that will concern Rennie most is Carter’s, after the back was helped from the field following his second-half try. Speaking to media after the first Test, Rennie admitted the situation looked serious.

“Yeah, it didn’t look good. Sort of what you call a hip drop type tackle, landed on the back of his ankle,” Rennie said in Auckland. “I haven’t had a chance to talk to the doc yet, but it looked reasonably serious.”

Rennie confirmed that captain Scott Barrett also failed his HIA late in the Eden Park match but expressed cautious optimism that he would clear the necessary protocols in time for Sydney.

“Yeah, so Scott failed his test. He’s pretty good, we think, and so he’s still an option for this week, assuming that he passes all the protocols,” Rennie said. “So those guys will have to get through a few tests niggly, because we’ve got a limited number of guys travelling, so we’ll know a bit more about tomorrow.”

Hannah returns to the All Blacks environment having featured in Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry, while Lienert-Brown has made a swift recovery after injuring himself in the fourth Test against the Springboks in Baltimore.