LYON, France (AP) — New Zealand is sweating on the fitness of starting tighthead prop Tyrel Lomax for the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals after he suffered another leg injury.
Lomax strained the medial ligament in his right knee against Uruguay on Thursday in Lyon. He lasted only nine minutes of his first start since the late-August defeat to South Africa when his right thigh was accidentally gashed by studs.
The All Blacks don't know yet how bad is the strain.
“We're just getting some scans now,” coach Ian Foster said on Friday. “It's definitely looking like a medial. It doesn't look overtly significant.”
The All Blacks beat Uruguay 73-0 and clinched a quarterfinal spot, likely against Ireland on Sunday week at Stade de France. They'll know the opponent for sure after Ireland plays Scotland on Saturday.
Lomax's backup against Uruguay, Fletcher Newell, also came off late with a knee issue but Foster said that was precautionary.
If Lomax can't play in the quarterfinals which will be a blow, Nepo Laulala will likely start.
Foster, involved with the All Blacks in a fourth straight Rugby World Cup, said he loves this stage of the tournament.
“There's no tomorrow to them,” he said. “It just narrows down the focus, so keeping it simple like that is key for us.”
Ireland won a first series in New Zealand last year, and the All Blacks lost a first home series in 28 years. That almost cost Foster his job and he said they took on board lessons.
“We got smacked and that's OK — we took our medicine,” he said. “We've been rebuilding nicely since then so I like where we're at. A little bit of adversity never hurt anyone if you use it well. The key to any path you walk on is you just own your errors and own your mistakes and get on with it. I believe we've done that. We're ready."
Beauden Barrett started in every match of that Ireland series.
“What we know is the beast that Ireland are, and if you allow them to dictate up front and play the way they want to, they are a tough team to stop,” Barrett said
“So if it's Ireland in the quarterfinals it's going to be great because there's a lot of us who are pretty keen to get one up on them and still hurting from what happened last year.”
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