All Blacks suffer injury blow ahead of second England Test

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

New Zealand scrum half TJ Perenara has been ruled out of Saturday’s second Test against England because of a knee injury.

Perenara made his first All Blacks appearance since 2022 in the series opener in Dunedin having recovered from an Achilles problem.

But his comeback was cut short when he limped out of the 16-15 victory in the first half and New Zealand have confirmed he will play no part in the Eden Park rematch.

It leaves New Zealand exposed at scrum half following the international retirement of Aaron Smith, who is now playing club rugby in Japan.

“We are waiting on a specialist to determine an exact return to play date. Hopefully it is not too long but we haven’t got an exact date yet,” assistant coach Jason Holland said.

Finlay Christie is poised to start the second of two Tests against England in Perenara’s absence as New Zealand, who name their team in the early hours of Thursday morning, aim to retain an unbeaten record at Eden Park that goes back to 1994.

England will also be forced to make a change for the match after experienced loosehead prop Joe Marler was ruled out of the clash.

Fin Baxter, who came off the bench to make his debut in place of Marler in Dunedin, or Bevan Rodd are likely to start in Auckland as uncapped squad replacement Emmanuel Iyogun will not arrive in New Zealand until Tuesday.