mens
international
All black people Head coach Dave Rennie has revealed what his side are doing differently to combat the calf injury problem that has affected several players during the 2026 season.
Patrick Tuipulotu, Jordie Barrett, Richie Mo’unga and Samisoni Taukei’aho have all missed time with calf issues, which will look unfortunate to some, while others will chalk it up to a load management issue.
Taukei’aho will miss the rest of the 2026 international season after sustaining a calf injury while defending the Wallabies rolling maul.
Tuipulotu, who featured frequently during the grueling eight-week tour of South Africa, did not fully recover in time to become a choice for Rennie and the coaching staff ahead Nations Championship the final.
Rennie told the media Auckland on Tuesday that Tuipulotu has just started running but is yet to undergo any contact work after the South African tour.
When asked about the lingering problems with the leaves, Rennie admitted that they have made some changes.
“Yeah, look, I mean, a lot of crash-type injuries that you can’t do much about,” Rennie said at their Auckland hotel.
“You look at Ardi’s situation, Billy Proctor, Caleb Clarke, they’ve all had shoulder injuries, and it’s just part of the nature of the game.
“We’ve had a few calves in the last couple of weeks, so we’ve looked carefully at our loading for guys who are away from us for a few weeks and then come back.”
Rennie said he would not stop pushing his players to train at the intensity required to play Test rugby, but would have to manage and adjust the workload.
“We’ve got to train with intensity and play with the intensity we want, so we’re just looking at it carefully.
“All the guys away from us had GPS, so we got an idea of the kind of programs we should be doing, and the guys nailed those programs.
“We’ve just got to make sure we do a good load, too. So it’s not necessarily all on us. We’re just trying to figure out why we had five or six calves.”
