SBW out of Ireland test with shoulder injury

Sonny Bill Williams has been ruled out of the All Blacks’ upcoming test against Ireland after picking up another shoulder injury in the past weekend’s victory over England.

Williams sustained a grade 1 tear of his AC joint, leaving the field just before half time, on 36 minutes.

While he will definitely not play against Ireland, he has been kept part of the All Blacks squad and could potentially still feature against Italy on November 24th.

In the meantime Ngani Luamape, prominent in the All Blacks’  69-31 thrashing of Japan, has been called up to the squad as backup with coach Steve Hansen saying:

“There’s a pretty good chance he’ll be right for Italy so he’ll stay but Ngani is coming over to make sure if we lose someone this week we’ve got someone.”