Williams to miss Bledisloe clashes, Coles set for Wellington stint

Sonny Bill Williams will miss the Bledisloe Cup matches this month, while Dane Coles could return for the latter stages of the Rugby Championship after playing for Wellington in the Mitre 10 Cup.

Williams damaged his shoulder during the Test series win against France and the centre will not be considered to face Australia in Sydney on August 18 or at Eden Park a week later.

Coles, who has been plagued by knee and calf injuries, will not feature for the world champions until the end of next month at the earliest, but the hooker has been named in an All Blacks training squad.

“More than likely we will name him [Coles in the Rugby Championship squad] so we can have access to him as the season goes on.” said Hansen.

“But he will come back through the Mitre 10, and play various amounts of minutes there. Once he’s had enough rugby, he’ll come to us,

“We just need to get him fit, he needs to get a bit more intensity into his training and that’s going to take a wee while. We’ve just got to get him running fit so we can get the old Colsey back.”

Chiefs prop Nepo Laulala will miss the Rugby Championship with a broken arm.

The All Blacks will this week meet for a two-day training camp in Christchurch. 

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