Crusaders v Hurricanes
Kick-off: 7:05pm Friday 14 Feb
Apollo Projects Stadium, Christchurch
Live blog updates on RNZ Sport
From an AC joint to a wrist, hamstrings, knees, fingers and toes Super Rugby squads are banged up before a competitive ball has been kicked.
Each New Zealand franchise has no fewer than five players ruled out for their opening game of the season.
The Crusaders were the hardest hit with 14 players out of action.
Blues lock Sam Darry has a season ending shoulder injury and his team mates PJ Sheck and Ben Ake also have shoulder complaints keeping them out of the match day squad. Crusaders prop Finlay Brewis' shoulder injury also means he will not get any game time this season.
Highlanders back Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens has a neck injury that is listed as keeping him sidelined for nine weeks. His team mate Oliver Haig's injured foot will keep him out for a similar timeframe.
Ankles, knees and foot injuries are among the Hurricanes eight injury concerns. The Hurricane's first choice first-five last season, Brett Cameron, will miss the whole of the 2025 season with a knee injury picked up during the NPC. Winger Daniel Sinkinson could be eight rounds away from playing due to a hamstring , meaning he might not take the field until half way through the competition.
An injured Sam Darry during a Blues Super Rugby training session Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
All Blacks Ruben Love and Tyrel Lomax with ankle injuries, Dallas McLeod (hip), Codie Taylor (hamstring), George Bell and Asafo Amumua feet, Wallace Sititi and Hoskins Sotutu knees, Samisoni Taukiaho (achilles) and Stephen Perofeta (calf) will be out of Super Rugby for differing lengths of time but will still want enough game time to push for selection for this year's All Blacks' squad.
Crusaders coach Rob Penney said the franchise had questioned their strength and conditioning approach but said they had "a magnificent medical team".
"We put a massive amount of effort into trying to mitigate the hamstring soft tissue injuries in particular but hammys we ended up getting three of them late in the piece... it's a competitive tough industry that we're in and the athletes they are pushing themselves to the limits and sometimes they break."
AUT head of sport and exercise science associate professor Dr Kelly Sheerin said several factors contributed to Super Rugby injuries.
"The reality is that professional sport is entertainment and I think that has a big bearing on the injuries that are there."
A summer start, a short pre-season and wanting to get the big names players on the park can influence the injury list, according to Sheerin.
Chiefs coach Clayton McMillan named the majority of his available All Blacks on the bench for their season opener against the Blues on Saturday citing the fact that those players had only two weeks of pre-season, compared to the eight weeks the rest of the squad had had and he wanted to be careful with their re-introduction.
Sheerin pointed out the McMillan was not alone in receiving players from other teams in other competitions who might not have had the same down time as players in years gone by.
Brett Cameron won't play for the Hurricanes this season. Photo: Aaron Gillions / www.photosport.nz
"If you go back to the origins of rugby as a winter sport that it operated during a winter season even at the elite level and then players got a half year break essentially and then they would have a solid pre-season before then entering their rugby again.
"But when you start thinking about the realities now and Super Rugby kicking off we're in the height of summer... and the players may not have had much of a break.
"The whole rugby season is huge - you get players that might be playing Super Rugby, for their national team and then going into provincial rugby as well and depending on what level they are that that may or may not include an end of year season tour as well or in the case of Beauden Barrett and other players like that they go off to Japan.
"It's only really a pre-season if you look at it in the context of that team's competition."
Super Rugby sides now had stacked sport science and medical teams and reporting of injuries had changed over time as had the public's interest.
"Medical teams are doing a better job of capturing these injuries and disclosing them and maybe so are the players I think in times gone by you might not tell the physio or doctor that there was something going on because you knew you were going to get benched.
"I think players now days because they have a better appreciation of their own health and wellbeing and also the impact it might have on the team and also their own worth as a player that they want to get things sorted so that they can continue their season and career and continue to earn money."
Some players might still push through the pain though.
Blues captain Patrick Tuipulotu leaves the field with an injury. Blues v Fiji Drua. Quarter final of the Super Rugby Pacific competition at Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand on Saturday 8 June 2024. © Photo: Andrew Cornaga / Photosport Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
"There is desire for teams to use their players particularly their high profile players through the duration of the season and it might mean players have to play on with injuries that in olden times, or amateur sport, would be a season-ending injury you would go off and have significant treatment or time out to let that injury recover and then you're back," Sheerin said.
"Whereas players now are taking the opportunity to, if they get an off-season, quite often they might go off and have surgery on that injury that's held them up during the season and some of the injuries that you'll be seeing in terms of Super Rugby players not available for the first couple of games is because they are still recovering from surgeries that they've had over the summer period."
Blues hooker James Mullan will miss the start of the season with concussion and Sheerin said players getting fitter, stronger and bigger was a "doubled-edged sword".
"We might see some increases in some particular injuries and a decrease in others. Within rugby and other sports at the moment there is a massive spotlight, and rightly so, on concussion and bigger collisions are going to create bigger headknocks and impacts in your brain and it doesn't really matter how fit or strong you are your brain is your brain and it's going to be injured."
Work done by New Zealand Rugby with ACC in the last decade had changed the injury toll Sheerin said. "They've seen huge reductions in neck injuries and head injuries around the scrum."
When it came to injury prevention Sheerin said American-style pads, like what were worn at the Super Bowl, were not the answer.
"Within American football they're all wearing pads and things like that and sometimes that begs the question within the New Zealand environment why are our rugby players not wearing pads and helmets.
"Some of those things actually don't stop injuries and can actually promote or cause certain injuries.
"You put on a helmet like an American football helmet and yes they've got lighter over the years but they still have a weight to them and therefore they put strain on the neck they can change players behaviour in terms of them protecting their own head.
"There's always rhetoric around headgear and why don't [rugby players] wear headgear and won't that help with the concussion problem, the reality is it won't at all there is nothing within the current technology around headgear that will prevent a concussion. It will prevent your ears getting mashed up and some cuts to your to your head and that's it."
