On a nightmare evening for the All Blacks as they lost by a record margin to the Springboks, they also lost a man in ugly circumstances through a deep cut on Tyrel Lomax that coach Ian Foster described as going “through to the muscle”. And the All Blacks coach suggests that World Rugby should look into players’ boots.

After a humbling result, Foster told the press: “Tyrel is pretty bad actually, he’s got quite a big cut right through into the muscle on the thigh. We’ve got a little bit of a concern with some of the sharp plastic blades stuff (on players’ boots) that is happening at the moment. We will have to check which boot that came from.

“It certainly wasn’t deliberate but Beauden also got cut from the same sort of the thing, so we’ll have to check that out. But he’s not in a great way.”

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Foster said he doubted that Lomax would be out of the Rugby World Cup.

“We’ve got to make sure we are looking after our players,” Foster added.

With the question marks over what happens next following Scott Barrett’s sending off in very rare rugby circumstance, Foster and Co have some front-five headaches to deal with ahead of their opening match of the Rugby World Cup, against hosts France.

What did you make of the incident that saw an ugly cut on Tyrel Lomax? Let us know at rugbyworldletters@futurenet.com or on social media.

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