All Blacks second five-eighth Ma'a Nonu may be sidelined for the remainder of the Rugby Championship with a suspected broken forearm.
Nonu did not emerge from the sheds in the second-half of last night's tense 14-10 victory over the Springboks in Wellington and coach Steve Hansen later revealed the severity of the injury.
"We've got a pretty good idea of Ma'a's prognosis," Hansen said. "We think it's probably broken. He felt sore and the doctor decided he wasn't right at halftime."
Luckily for the All Blacks, Ryan Crotty is on track to return from a facial fracture he suffered in the crushing Bledisloe Cup defeat of the Wallabies and Malakai Fekitoa can also provide back-up. "Ryan should be back next week so that's good timing," Hansen said.
Assistant coach Ian Foster was full of praise for Ben Smith's versatility after he moved from the right wing to second-five to cover Nonu's absence. However, both Foster and Hansen said only in the most extreme circumstances would they ever consider starting Smith there.
"He did that job magnificently today," Foster said. "We had a conversation on Tuesday and basically told him not to worry because Ma'a never gets injured. That didn't work. He trained there and just trusted his instincts. His footwork was great. He's been hugely valuable for us."
Hansen was critical of the decision-making and kicking options from his side, saying they should have kept the ball in hand more and kicked for the corners, but pleased with their character to hold firm and extend their home record to 36 straight wins, despite the Boks battering away in the dying stages.
"The character of this side has been tested a few times over the last few years," he said.
"They keep coming up with an A-plus pass mark. Once again they did that tonight. They put themselves under pressure at times with poor kicking and allowed the Boks to attack us from unstable platforms and yet we showed a lot of courage to keep them out.
"The arm wrestle was won in the last 100th second of the game. They could have easily scored right at the very end and won it. It's a shame in a game like that someone has to lose. I'm just happy it wasn't us."
Richie McCaw echoed the somewhat frustrated thoughts of his coach and admitted the Boks loose-forwards, led by aggressive No 8 Duane Vermeulen, did a fine job of targeting the breakdown.
"It wasn't perfect but to guts out a win like that you're pretty happy I guess," McCaw said.
"We were just hanging in there but I was proud of the way the guys re-grouped in the second-half. It was desperate times and that shows the character when you dig deep like that.
"We had to hold our nerve and keep tackling and a mistake came thank goodness."
In his 100th test milestone, Springboks captain Jean de Villiers said the disappointment overshadowed his personal achievement.
The Boks have now lost nine of their last 11 tests against the All Blacks - a record they will be desperate to avenge in the return match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
