All Blacks leave injured Sonny Bill at home

Cape Town - Nehe Milner-Skudder will skip the bright lights of Sydney for Palmerston North after missing the All Blacks' trip to Australia.

According to the Newshub website, coach Steve Hansen said they are restricted in the number of players they can send for their opening Rugby Championship clash with the Wallabies at ANZ Stadium on Saturday.

Kick-off is at 12:05 SA time.

Milner-Skudder will instead turn out for Manawatu in their opening Mitre 10 Cup fixture against Waikato.

Meanwhile, injured centre Sonny Bill Williams has also missed the trip, but hooker Dane Coles will travel as the medical staff look to get the injured rake back to full fitness.

"We are only allowed to take 32 out of the 33 man squad to Australia, so we have Nehe (Milner-Skudder) going back to Manawatu and Sonny (Bill Williams) has gone home as well," Hansen said before departure.

"We wanted to take Colsey (Dane Coles) because we want to put some training into him from an intensity point of view."

The Springboks will host Argentina in Durban later on Saturday as this year's Rugby Championship gets under way.

Kick-off at Kings Park is at 17:05.

UPDATE: The #AllBlacks squad departs for Australia today. The squad has been trimmed for trip. @Nmilnerskudder will stay in NZ as will @SonnyBWilliams #BledisloeCup

— All Blacks (@AllBlacks) August 12, 2018