All Blacks call up four players as injury cover

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand have called four players into their squad as cover for Saturday's Rugby Championship return match against Australia after suffering a number of injuries in the Sydney opener at the weekend.

New Zealand All Blacks' Colin Slade leaves the field during their Rugby World Cup quarter-final match against Argentina at Eden Park in Auckland

Tom Taylor and Colin Slade were called in as cover for Beauden Barrett, who sustained a calf injury in Saturday's 47-29 win over the Wallabies, and his fellow flyhalf Aaron Cruden, who is nursing a sore knee.

Loose forwards Luke Whitelock and Brad Shields come into the squad as cover for Luke Romano and Liam Messam, the latter a late withdrawal from the side for the Sydney test who will miss Saturday's return match with a hamstring injury.

Lock Romano will undergo a scan to determine the extent of the groin injury he sustained in the Sydney test.

Title-holders New Zealand have already lost talismanic flyhalf Dan Carter for up to a month with a calf injury.

Victory over Australia in Wellington on Saturday would see the All Blacks retain the Bledisloe Cup, the symbol of trans-Tasman Sea supremacy, for an 11th straight year.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)