The Hurricanes' medical staff will have to make some tough calls this week as they decide who from a lengthy injury list can be considered for Saturday's opening Super 12 rugby match against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane.
Top of the list is hooker Norm Hewitt, who is nursing an arm that is either broken or severely bruised after he landed on it awkwardly during Friday night's loss to the ACT Brumbies.
An x-ray in Canberra on Saturday was inconclusive and Hewitt will probably have the arm, which he broke during last year's NPC final, x-rayed again today.
Team doctor Steve Targett will also have to decide whether No 8 Filo Tiatia, flankers Kupu Vanisi and Rodney So'oialo, inside back Paul Steinmetz and wing Jonah Lomu are fit to play at Ballymore.
It seems all five are "possibles," though Lomu, Tiatia and So'oialo are less likely to be cleared than Steinmetz and Vanisi, who are suffering the effects of head knocks.
Decisions will probably be made tomorrow, or Wednesday at the latest, and coach Graham Mourie concedes that the run of injuries has disrupted his planning.
"When you consider that we had four away with the sevens [in Argentina last month], and then on top of that the injuries, we have been disrupted, but that's par for the course.
"It's a competition where you have to expect injuries - every team has them. I think we've managed to keep everything under control despite what's gone on."
Mourie praised the Hurricanes' board for allowing Taranaki hooker Daniel Smith and flanker Brent Thompson and Wellington fullback Shannon Paku to be with the squad for most of their pre-season programme.
"Without them we would have been in dire straits. We needed them and it means that if Norm is ruled out, at least Dan Smith has had some time with us," he said.
Though the injuries have been frustrating, Mourie was reasonably pleased with how the Hurricanes have played in their practice games against the Chiefs, Highlanders and Brumbies.
"It's been a bit variable. The scrum has been reasonable - it's certainly been adequate - but we need it to improve if we're going to be able to use all our options."
Mourie felt that the lineout worked well until the Brumbies match, when he felt the players went away from what they had been practising at training.
"We have to be very focused on what we want to achieve week in and week out.
"It's all right going in to a competition thinking you are prepared for it, but you still have to focus on each game. We know where we are. We just have to make sure we work on that, and don't drop down from it."
Meanwhile, Waratahs coach Bob Dwyer has promised fewer structured dance steps and his young players are ready to boogie as they please.
Dwyer has given his players licence to express themselves and, with three pre-season wins to take into this week's opening round of the Super 12, they obviously have enjoyed the freedom.
Dwyer says the best way to ensure his players do not stray from the game plan is to have one so flexible that it's almost impossible to break.
So, after inheriting an inexperienced squad carrying the legacy of a side which has never made the Super 12 finals, Dwyer has adopted a different approach to past coaches Matt Williams and Ian Kennedy.
"The biggest change has been to force the guys to allow themselves to play without sticking to too rigid a structure," he said yesterday.
His approach was to infuse general rugby principles and let players perform within them. He thought the hard and fast dance-step routine was "too easy to beat anyway."
New Zealand's Super 12 squads
2001 Super 12 schedule
Run of injuries will affect Hurricanes' Super 12 planning
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