Rugby: Auckland bedevilled by injuries

By Wynne Gray

The Auckland rugby team were left wondering how to sort out their locking resources yesterday rather than dwelling on their 48-6 victory over neighbours North Harbour in an Eden Park trial match.

Captain for the day Charles Reichelmann reinjured a knee cartilage and may be out for several weeks, Jason Chandler was even worse off with medial knee ligament damage expected to knock him out of rugby for at least four weeks, while Leo Lafaiali'i was taken off suffering from cramp.

For Reichelmann it was a continuation of the injury woes of recent seasons when he has damaged both shoulders and broken his ankle. Chandler had just returned from an overseas stint to bolster the team while Robin Brooke is away on All Black duty.

There was some hurried consultation last night for new coach Wayne Pivac, his assistant Grant Fox, union officials and medical staff with the team to fly to Blenheim today for Saturday's trial match with Canterbury.

"It was a good start with the result, but the downside of the exercise was certainly the injury toll," Pivac said.

Promising development XV lock Milton Ngauamo got the call to join the team last night, while second XV lock Richard Rasmussen, who has been capped for Samoa, has been placed on standby for the trip south.

Any more injuries to locks will have Auckland under serious strain for their NPC opening game against Wellington at Eden Park on August 13.

The pressure will also be on Harbour after their apathetic showing yesterday when their defence was breached far too easily and they showed little combination.

Like Auckland, they will get their New Zealand Maori players back for their next trial game, against Northland on Saturday, when their best lock, Ian Jones will celebrate his 50th game for Harbour.

Auckland got into Harbour's territory only a couple of times in the first half but scored both times, while Harbour had two penalties from Frano Botica on what would prove to be an unmemorable 36th birthday for the Harbour skipper.

Some clever backline touches in the second spell, especially from lively wings Iliesa Tanivula and Rico Gear, and some solid defence allowed Auckland to canter away with the victory.

"It was great to hold them tryless but I was concerned we gave them too much ball," Pivac said. "However, we did come away strongly in the last 20 minutes."

It was also valuable to have centre Eroni Clarke get through an entire game after his Achilles tendon injury, to see a workmanlike scrum and the hard-working loose forward trio of Xavier Rush, Finau Maka and Mark Carter.