Chiefs ravaged by injury
Mon, 05 May 2008 17:02
The Chiefs have received a double blow ahead of their must-win Super 14 clash with the Lions in Johannesburg on Saturday with news that scrumhalf Brendon Leonard and centre Richard Kahui have been ruled out.
Leonard did not board the plane to South Africa but remained in Hamilton to recover from a knee injury.
"We've been in constant communication with him and we will not be bringing him over for the Lions game because while he's running pretty freely he's not at the point where he can accelerate as well as we would like," coach Ian Foster told the Waikato Times.
The Chiefs came away from the Force match at Subiaco Oval with five new injuries, the most significant of those being the ankle injury suffered by centre Kahui as he unsuccessfully dived for the line just before half-time.
No.9 Jamie Nutbrown and inside centre Callum Bruce also hurt their ankles but Foster said they appeared minor injuries, while Kahui looked like he would be out for the Lions game.
Lock Kevin O'Neill aggravated an elbow injury and prop Simms Davison hurt his back but both were also thought to be minor.
The situation would be re-assessed later in the week, Foster said.
Because of the tight situation on the points table five points cover third to seventh positions Foster said a narrow win against the Force might not have changed the scenario for the Chiefs for the last two weeks of the round-robin.
"Our focus has really been on the quality of our game and disappointment comes out of that because we didn't achieve what we wanted to achieve," explained Foster.
"The Lions game for us is the same as it always was a very big game," he added.
