Canterbury recall Jordan Taufua before Semis [Nelson Mail]
Dynamic No 8 Jordan Taufua's shock recall by Canterbury and injuries to two key players have meant some unwelcome disruption to the Tasman Makos' preparations ahead of Friday's ITM Cup championship rugby semifinal against Otago.
Besides Taufua, in-form wing Robbie Malneek and experienced former All Blacks tighthead prop Campbell Johnstone are also missing from the Tasman team confirmed yesterday to play Otago at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium.
A relapse of an earlier calf muscle injury kept Johnstone out of last Saturday's 42-10 final round-robin loss to North Harbour at Trafalgar Park and will again keep him sidelined for Friday's playoff. Malneek was assisted from the field last Saturday after suffering ankle and knee injuries in a first-half tackle.
But Taufua's departure took everyone by surprise.
A member of this year's New Zealand Under-20 team, Taufua was on loan to Tasman from Canterbury and had been among Tasman's leading performers, with his powerful ball-carrying and physical presence a key part of the team's forward effort. He played in all 10 round-robin games, starting in nine of them.
According to frustrated Tasman chief executive Andrew Flexman, news of Taufua's recall still came out of the blue, Canterbury sending out an SOS after their star flanker Matt Todd and No 8 Nasi Manu apparently both suffered season-ending injuries against Bay of Plenty last Sunday.
"There's nothing we could do and it's there for all to see in the loan agreement that in the event of a dual injury in their loose forward trio, they could call him back," Flexman said.
"It just seems regrettable that they'd do it at this time of the season.
"Obviously we lose a lot and it's quite high risk for [Canterbury] too, you know, trying to integrate a guy into your team patterns and what you're trying to do in the course of two or three days before a major game seems to be fairly risky to me.
"The frustration is obviously fairly pronounced when we've got as big a game as we have on Friday and the timing in terms of the activation of the [loan agreement] clause."
Flexman said that Canterbury were clearly entitled to recall Tasman's star No 8, whose impressive form has been conspicuous throughout the season.
"I guess it's crunch time for everybody. I just sort of thought that maybe they would have decided that in the circumstances, given the value we know he adds to Tasman and the way he's been playing . . . and his stated preference to stay where he is . . . that they might have been a little more understanding."
He hoped that it might have some beneficial effect in terms of strengthening Tasman's resolve against a confident Otago side that beat Tasman 39-13 earlier in the season, also in Dunedin.
"Let's be honest, it's a major loss, but at the end of the day, our guys do adversity better than overwhelming favouritism, as we saw in the weekend. Let's hope that it'll galvanise them a bit."
Tasman's No 8 jersey will instead be worn by Tevita Koloamatangi, who will join Shane Christie and Joe Wheeler among a new-look but mobile loose trio. Used primarily at lock this season, Wheeler has thankfully recovered from a head knock suffered on Saturday, with Christie and seasoned lock Filipo Levi back after being rested against Harbour. Levi will lock the scrum with Riki Hoeata.
James Lowe takes Malneek's place on the left wing, while wing Mitchell Scott finally returns to the side after missing virtually the entire season with a high ankle injury, and will start off the bench.
