Ankle injury forces Bancroft to miss game against his old team

As luck would have it, Aaron Bancroft has been sidelined for the two matches he was most looking forward to in this ITM Cup schedule.
The Taniwha second five-eighth turned his ankle at training last week and missed the chance to take on Sonny Bill Williams and Canterbury last Sunday. He will now miss tomorrow's game against Otago - the province he represented last season - before his former national U21 coach, Bryce Woodward, lured him north.
"Canterbury is one of the top teams and the coaches are all looking to see how you can play against the top sides and the calibre of player that you find in them, so missing that one was a blow," he said.
Bancroft played one match for the Crusaders in 2006, before two seasons at the Highlanders and Otago.
"I've come up from Otago, so obviously this week it would have been great to be able to go there and play the brand of football we're playing but there's not much you can do about it," he said.
Bancroft played in the Otago side that handed Northland a comprehensive 27-7 defeat at Okara Park last season and he says Northland are aware of the threat the Otago pack pose.
"Otago are a forward dominated side, who will generally try and take us in the midfield and then use their forwards to try and pick and go and beat us around the fringes (of the ruck) - so we're going to have to man-up in those areas, particularly in the set-piece," he said.
Last year Adam Thompson - who will play his 50th match for Otago at No8 tomorrow - scored two of Otago's four tries as Northland's defence around the ruck was exposed but it was a tough day for the pack, with another All Black, Tom Donnelly, also in stunning form. But Donnelly is out this week.
Bancroft said Northland hopes to try and slow Otago's game down and then spread possession around to dissect the defence.
"When we get the ball in hand we're going to have to play with a lot of width and get them moving about and that should undo them hopefully," he said.
Bancroft said his ankle is nearly healed and he will be back at training next week.
"I'm looking at coming back next week but then again with Aden [Dewes] playing so well, it could be a bit of a dogfight to get back on the field," he said.
The 25-year-old is itching to regain his pre-injury form that surely must have put him on the radar of all the Super-15 coaches in the country.
"We're playing a good brand of footy and that's a credit to the coaching staff and to Brad [Anderson] our trainer to get us fit enough to play this style of rugby," he said.
Tomorrow's match kicks off at Carisbrook at 2.30pm.

Northland: 15 Jared Payne (c), 14 Mateo Malupo, 13 Rene Ranger, 12 Aden Dewes, 11 Lachie Munro, 10 David Holwell, 9 Rhyan Caine 8 Cam Eyre, 7 Dan Pryor, 6 Dean Budd, 5 Mark Burman, 4 Pat O'Connor, 3 Bronson Murray, 2 Tim Dow, 1 Matt Wallis. Reserves: 16 Mikaele Tuu'u, 17 Ross Wright, 18 Roy Griffin, 19 Cam Goodhue, 20 Luke Hamilton, 21 Adam Clarke, 22 Iwi Hauraki.
Otago: 15 Ben Smith, 14 Joe Hill, 13 Josh Tatupu, 12 Andrew Parata, 11 Ryan Shortland, 10 Glenn Dickson, 9 Sean Romans, 8 Adam Thomson, 7 Alando Soakai (C), 6 Brad Cameron, 5 Hayden Triggs, 4 Josh Townsend, 3 Halani Aulika, 2 Wyatt McKay, 1 Kees Meeuws. Reserves: 16 Peter Mirrielees, 17 Sam Hibbard, 18 Hoani Matenga, 19 Charlie O'Connell, 20 Johnny Legg, 21 Hayden Parker, 22 Chris Small.