Star winger hit by injury

Lady Luck has again deserted Wairarapa-Bush winger Jorji Tamani, who is certain to miss his team's NPC third division rugby match with Thames Valley at Masterton on Saturday, and possibly the next two games as well.
Tamani broke a finger during Wairarapa-Bush's 41-3 win over South Canterbury last weekend, and must be wondering what he has to do to get through a season injury-free
Just last year he was sidelined for several weeks after breaking bones in both arms.
Tamani's replacement for Saturday's match will be Wellington "import" Marika Kau, who has had few chances to strut his stuff when coming off the reserve bench in early NPC games.
But as a Wellington Colts and under-19 representative, and as the leading try scorer in Wellington club rugby this season, his cirriculum vitae makes impressive reading.
Wairarapa-Bush coach Peter Russell is one who believes Kau has the attacking talents to be a star act.
"So far we haven't been able to give him enough ball with the space to stretch out but hopefully that will happen this weekend," he said. "He's deceptively quick and he can score tries, we know that."
Kau's place in the reserves on Saturday will be taken by utility player Glen Bunny, who had an impressive game for the Wairarapa-Bush B's against their Wanganui counterparts last weekend.
Tamani is not though the only regular first stringer in the Wairarapa-Bush squad struggling with injury.
Two of the star performers in a so far successful NPC campaign which sees them lying second on the third division points table in lock Tomasi Kedarabuka and flanker Daimon Neal are also in the "very doubtful" category.
They both took heavy knocks to a shoulder in the South Canterbury game and might have to miss one game, at the very least.
Kedarabuka, who has to be the front runner for his union's Player of the Year award, has been a dominant force at lineout time, so much so that Wairarapa-Bush have basically used him as their sole option in that crucial area.
But the Fijian has proved himself to be much more than just a one-dimensional player, running powerfully in broken play situations and putting in a tackle count much higher than you would usually anticipate from a middle row forward.
Kedarabuka's absence for the Thames Valley game would see promising youngster Corey Reid come off the reserve bench to partner skipper Mike Robinson in the locking role.
It would also mean Wairarapa-Bush using more options at lineout time, with Robinson and blindside flanker Sam Henderson, in particular, adopting a much higher profile in that area.
With Reid out of the reserves either Norm Henricksen, who is battling injury, or Tim Iro would probably be on the bench.
Neal has been the "go get it" forward for Wairarapa-Bush, and his speed to the loose ball and constant harrassing of opposition backs has played a huge part in his team's success.
In fact, if Kedarabuka has a challenger for Player of the Year it would be him.
The loss of Neal would probably see Sylvanus Iro moved from No.8 to the openside flank and Eketahuna's Steve Olds into the back row position.
Olds actually played at second- five for Wairarapa-Bush B's last weekend, but is a regular at No.8 on the club scene, a position from which he has become a prolific try scorer.
With Thames Valley on the very bottom of the third division points table, with four losses from as many games, Wairarapa-Bush will be firm favourites to pick up the maximum five points in Saturday's game, but coach Russell is confident complacency won't be an issue.
He said his side only had to remember back to their first NPC game this season when they were equally firm favourites to beat Buller, and came home with their tails between their legs.
"We all know what can happen at this level if you are not on your game, you simply can't afford to be complacent about anything at all," Russell said. "They (Thames Valley) can make their season by knocking us off, and they'll be really fired up, nothing is surer than that."
Russell believes the first 20 minutes could dictate which way Saturday's match goes. The challenge there for Wairarapa-Bush in his view is to dampen the Thames Valley spirits by scoring early and maintaining the momentum, something they did so effectively in the first half against South Canterbury last weekend.
He is, however, wanting no repeat of the second half performance in that game when the standard of play noticeably deteriorated and Wairarapa-Bush were virtually penalised off the paddock.
Most of those infringements were in the tackled ball situation, and the possible reasons for them were discussed with Hurricanes assistant coach Murray Roulston at Tuesday night's training session.
"To be honest we're still not sure what we were doing wrong other than arriving at the breakdowns in bigger numbers than the opposition and consequently having more hands on the ball, but when a referee has other ideas you cop it," Russell said. "We might do things a little differently this weekend though because we don't want to be hammered with penalties again."