Rugby: Injuries toll for Whaka widens

Whakarewarewa may need to start looking at investing in their own ambulance with the club having to call on the services of St John for the second week in a row.

An injury crisis is starting to take its toll on last year's grand-finalist as the team goes another week without a win.

Taking on Mount Maunganui at Blake Park at the weekend, Whaka, last year's runner up, managed to turn a win into a 20-20 draw.

Leading 17-7 at halftime, Whaka suffered another season ending injury, a possible dislocated shoulder, to midfielder Courtney Mita. It's the second season ending injury to a Whaka player in as many weeks. Last week open side flanker Liam Coleman suffered a compound fracture to the left thumb.

It was all Whaka coach Kevin Lee needed, when he already had gone into the game with only one forward and one back reserve.

The first half was all pretty much a red and black wave with Whaka using the wind to good advantage grabbing tries to Harold Koia and Rawiri Tapiata and Maurice Stone converting both touch downs and nailing a penalty.

Mount Maunganui also managed a try to Troye Elvin with Thomas Fitzgerald grabbing the conversion.

What the wily coach Lee will be pleased about is how his team managed to turn around their lack of ball winning ability at the line out compared with last week, thanks to locks Koia and Shane Unuwai. But in the same breath Lee will be perplexed with the fact that a moment of ill-discipline sealed their fate.

The culprit, Unuwai, was sent from the field 27 minutes into the second half after answering back to a referee's call at the breakdown. The resulting sin binning meant a lead of 10 points was turned into a Richard Rice try, converted by Fitzgerald.

Whaka's first-five Maurice Stone managed to extend the lead to 20-14, with a difficult kick into the wind but the home side managed to level the score with time all-but-up on the clock thanks to a Fitzgerald penalty.