Netball: Te Huna's fall leads to Tuki's rise

Jessica Tuki (facing camera) gets a hug from teammate Anna Rowberry. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Jodi Te Huna reckons she's cried a year of tears in the last 72 hours.

The gifted goal attack was running round in the dying minutes of a Silver Ferns training game against the Victorian men's team at the weekend. She leapt to grab a pass, no one within cooee, but a regulation landing went awry with disastrous consequences.

She has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, a similar injury to that which put fellow Silver Fern Anna Rowberry's career on hold soon after the world championship win in Jamaica two years ago. The initial prognosis is nine months' recuperation.

The Diamonds ace flew home last night and will watch the Silver Ferns set out for the Commonwealth Games gold medal from the comfort of her couch at home in Auckland.

Comfort might be the wrong word. Te Huna, who made her Silver Ferns debut in 2004, has had a Games gold in her mind for months and had formed a cutting-edge operation with deadeye goal shoot Irene van Dyk in the attacking circle.

Her place has gone to Otago Rebels' rising talent Jessica Tuki, a member of last year's world championship-winning national under-21 team.

Te Huna cut a forlorn figure at courtside yesterday in suburban McLeod. She sat with her taped-up knee resting horizontally on a seat taking statistical notes as her teammates went through match drills with the New Zealand A squad.

"It was one of those freaky things you can't blame on anyone - as much as you'd like to," she said.

The tears may have dried but there was no hiding the frequent catches in her throat as she relived the experience yesterday.

"The last 72 hours have been quite devastating. I've had dodgy ankles in the past but I've always prided myself on having really good knees.

"It's just all the work you've put in, for it to go in one moment is pretty hard to accept."

She hopes to be back in Melbourne as a face in the stand as New Zealand meet Australia in the marquee final on March 26 - barring an upset of hold-the-front-page proportions.

As for 19-year-old Tuki, she had that drop-jaw, gee whizz air about her after she'd completed her first session as a fully-fledged Games squad member yesterday.

The New Plymouth-born teenager was called aside late on Monday night and given the news.

Then she slept "like a baby", which suggests a cool-headed addition to the squad.

"I'm excited and nervous all at the same time but I'm looking forward to it and making the most of it," she said. Coach Ruth Aitken has four shooting options - van Dyk, versatile Belinda Colling, Maria Tutaia and Tuki.

Aitken described Tuki as "an exciting young shooter who shows great maturity in her game".

Much the same was said of Te Huna not long ago.