Rugby league: Freeman eyes Vainikolo to replace injured Tony

By CHRIS BARCLAY in London

Kiwis coach Gary Freeman will consider calling in a backline replacement to cover for injuries after Motu Tony's tour of Britain and France was put in jeopardy.

Tony suffered a suspected broken hand during the New Zealanders' 34-12 win over England A at Griffin Park in London yesterday.

His left hand was badly swollen after it was crunched when he tackled England A wing Waine Pryce inside the first 10 minutes of the tourists' ultimately convincing six-tries-to-one victory.

The New Zealand Warriors five-eighths was filling in at hooker and although he tried to soldier on, he had difficulty passing from dummy half and called it a day after 15 minutes.

Tony was taken to a hospital near the team's base at Slough for an x-ray. The extent of the injury was not expected to be known until early today.

Freeman ruled out flying a player over from New Zealand, but said Bradford wing Lesley Vainikolo could join the party ahead of the first test of the tour against Wales in Cardiff on Monday (NZ time).

He said he and fellow selector Gerald Stokes would discuss options before the team headed to the Welsh capital.

"We'll sit down and have a chat about it, there may be an opportunity for a replacement, but we might have to box on," Freeman said.

Tony was unlikely to start in the tests, but he can fill a number of positions off the bench.

Centre Clinton Toopi has a shoulder injury, although it was not considered serious.

Tony was disappointed after the match, but hoped he would play again on tour.

"Hopefully the x-ray will show it's not too much of a break," he said.

"My hand made contact with something, maybe an elbow ... I just couldn't pass the ball from dummy half so there was no point carrying on."

Starting lock Monty Betham moved in to hooker and scored the Kiwis' penultimate try as they finished with a flourish, piling on 18 points in the final eight minutes.

Castleford interchange forward Michael Smith scored his second try in three appearances on tour and fellow frontrower Paul Rauhihi bullocked 20m off a Stacey Jones' pass to record the Kiwis' last try in the final minute.

Lance Hohaia converted five from six in a sound kicking display.

Although the Kiwis ran out comfortable winners, they were again guilty of pushing passes and patchy ball retention, particularly in the first half.

Veteran Ruben Wiki got the side off to a flyer, following up a Jones' bomb to plunge over in the third minute after the ball rebounded off wing Francis Meli.

But the Kiwis were held scoreless for the rest of the half while Wigan secondrower Danny Tickle booted two penalties to level the scores at 4-4 at the interval.

Tries to secondrower Awen Guttenbeil and interchange forward Ali Lauiti'iti pushed the Kiwis out to 16-6 entering the final quarter, but England A responded with an 80m breakout try engineered by captain Sean O'Loughlin.

The promising five-eighths sidestepped Lauiti'iti and eluded two other tacklers before freeing centre Chev Walker to slide over out wide in the double tackle of wing Henry Fa'afili and fullback David Vaealiki.

Cutting the margin to 16-12, the English half of the 6124 crowd started to sniff an upset until Smith sparked the late points deluge.

Freeman was happy with the second-half performance, but said the team were still making too many errors.

"We got them [England A] in the end because we started to control the football. We learned a lot out of that game."

Jones said he was pleased with the effort. "Early on we didn't take opportunities and we spilled ball, but in the wet you're always going to do those sorts of things."

Jones admitted the team might have to control their desire to keep the ball alive.

The Kiwis also had problems with the refereeing interpretations of Frenchman Thierry Alibert, who was severe on the tourists at the play-the-ball, penalising frequently for holding down in the tackle.

- NZPA