Neck injury means sad end to prop's career

By CHRIS RATTUE

Polo Asi, the Samoan test prop recruited by Counties Manukau this year, has been told his career is over because of a neck injury.

The claim by those in sport that their playing time is short and only an injury away from ending seems to have turned into sad reality for Asi, who was still coming to grips with the life-changing news yesterday.

It has again highlighted the damage scrummaging can do to frontrowers, as Asi follows others like Northland's Jason Barrell to the sideline.

Counties Manukau coach Andrew Talaimanu believes the injury to tighthead Asi could have been caused - or aggravated - by a series of collapsed scrums in the NPC match against Wellington nearly a fortnight ago.

Talaimanu said his prop did not have any apparent history of neck problems before the game.

He claimed Wellington's loosehead prop in the match, Kas Lealamanua, was unable to hold up the scrum and that referee Gary Wise had not responded to the problem.

A specialist's report brought the grim news yesterday afternoon to the 26-year-old Asi, who had hoped his stint in the NPC would bring him the chance of a Super 12 contract.

The specialist would not give Asi a clearance to play and said future contact sport could be life-threatening to him.

Talaimanu said: "We are all devastated for him. It is hard for anyone to have their career and livelihood suddenly curtailed ... the union will do what they can to help.

"Apart from the fact he has given all he could to us, he is also a very nice person. We're upset as a team for him."

Asi left the field with about 15 minutes to go in the match at Wellington on September 15, complaining of a sore neck.

It is difficult to be certain whether the injury occurred in that match or previous games.

But Talaimanu said the repeated collapsing of the scrums might at least have aggravated the problem. The props hit the ground more than six times during the game.

Talaimanu said that Lealamanua, who opposed Asi, had not bound properly or held the scrum up.

"The referee should have sent him [Lealamanua] off so someone who could scrum could come on, or gone to Golden Oldie rules.

"The referee knew what was going on, but lost control of the situation.

"Conservatively, the scrums went down half a dozen times and that is far too much. The whole management of the situation by the players and referee was poor.

"I wonder if some officials really know why scrums go down - or are they just guessing?

"I was standing beside a top referee the other day watching a game and we both agreed on why a scrum had gone down. Yet the referee controlling the game penalised someone on the other side. He obviously didn't have a clue."

Talaimanu said that even though his side's scrum was often battered by the powerful Canterbury pack on Sunday, Canterbury coach Steve Hansen praised the Steelers for holding the scrum up.

Talaimanu said that, rather than go backwards, some props opted to go headfirst into the ground when they were under pressure.

"Players, coaches, referees need to be more vigilant. You can do serious damage if you don't adhere to the rules," he said.