More head knock woes for Ngatai
Captain Charlie Ngatai will assessed on Monday when Taranaki regathers from a day off after he suffered another worrying head knock during their 29-7 national provincial rugby win on Friday night.
Ngatai left the field midway through the first half after he suffered a head clash with Bay of Plenty prop Jeff Thwaites.
It looked immediately clear that Ngatai was dazed by the impact and team doctor Steve Smith straight away took him from the field before he failed a subsequent concussion assessment test.
Ngatai spent a year out of rugby battling concussion-related symptoms before returning for the Chiefs, midway through this year’s Super Rugby season.
He did suffer a further concussion injury during the Chiefs campaign but Friday’s collision was the first time he had encountered any problems during the Mitre 10 Cup competition.
A team spokesman yesterday said no decision had been made on Ngatai’s continued involvement but he would be joining the team today for further assessment.
While there has been plenty of speculation since that the latest blow would automatically sideline him the the remainder of the competition there was also a chance he has been symptom free since Friday and would want to continue.
If he was ruled out Taranaki are fortunate they have plenty of depth in midfield with former All Black Seta Tamanivalu, Crusaders teammate Sean Wainui and Chiefs squad member Johnny Fa’auli all options.
However, Ngatai’s leadership would certainly be missed, especially from the middle of what is a relatively inexperienced side.
That appears more and more evident each week as Taranaki at times lack direction and understanding of how they want to play.
While they continue to get results, Friday night’s bonus point victory was their fourth from five matches, they, by their own admission, have not reached anywhere near where they think their potential lies.
Part of that problem has been a lack of clarity one-off the breakdown where it appears too often they are not taking the right option or there is simply a lack of communication.
The major reason they muddled through Friday night’s crossover match at Yarrow Stadium was more their inability to dominate the ruck area where they failed to commit enough bodies or were ineffective in their clean out which meant a lot of their play was stagnant. On a more positive note their defence kept Bay of Plenty scoreless until almost the death and there was improvement in the lineout work, although a lot of fans would point to the one they lost after kicking from touch from a penalty.
Conditions, too, made life difficult for the players who can easily deflect any criticism fired their way by pointing to their third position on the premiership table.
Their next match is on Saturday against struggling Hawke’s Bay in Napier where they have never won a competition match since the national provincial championship started in 1976.