Chiefs hit by injury crisis

15 players on growing casualty list

An injury-ravaged Chiefs side will field four players who weren’t even part of their original 38-man squad in their Super Rugby match against the Blues in Auckland tomorrow night.

Already sporting quite the new look this year, that has become even more so now, with the Chiefs nursing a contingent of 15 in a bulging casualty ward and left scrambling for numbers.

Outside back Sean Wainui and prop Angus Ta’avao weren’t part of the original squad but played off the bench in the season-opening 45-23 defeat to the Crusaders in Christchurch last Saturday, and now prop Karl Tu’inukuafe will join the action, along with one of the bracketed outside back duo of Bailyn Sullivan and Declan O’Donnell.

The Chiefs lost newly instated co-captain and fullback Charlie Ngatai (knee) and lock Dominic Bird (shoulder) during the Crusaders game, while loose forward Mitchell Brown and bench backs Marty McKenzie and Wainui all went off for concussion checks and didn’t return.

‘‘If you want to make yourself a lot of money you can tell us what the answers are.’’ Chiefs assistant coach Neil Barnes on the team’s injuries

On top of that there was confirmation this week that backline utility Tim Nanai-Williams has had his season finished by a shoulder injury. The latest to go down is prop Atu Moli, with a thigh problem.

With fellow props Mitchell Graham (leg), Sefo Kautai (foot) and Kane Hames (illness) all sidelined, it sees Tu’inukuafe take a spot on the bench for a Super Rugby debut.

The 25-year-old played had been playing in France but after breaking a leg he returned to feature for North Harbour the past couple of seasons, where he had impressed Chiefs assistant coach Neil Barnes.

‘‘Karl, we were watching right through the Mitre 10 Cup, he’s a very strong scrummager,’’ Barnes

said. ‘‘To be able to bring people in with his experience as injury cover, it turned out to be a blessing really, because we’ve taken a fair few dings. He’s a big boy so I’m quietly confident he can handle Super Rugby a piece of cake in the set-piece side of things.’’

All Blacks loosehead Hames had been laid low last week, then had returned to camp last Thursday, but was still not considered ready.

All up there are four changes to the Chiefs’ starting lineup from

last weekend, with Shaun Stevenson shifting to fullback and Wainui passing his concussion protocols to come onto the right

wing. Up front Michael Allardice takes Bird’s spot at lock, while Liam Messam starts at blindside, with Luke Jacobson bracketed

with Brown, who was another interesting case.

‘‘We’re quietly confident that it wasn’t concussion, it was a vertigo issue, he’s had it before,’’ Barnes said. ‘‘He has a hearing issue and he got a bang in the side of the head and because of the fact he staggered a few times he had to come off, that’s the protocol.’’

Tiaan Falcon replaces McKenzie on the bench for a potential first Super Rugby cap, while 19-year-old Waikato flyer Sullivan and Taranaki’s O’Donnell – a former

member of the Chiefs, Highlanders and Blues – have been bracketed for the remaining reserves spot, as Barnes said there were a couple of other players with niggles, and that he was at a loss to explain the mounting toll.

‘‘If you want to make yourself a lot of money you can tell us what the answers are, because I’ve got no idea,’’ he said. ‘‘We’ve been really good for two months, we’ve hardly had anything to worry about, and all of a sudden ‘bang’, we’ve had a few.’’