Canty host Harbour in NPC semi-final
Canterbury’s coaching group can scribble a line through another name when they sit down to pick their team for Saturday afternoon’s home semifinal against North Harbour.
Head coach Glenn Delaney confirmed halfback Ere Enari broke his lower-leg during Canterbury’s
32-27 win against Auckland on Friday, and started his road to recovery with surgery on Saturday.
Enari, who was carted off after his leg got tangled up while attempting to make a tackle late in the first half at Eden Park, is expected to be out of action for up to six months.
Should he need a gauge to judge his return to the field by, he only needs to look at teammate Mitchell Drummond, who broke his fibula in September last year and managed to return in time for the start of Super Rugby (late February).
Enari, who debuted for the Crusaders and helped the NZ
under-20s win the World Cup earlier this year, is not one of the
30 players known to have signed with the Christchurch-based franchise for next season.
The 20-year-old joins Canterbury flanker Jed Brown (Achilles tendon) and prop Daniel LienertBrown (neck) with season-ending injuries, but the blow of losing Enari has been cushioned by the team’s depth at halfback.
Lincoln University teammate Jack Stratton scored two tries after replacing him on Friday night, while Drummond will return to the mix after being rested for the final regular season match.
‘‘Jack and Ere are pretty close . . . Jack was certainly feeling for Ere, but he came on and sparked the team. He was great coming off the bench,’’ Canterbury assistant coach Joe Maddock said.
‘‘Sometimes when you make decisions to keep three really good halfbacks, this sort of thing happens. We’re all feeling for Ere, it’s a tough break for him, but as a squad we’ve got the cover so we’re pretty lucky there.’’
In more positive news as Canterbury eye up a third consecutive Mitre 10 Cup title, Tim Bateman, who left Friday’s match after taking a knock to the neck, will be available for their semifinal at AMI Stadium. ‘‘He just got a wee stinger, so he settled down fairly
well after the game,’’ Maddock said. He also said the likelihood of Canterbury having All Blacks flanker Matt Todd available to them again this season was ‘‘slim’’.
Even if Todd on Monday isn’t named in the All Blacks squad to contest the third Bledisloe Cup test in Brisbane on Saturday night, there is no guarantee he will be released for provincial duty.
Canterbury’s semifinal is a rematch of their 41-28 win against North Harbour in Albany last month, and the winner will play either Taranaki or Tasman in the final the following week.
Maddock called Canterbury’s win against Auckland a ‘‘pretty good performance’’, but conceded there was still plenty to work on with sudden-death rugby looming.
‘‘Obviously we’re a bit disappointed with the tries we conceded, and we certainly missed a few opportunities ourselves – our drive was dominating but we just didn’t finish,’’ he said.
‘‘Especially looking forward to hopefully the next two weeks, but certainly in the semifinal, we’re going to have to take the opportunities we get.’’ Captain Stephanie Te O’haere-Fox has backed Canterbury to go all the way after they tied up a home semifinal in the women’s provincial championship with a 55-34 win against Wellington on Saturday.
Te Ohaere-Fox, 32, who steadies the side from tighthead prop, says this was the most fearless side in all her years playing for Canterbury and that would increase their chances next week at home in Christchurch against third qualifier Waikato.
Canterbury looked the dominant side throughout the match and played 80 minutes of convincing rugby against a fired up Wellington side.
Te Ohaere-Fox said she was proud of the way her side come out stronger than previous weeks and kept their cool even when a resurgent Wellington made a second-half run.
‘‘We need to play an 80-minute game, but I am happy with how we started and we wanted to start well, but once we get to 80 that will be even better,’’ she said.
‘‘That’s the thing we’ve been struggling on, but now we know we can do it we just need to put both halves together.’’
Behind 36-17 at the break, Wellington could have dropped their heads but instead gave the second half a decent crack, scoring first out through No8 and captain Jackie Patea-Fereti, who went over the line twice for her side.
Wellington began to spin the ball wide, which Canterbury did struggle to slow down for the first ten minutes of the second half.
However, through the cool heads of Te O’haere-Fox, halfback Kendra Cocksedge and first-five Charntay Poko, they were able to close out the match.
Te O’haere-Fox said while she has played in her fair share of semifinal losses, the 2017 team had a new edge that would give them their best chance of winning the competition in several years.
‘‘We can only do what we can do and now we have a home semi. We’ve got good processes and we just need to have an 80-minute game. We need to know we can beat the whole competition.
‘‘We have grown since the Auckland game and we think we can do it. Having that new blood in – they’ve got no fear because they don’t know who they’re up against. Even if we are playing top sides they don’t know, they’re just playing rugby.’’
Te O’haere-Fox said a home semifinal would be a huge advantage and hoped they would be opening in front of the Canterbury men’s side at AMI Stadium to really boost their momentum.
‘‘For all the girls we have had a good season, all the supporters have been great supporting us on Facebook but it’ll be good to have them here in person.’’
Results B9