Support for Fatialofa

Michael Fatialofa’s English club has thrown its support behind a fundraising drive to help pay for the costs of the injured New Zealand rugby player’s recovery from a serious spinal injury. The 27-year-old former

Hurricanes lock has been released after four weeks in a London hospital following the frightening neck injury suffered in an

English Premiership match playing for the Worcester

Warriors. He is in a specialist spinal injuries clinic in Aylesbury. The Warriors’ latest update says Fatialofa is making ‘‘good progress’’ but his injuries ‘‘leave him facing damaged function, feeling and control over his body and a long period of rehabilitation and recovery’’. To help support Fatialofa and his wife, Tatiana, a fundraising campaign has been set up by the Rugby Players’ Association’s Restart charity.

It was all too easy for New Zealand over Mongolia in the Fed Cup in Wellington yesterday. In New Zealand’s opening tie of the Asia Oceania Group II tournament the Marina Erakovic-captained team convincingly won all three rubbers. The day started with Valentina Ivanov defeating Bolor Enkhbayer 6-0 6-0 in just 30 minutes. This was followed by Emily Fanning recording a 6-1 6-0 victory over Erdensuren Erdenebat in 48 minutes. Then Erin Routliffe and Kelly Southwood, who was making her Fed Cup debut, beat Jargal Altansarnai and Enkhbayer 6-2 6-1 in 41 minutes. It was no surprise that the scorelines were so lopsided. None of the Mongolian players had world rankings and this was the country’s first ever involvement in the Fed Cup. Things will get tougher for New Zealand today against Pakistan. Tomorrow they play Singapore in their final pool A tie. If they win that, they will play the winners of Pool B on Saturday (expected to be Thailand) to gain promotion to Asia Oceania Group I.