Chiefs rugby winger Roger Randle is almost certain to be ruled out of the rest of this year’s Super 12.
However, unless the Chiefs get further injuries among their outside backs, they are unlikely to seek a replacement — a reflection of the calibre of wings available in New Zealand’s draft pool.
”While we’ve got plenty of cover there at the moment we’ll just carry on working with him,” Chiefs coach Ian Foster said of Randle, who has not been able to train fully or play since rupturing his Achilles tendon in last year’s Super 12. He has required a couple of operations to repair it due to infection after the first one.
”Until we have further problems with injuries [among] outside [backs] it’s better that we hold him in the squad and just carry on working in the hope that maybe something comes right,” Foster said.
He said the Chiefs had a good arrangement with the New Zealand Rugby Union to be able to do that and he admitted there were not a lot of draft options available.
”At the moment I don’t really need to think about that because we’ve got Siti [Sivivatu] and Lome [Fa’atau], plus Todd [Miller] coming back from injury, which means Loki [Crichton] is an option there as well down the track and we’ve also got Grant McQuoid.
”We’ve got a few options to cover us in the short term.”
Miller has taken a long time to recover fully from a pre-Christmas leg injury but he managed to get through 40 minutes in a club match on Saturday. Foster said Miller had trained well on Tuesday and was starting to look sharp.
Neither first five-eighths Glen Jackson (hamstring) nor centre Keith Lowen (ankle) trained on Tuesday but halfback Byron Kelleher (bruised abdomen) took a full part in the afternoon open session.
Midfield back Mark Ranby (hamstring) took part in some of the session and also did some running on his own but did not look 100%.
Foster said he felt Ranby was unlikely to be available for Saturday’s match against the New South Waratahs at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, while Jackson had only a small chance of being available, but Lowen was a better chance.
Prop Deacon Manu and halfback Isaac Boss are back from suspension and available for selection.
Meanwhile, Foster was still confident his team are on track despite last Saturday night’s 15-36 home loss to the Crusaders.
”We certainly did well for periods of the game and our major focus this week is just getting our own skill level back up. I feel we just let slip a couple of areas,” he said.
Foster has talked with referee Lyndon Bray since the Crusaders match. It seemed Bray might have conceded Foster had a point on several decisions he questioned.
”Lyndon’s been awesome with his feedback and we think we’re pretty much on track…” — Sapa-NZPA