Hand injury robs Waikato of Willison's talents
29th July 2009 03:23PM
By EVAN PEGDEN - Waikato Times
Waikato have lost rising young midfield backline star Jackson Willison just days out from the start of the national rugby championship.
Willison, 20, injured his hand in last Friday's final pre-season hit-out against Taranaki and the injury has since been diagnosed as a probable broken scaphoid bone requiring surgery and a 12-week layoff.
"It's reasonably disappointing from the team's point of view but more importantly it is disappointing for Jacko," Waikato head coach Chris Gibbes said yesterday.
Gibbes said it would be a struggle for Willison to make it back before the end of the season, which will involve 13 weeks of round-robin games before the semifinals.
"He's been going really, really well," Gibbes said.
"His performances on the field have been outstanding and he's also been a massive contributor, not only in the leadership group but the tactical stuff, driving standards around the gym, around our skill work and all that sort of stuff.
"So from a team point of view it's really, really disappointing, but that's rugby and we'll get up and keep moving forward."
Willison made his Chiefs debut this year and, with 22 games for Waikato already behind him, was expected to take a big step up this season.
Fraser-Tech centre Roimata Hansell-Pune looks set to take Willison's place, although the coaches also have the option of moving Dwayne Sweeney to centre and putting another player on the wing. New Zealand Sevens rep Save Tokula, who is returning from injury, is another contender.
Apart from that, Gibbes said, he and assistant coach Scott McLeod would be picking their team to open the Air New Zealand Cup against Southland in Invercargill on Saturday night from a fit squad.
"The pressure's on with selection now and we've got a few decisions to make," he said.
"We've just got to look at the balance of what we're looking for out of Southland and what we're going to walk into there."
Gibbes said there was probably no more formidable venue to go to for a first-round match but the players were excited about the challenge.
"We've learnt a lot from (last) Friday in terms of making sure we're ironing out a few little areas in our pattern and just in our defensive line so we've been working hard in the last two days to make sure they're right," Gibbes said.
"After this morning I think we're a lot clearer about everyone's roles."
