A 28-year-old Tongan concreter recently plucked from club rugby as an emergency selection is now the Waratahs’ first-choice hooker after fellow newcomer Julian Heaven became the eighth NSW front-rower to be ruled out for the season through injury.
The length of the Waratahs’ injury list went from rough to ridiculous after NSW’s insipid defeat to the Hurricanes on Friday night, which left the Tahs with a paltry 2-9 record for the year and a date with in-form Aussie rivals the Brumbies this week.
The shoulder injury for Heaven came as Langi Gleeson (calf), Lalakai Foketi (knee), Izzy Perese (back) also picked up injuries in Wellington, and rookie Max Jorgensen suffered a hamstring injury playing for Randwick in Sydney.
Heaven left the field with an AC joint injury and will be out for up to six weeks. It makes him the fourth hooker to be sidelined, after he was also a late call-up from clubland due to the losses of the Tahs’ three full-time hookers: Dave Porecki (Achilles), Mahe Vailanu (knee) and Theo Fourie (foot).
The No.2 jersey will now go to veteran Jay Fonokalafi – a Western Sydney Two Blues hooker who only made his Super Rugby debut seven weeks ago after being called off his worksite as a concreter. The Kiwi-raised hooker is no greenhorn, having played four Tests for Tonga and at NPC level in Auckland, but it’s been a rapid rise for Fonokalafi, who almost quit rugby last year before giving it one last chance in the Shute Shield.
The extraordinary number of hookers and props lost – the Waratahs are also without five of their seven contracted props and have club call-ups on the bench – has reached the stage where if coach Darren Coleman didn’t laugh, he’d cry.
Waratahs newcomer Jay Fonokalafi will be the new starting hooker for the Tahs.Credit: Waratahs
“I am crying, don’t worry. We literally just spent five weeks getting Jules up to speed and he was starting to hold his own at set-piece. Now we have to bring in another guy [as a back-up], and we are stretching everyone out in the scrum,” Coleman said,
“It is frustrating. Jay will start now and we will bring in another club guy, we are working through that now.”
Of their ten original front-rowers, only Harry Johnson-Holmes and Hayden Thompson-Stringer are still standing, and given their back-ups are new to Super Rugby, both have been asked to play long minutes each week.
The large number of long-term injuries raises obvious questions about whether there are contributing failures in the Waratahs environment, and Coleman says he has also asked the same questions. But the answers, he says, point merely to a run of rotten luck.
“We will always do a deeper review at the end of the year obviously but yes, I am obviously asking questions of my staff, ‘What’s happening here?’” Coleman said.
“But they just always seem so unrelated. Like with hookers, Julian is an AC joint, which is a bang. Theo Fourie broke his foot, Mahe [Vailanu] did his PCL, Dave Porecki has a slightly sore Achilles in the pre-season and it has turned into what it has [a chronic injury]. We are comfortable that although it is in the same position group, it is not a common trend, or related.”
Julian Heaven passes the ball against the RebelsCredit: Getty
Finding form is one thing for the struggling Waratahs, but just putting a team on the field to meet the Brumbies will the first order of business this week.
Though Holloway and Hanigan are expected back after missing a week with concussion, Gleeson, Foketi and Perese are all under injury clouds and doubtful. Jorgensen is set to be sidelined for a few weeks with a hamstring and Joey Walton is also out with an ankle injury.
Coleman said the Waratahs are refusing to concede they’re a spent force this year, and by virtue of plenty of losing bonus points and the oft-criticised Super Rugby finals system that includes eight of the 12 sides, NSW remain a mathematical chance. Based on last year’s results, the Waratahs could make the finals with three wins from their last four games.
“We had some good conversations in Wellington on Saturday morning, we didn’t fly back until the afternoon. That was pretty full-on, and there were a lot of honest conversations happening there,” Coleman said.
“That first 25 minutes against Wellington just wasn’t acceptable and the boys know that. We hadn’t been a team like that, although we haven’t been setting the world on fire, I have always been proud of their energy and intent, and I wasn’t on the weekend. It is the first time I can say that.
“Not many people would be backing us at the moment but we will re-group and we understand the importance of a spirited performance. For the most part of the season our energy and intent has been good, we just have to combine that with our execution being good on the same day and will be in with a fight. That’s our challenge, to get both things right.”
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