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Kiwis lose captain Ioasa to injury

Fiji Times - Saturday, December 01, 2007 6:00 AM

New Zealand were dealt a blow on the eve of the Dubai Sevens with captain Tafai Ioasa ruled out of the tournament after twisting his knee when he landed awkwardly in training on Thursday.

Ioasa missed six of the eight tournaments last season with a knee injury, but coach Gordon Tietjens revealed it was the 27-year-old forward's other knee that suffered the damage in a "freakish accident".

"That is really surprising, it's his other knee. The funny thing was we never had the ball, he was just competing in the team's lineout and twisted his knee, that's really the extent of it," Tietjens told irbsevens.com.

"He wasn't being tackled, just coming out of a lineout so it was quite a freakish accident really.

"Obviously it happened at training today, it was probably just a real freak accident, but it's really disappointing and Tafai was shattered when he came down and has done some medial ligaments on one knee, ruling him out of this tournament and possibly South Africa as well.

"It is quite disruptive, he is our captain, he was keen to get back playing in the World Series after he missed six tournaments last year, so it was quite disruptive for the other players.

Tietjens admitted he is "lucky enough" to have DJ Forbes to take over the captaincy, something he did in the six tournaments Ioasa missed last season as New Zealand came from behind to win the final two events and pip Fiji to claim a seventh Series title in eight years.

Ioasa's place in the squad has been taken by newcomer James Kamana, who was due to play in the social tournament on Thursday before joining the camp for the event in George.