The Chiefs 42-27 loss to the Reds appears to have come at an extra cost as coach Dave Rennie fears that star centre Richard Kahui will be out for the rest of the Super Rugby season.
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Kahui was playing against the Reds on Sunday in Brisbane but fell awkwardly in a tackle four minutes before half time and appears to have dislocated his shoulder.
All Black centre Kahui had form an exciting partnership with Sonny Bill Williams but that may have come to an abrupt end.
“We’ll get the shoulder scanned tomorrow, but the likelihood is it’s the end of his season from a Super Rugby viewpoint,” Rennie told Sportal.
“Richard had a big impact in the time he was on the field.”
“I feel for him because he’s a bloody top man, a big part of our leadership group and obviously the All Blacks were pretty keen on him playing there.
“It’s disappointing for him, but knowing him he’ll still have a bit to say about what goes on from here in regard to what we do on the track and helping out the young fellas.”
Kahui was one of the senior Chiefs players and was one of Rennie’s leadership group but while the coach admitted losing Kahui was a huge blow he added that they have have the depth to reshuffle and cover the loss.
Jackson Willison appears to the most likely to step in for Kahui as he did against the Reds.
“(Willison’s) been at the Chiefs for three or four years now and played a lot of footy, so it’s a great opportunity,” Rennie said.
“We’ve also got our fullback, Andrew Horrell, who is a 10 or a 12 that’s been playing 15 because we’ve had some injuries back there, but hopefully we get some back so he’s an option to play at 12.
“Sonny (Bill Williams) is quite comfortable playing 12 or 13.”
Rennie was gracious in defeat and played down the significance of a refereeing blunder by Marius Jonker who told Reds skipper James Horwill that if they had seen Luke Morahan’s number during his lifting tackle on Sonny Bill Williams he would have been shown a yellow card.
Rennie said that the incident did not deserve a yellow card and that a penalty was the right call.
“To be honest, he didn’t deserve to be sinbinned,” Rennie said.
“We watched it, thought there was nothing in it and we got a penalty so we were happy.
“If he had have been binned it could have been a big moment in the game, but it probably wasn’t warranted.”