Guildford blow for 'Canes

Editor

Teenage sensation and Hurricanes wing Zac Guildford has been sidelined for four to six weeks with a hand injury sustained in a training ground accident.

Teenage sensation and Hurricanes wing Zac Guildford has been sidelined for four to six weeks with a hand injury sustained in a training ground accident.

The 19-year-old Hawke's Bay player fractured the fourth metacarpal of his right hand earlier this week.

Guilford was not in the Hurricanes side that will face the Waratahs in a Super 14 Round One match in Sydney on Saturday.

However, the injury is a huge setback for the talented young flyer.

Guilford showed his prodigious talent when he bagged two tries in his first game for the Hurricanes in their first pre-season game against the Crusaders. He played all but ten minutes of the 100-minute game and marked his New Zealand Under-19 teammates Sean Maitland and Kade Poki.

For Guilford 2007 was a whirlwind year. The fresh-faced Hawke's Bay tryline assassin won the International Rugby Board (IRB) U19 championship with New Zealand, helped the Magpies reach the semi-finals of the Air New Zealand Cup, was selected for the Hurricanes and picked up two major junior sports awards at the end of the year.

It seemed everything Guildford touched last year turned to gold.

He played a starring role for New Zealand U19 at the IRB age-group event in Ireland, one of only four players to start in all four games, and scored seven tries for Hawke's Bay, including one on debut against Poverty Bay.

In November he won the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) Age Grade Player of the Year award, the Junior Maori Sportsman of the Year title, and also picked up the supreme Sportsperson of the Year accolade at the 2007 Kahungunu Maori Sportsperson awards.

At 18, Guildford became the youngest ever Hurricane late last year, almost one year to the day younger than Christian Cullen was at the start of the 1996 Super 12.

As well as blinding speed and youthful enthusiasm, Guildford brings an excellent kick-and-chase game and an intuitive knack of being at the right place at the right time, skills he demonstrated when scoring his try for Hawke's Bay in their famous 38-35 win over Waikato in the Air New Zealand Cup quarter-finals last year.