The Cats, who lost burly lock forward Kleinjan Tromp with a broken finger last week, suffered further injury-setbacks when Springbok lock Jannes Labuschagne and scrum-half Neil Powell were forced to return to South Africa - while the rest of the Cats squad heads across the Tasman to New Zealand.

Labuschagne injured his knee in the second half and will be sidelined for several weeks, if not months.

A replacement for Labuschagne, who missed most of 2003 because of various niggles, will named at a later stage. Lions youngsters Barend Pieterse or Trevor Hall could replace him.

Scrum-half Paul Delport, who led the South African Under-19 side to the world championship title last year, will join the Cats squad early next week to replace Cheetahs star Powell - who injured his shoulder.

The 20-year-old Delport, who was a member of the Springbok Sevens team that won in the opening round of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens series in Dubai in December, will provide cover at scrum-half for the Cats in their two remaining tour matches - against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday (March 13) and the Highlanders in Dunedin a week later.

Delport, who is yet to play Currie Cup rugby in his native South Africa, is an exciting talent and was elevated to the SA Sevens team for the Dubai leg of the IRB Sevens in December 2003. He picked up a knee injury in Dubai, however, and then missed the George leg before returning for the third and fourth legs in New Zealand and the United States respectively.

The Cats’ shockingly poor form in the first three weeks of the 2004 Super 12 - which has them firmly entrenched at the bottom of the standings as the only side yet to win a fixture - has resulted in the introduction of emergency measures to determine the cause of their woeful performances.

Following a 28-23 loss to the Stormers in the opening round, the Cats slumped to a 68-28 loss to the Brumbies and also went down 46-10 to the Waratahs in another inept display at the weekend.

Questions are now being asked about the coaching staff of Tim Lane, Ray Mordt, Chester Williams and Willie Meyer.

Since the loss to the Waratahs, numerous phone calls have been made between the Cats team in Australasia and high-level officials back in South Africa, with the end result that Cats CEO Johan Prinsloo will be flying to New Zealand this week to join the team in an effort to get some answers.

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