Jeff Wilson, New Zealand's record Test try-scorer, is to sidestep rugby union to concentrate on gaining a place in the country's cricket team.

The 28-year-old Wilson, who has scored 44 tries in 60 Tests for the All Blacks, will play for Invercargill's Appleby club in the Hawke Cup and, he hopes, Otago in the state-sponsored one- and four-day competitions. Wilson played one-day internationals for New Zealand in the early 90s but he suspected his All Black career was over last autumn when the new coach John Mitchell did not select him for the tour of Britain.

The New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden described the announcement of Wilson's return as "quite a nice little Sunday morning wake-up".

For the second successive year New Zealand's Canterbury Crusaders will play the holders ACT Brumbies for the Super-12 title.

Canterbury have not lost a match in this season's Super-12 and accounted for their fellow New Zealanders Otago 34-23 in one semi-final while the Brumbies, who won the title last season, advanced with a 51-10 win over New South Wales Waratahs.

The Waratahs' flanker Phil Waugh will need ankle surgery this week which will sideline him for at least three months. The surgery, to correct irritation of tendons in his ankle, means he will miss Australia's Test series against France next month as well as the Bledisloe Cup and Tri-Nations campaigns against New Zealand and South Africa.

Stefan Terblanche and De Wet Barry both suffered injuries during a Springbok trial match in Pretoria yesterday. The Sharks' wing Terblanche was taken off on a stretcher late in the second half and the Stormers' centre Barry suffered an ankle injury. Both players were seen as certainties for selection against Wales next month.

The Springboks' captain Bob Skinstad led his team to a 57-48 win in a trial to select a squad of 22 players for the first Test against Wales in Bloemfontein on June 8.