Auckland B beat Northland B 40-5.

Couple of late changes just announced for Auckland. Blake Gibson and Harry Plummer out. Choat and Deangelo Someone-a-rather into the starting lineup.

I will by no means get carried away with that result today, as there's still a long way to go, but from what I witnessed I must say Northland look way better than we have in the past two years.

The thing that stood out for me was our set piece has improved tenfold. the lineouts worked like clockwork, and the scrum was dominant. Harbour had an absolute nightmare with our pack today, we were far more organised and aggressive.

Was really impressed with the communication as well, everyone was in unison and had a good understanding of what each other was doing.

Yep it was pre-season, and yep both sides were trying new things, but if Northland keep building from this performance I think it will be a pretty successful season.

Our first two tries were well worked from the forwards, it was a pick and go attack for the first one, with some good work close to the line, and the second was very similar. from there the backs had there turn with some well worked moves along the chain which culminated in meat pies!

Individually I had several stand-outs. Josh Goodhue was my man of the match, the guy played the whole 80 and was still running at full steam at the end. His defence was top notch and he was a sharp shooter in the lineout, took everything coming to him. He's in for a big year.

I was really impressed with our new Scotsman, Murray Douglas, the guy is a beast, very aggressive and great in the contact. To all the 'locals only' guys, I challenge you to find someone better running around up here right now. Yep there maybe guys that'll be good in the future, but right now, he's our best fit.

Out wide Tamati Tua and Matty Wright had solid matches, as did Rene Ranger after a bit of a shaky start. Sam Nock better be ready for a lot of minutes this year, as under him I'm not sure about Macleod, I would have preferred Matt Markwick there..

Our two first fives had decent games too, Hawkins was solid in the first 40, and Breen was solid in the 2nd. Breen takes the battle by a whisker though..

Other mentions go out to the like of Mike Faleafa, Namatahi Waa, Matt Matich, Jack Ram, Blake Hohaia and Kara Pryor, all were right in the thick of it. Faleafa made some brutal runs.

Tactically we were far more efficient than Harbour, our outside-in defence choked them all day and they had no answers. Their tries were opportunist, and came from our errors.

For them I thought Volavola was their best. Former Taniwha Shane Neville played ok too, not a bad effort.

@Dice said in Auckland Rugby 2019:

@African-Monkey said in Auckland Rugby 2019:

@nzzp And if the ball gets past D'Angelo Leuila.

This has been one of most frustrating things the last two weeks. Leuila and Ruru need to understand the talent they have outside them.

Leuila looked a million bucks against us, what happened?

Oh hang on, it was against us..yep, we make a lot of average players look the goods.

Wow, where was that performance all year? Bloody stoked to finish on a good note.

The one glaring thing for me was that game just showed why we should have had Gregory at 13 all season. His work on D really impressed me the most. Otago tried their hardest to gas the outside channels, but Gregory plugged it up with his pace. Gutted we wasted so much time with Johnson there.

The forwards were all on the same sheet today, was particularly impressed with Olsen, Temo and Byrne. I like the look of the new Fijian flanker too, hopefully we sign him up for next year.

Hopefully that was a little glimpse of what our whole season might be like for our centenary year next year.

Fingers crossed everyone is fit and healthy for 2020 so we can have a better campaign with our best available players!

@Steven-Harris great to catch up today!

Today was such a contrast to last weeks match, for me the huge difference was the fact Harbour had the likes of Li, Duffy, Stevenson and Parsons back in their lineup. Those guys made a huge difference for them. On today's evidence they should make a reasonable impact on the Premiership.

For Northland, as Steve said, we started well enough. I thought we were going to give them a torrid time as we had them camped in their territory for the first 20 odd minutes.

From there it came unstuck, we were trying too much and seemed to be kicking possession away way too much.

My thoughts on good performances echo Steves, so no need to delve into that side of things.

I still think with a 10 day break we'll put the Steamers to the sword come Sunday, I like the look of this squad, and with three quality players still to arrive I think we'll be humming!

So glad we went down there and did the business. Stoked with how ruthless we were. The foot never came off the throat despite a reasonably high error count. Can only imagine what the score would have been if we'd cut those errors. 60-70 maybe??

Pretty hard to pick men of the match, but to me Ranger and Jack Goodhue were outstanding. In fact that whole backline really stood up. How much has Jordan Hyland taken strides since he's been part of our set-up?? He's not the quickest dude, but he's a clever footy player and uses his size well... It's odd to think he sometimes can't even make the match day 23.

Phil Kite and Ross Wright seamlessly slotted into the front row as well. Loving this depth!!

Gotta feel a bit for the old banjo pickers down south, it seems as though it'll be a long season for them, but hey, we've been there, so time to have a bit of sun on our backs for once.

On to Waikato now, we'll be brimming with confidence. Hope the injuries are minimal however. More ruthless attitudes next week fellas!!! We got this.

@taniwharugby this whole thing stinks like a fat pile of shit. How on earth do we let one of our stars go after building what’s verging on one of the more successful Northland sides in a long time?? Beats me.

Clap clap for the handicapped. Well done Northland rugby, you’ve done it again. Just when things look rosy you go and shit in your nest. Congratulations

So that’s both 10’s, Ranger and Alaimalo now. Sounds very much like there could be more unless the NRU run an appropriate damage control operation. By the sounds of this saga they couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery.....

Tough to narrow three this week. Robinson, Goodhue and Matich for me.

Close calls to Jacobsen, Douglas and Olsen.

The backs to stand out were Nock and Ranger for me. Thought Kitto added value off the bench. Blessed to have two good 9’s this year.

@taniwharugby I heard Ranger wasn’t too good. Good news on Robinson though.

Would like to see Wiseguy get a decent crack tomorrow, as I think he should be ahead of Hawkins. I understand the guy had a few off field issues, but seriously, how many pro footy players are in the same boat these days? I’m all about redemption on the paddock.

@taniwharugby said in Northland v Otago:

Key is trying to get these talented kids from here but in Auckland on scholarships wanting to come back.

This is a huge point in my opinion. I think our point of attack needs to start at U19 level here. I saw the Auckland team had four or five Northland boys in there. I get that there’s a choice for these lads, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could have them playing for Northland from that age group upwards. Our U19s are way behind the 8-ball and need a boost. A lot of other unions are using the 19’s as a key development tool and it’s working. I noticed Hawkes Bay U19 had 3 or 4 of Wellington based (presumably uni students) players in their set up this year. We need to do the same and entice our Auckland/elsewhere based Northland lads back into our system. The NRU need someone to proactively scope this option out.

Yep, definitely agree on having guys playing in our comps. I don’t give a rats ass where in the country or world they’re from as long as they play club footy in Northland and commit to our cause. In terms of true blue local guys, I think it’d be great if we actually had enough of quality ones to make a “Northland Only” team, but the reality is we don’t and need to supplement from elsewhere from time to time.

On the coaches, I reckon the major thing they got wrong was the selections rather than the tactics. I think they are good coaches (DW more specifically) and deserve another crack. They just need to focus on selecting the right guys from week to week. Given it was hard with all our injury disruptions, but that midfield fiasco should never be repeated!

Wow, where was that performance all year? Bloody stoked to finish on a good note.

The one glaring thing for me was that game just showed why we should have had Gregory at 13 all season. His work on D really impressed me the most. Otago tried their hardest to gas the outside channels, but Gregory plugged it up with his pace. Gutted we wasted so much time with Johnson there.

The forwards were all on the same sheet today, was particularly impressed with Olsen, Temo and Byrne. I like the look of the new Fijian flanker too, hopefully we sign him up for next year.

Hopefully that was a little glimpse of what our whole season might be like for our centenary year next year.

Fingers crossed everyone is fit and healthy for 2020 so we can have a better campaign with our best available players!

Once upon a time I’d have given us a chance over Tasman...oh how times have changed.

If we can conjure another effort like last week I’ll take that. Just keep it reasonably respectable and try and scab a four try bonus.

@taniwharugby said in Wellington vs Northland

Cherrington didnt get much to do, but hopefully he gets a start.

Too easy that riddle.. Start Cherrington and drop Johnson. Johnson was terrible.

@taniwharugby yep some real ticker there, and that’s all you can ask for. All I wanted was for us to come off with our heads held high, and we’ve done that. I was expecting 70-80 points against and not many for.

Most of Wellington’s tries were very soft. To score five of our own was very pleasing though.

Our pack muscled up well bar a few scrums. The locks and loosies all shaped up. Stokes was supercharged! Also liked Byrne, if he can stack some weight he’ll be a beast.

Out wide Gregory, J Deb and Rae were my picks.

Hope we scrap Tasman the same next week. Could be a similar score maybe?? Got to get more than the donut Auckland received.

@kev 57-36 FT

Nice J Deb. 57-36

@taniwharugby said in Wellington vs Northland:

Defending narrow seems part of our game plan, but Leilua was way in there

And it happens again. Is it too hard to change that system on the fly, or do we just have no idea. 57-29.

@taniwharugby it is. Now Welly stroll in after our usual narrow defence botch up.