Ravouvou signed from 7s/Auckland, will provide some x factor to our backline. Joe Johnston & Abe Papalii in the flankers.

Eves, McHugh, Vella, Polwart, Ainley, Wardlaw, White, Papali'i, Ravouvou all likely or definitely out. Matenga, Mua, Robertson, Lalomilo players don't know about but haven't seen in club rugby. Gonna presume/hope all our Super players are returning but I haven't been checking other unions signings.
Props- Geldenhuys, Ross, Mafileo, Thwaites. Jordan Lay is back, Benot Kumeroa Toni Toia others in club I can think of.
Hookers-Eklund Harris, Vella? Nic Souchon signed from Canterbury.
Locks- Carroll, van den Hoven. Club- Mewett, Leaupepe, Morrice all back playing & Maloney-Fiaola probably the other one close.
Flankers- Blake, Johnston, Karpik. Club- Dickson is playing for Rangiuru, Herbert from 20s, Te Whetu Rangi impressive for TGA but they will likely wait another year, Budd finally given an opportunity? Don't know much here.
Halfback- Carter, TTT in. Mcgarvey-Black vs Campbell for a contract maybe?
10- Hollinshead, Trask. Hopefully Black. Biddle played 10 last few weeks?
Centres- Skipwith Garland, Tiatia. Thompson rumours? Don't know much here aswell & may not sign anymore like last year. Club-Bardoul, Tuhakaraina, Filemone.
Wings- Fuatai, Webber, Collier. Club- Ware most likely but Curry and Warbrick also playing from 7s for Mount, Barnett.
Fullback- Forbes, Narawa. Can't see any other signings here, good depth with Tiatia/Trask options.

@Snollygoster Not the greatest warm up, looked like a lot of the Super Rugby players struggled to get up for this one. My thoughts- Surprised Curry is first choice back up 12 instead of Webber to 13 & Garland to 12. Ware came on at 13 instead of wing & looked good. Collier not involved in the team at all, I'd probably have him ahead of Curry but can see why you pick Curry for the leadership, work ethic etc. Narawa looked to be a bit slow, clearly been asked to put on weight but may have got the balance a bit wrong at the moment. Cole Forbes was outstanding when he came on at 15, made a real difference. Blake struggled with the new laws, can't be so much of a pest like he usually is. I think the laws reward big strong players who have good jackal technique & that is not him. Forwards were outmuscled & gave away a few easy tries close to the ruck which is concerning. Kumeroa 19s captain from last year played, not sure whether he will be in the squad.

Thought Groundwater ran good straight lines but Dargaville passing skill was well below par and kept stuffing up their flow of attack with passes behind the man. Too many times the attack was moving sideways and nobody was straightening making it easy for Northland to just drift. Northland's physicality and line speed on defence was pretty impressive, couldn't fault either teams effort just a shitload of inaccuracy. Fair play to Witcombe making the call after 30mins his TH wasn't cutting it and bringing Rinakama on, no scrum pressure after that.

Simmonson could barely start for the BOP 19's last year let alone been ready for M10 Cup. Trained 7's all year, only played about 3 club games so coaches probably still view him as not at the required level yet. Can't see him getting ahead of that back 3 unless they get injured. Garland has been in exceptional form, no injuries this year and will be one to watch. Fuatai has come up from Otago, brought in to replace Monty, similar builds and players. Te Aute at halfback now, in and out of squad when needed as they as they only have 2 in squad. Same with Nicholas in back 3 I'm presuming, not sure whether that's because both chose to go back to their whanau club for 125th year and play Division 1 this year.

Bay Times report

Squad named Tuesday hence they played under Wasps banner today. Team looked good today, B Team against Wellington was competitive, thought Collier played particularly well. Half against Counties & likely top team next week was Ross Harris Thwaites Wardlaw Carroll Blake Karpik Papalii Judd Hollinshead Fuatai Garland Webber Narawa Tiatia. 34-0 win, defence brilliant. Three tries through defensive pressure forcing silly passes on their own goal line for intercepts. Tiatia was exceptional, talk huge could always hear him barking & menacing on attack. Papalii definitely what we needed with his big abrasive style. Everybody played well in second half except Webber, dropped a few balls & looked rusty.

Should be hearing his intentions for next year soon now that their school season has been completed.

@tim said in Mitre 10 Cup - news, injuries etc:

It's time for Southland to drop to Heartland Rugby

Anyone from Whanganui on here know whether the union is actively challenging NZRU for a promotion relegation game?

On the lock position- Keep an eye out for Kane Leaupepe in the Steamers. Had an impressive first start last week, tall body but has a bit of beef as well which Plumtree is clearly after. Was in Wellington squad in 2016 before moving up to BOP.

To be fair, the effort and money put in from other countries has substantially increased over the last few years, not only from Northern Hemisphere teams but also Australia and Fiji who's players are together far longer than ours pre-tournament.
I like the Super Rugby assistants idea, there will definitely be camps during super season and you could justify an assistant leaving for a week but not the head coach. Due to timing I doubt M10 coaches could coach both & in the current environment, it'd take a bit of convincing to leave your job for something that may not eventuate next year.

@Bovidae Purely just kicking, I thought he was in charge of all skills? Either way, you don't look at the teams he's been involved in & see the noticeable difference he has made. Mike Rogers will definitely be a shot then if that's the roles they're after, he takes forwards/scrum & McMillan takes defence at BOP whereas Bourke is backs/attack.

NZRU/Chiefs have to take some responsibility around the overall coaching fit & contract lengths when they knew Cooper was going to finish up. Generally when you're a coach at any level, you have some sort of say on who your assistants are so that you ensure you can work well together and have similar philosophies e.g. Razor had Jase Ryan come up through the ranks with him then they hand picked O'Gara once Macdonald left. This Chiefs situation looks like Gatland had no say in who his assistants were, the year off just makes that even more of a shitshow as do you choose someone Clayton works well with or Gatland for the next 2years?

David Hill has to be questioned to? He moved incredibly quickly through the ranks, straight from player to BOP and NZ U20 assistant and never had much success in any of those roles either. Clayton may look at Marty Bourke or Mike Rogers who came on as BOP assistants last year & the team improved markedly winning the comp, both come through club level then won Jock Hobbs as co-coaches.

Yupp Hetet was the only one I didn't know about but makes sense with only 5 other props and hopefully we don't see too much of him as that will mean our first-choice players are out.
Interview with Clayton here on the season- https://www.facebook.com/100276311637950/videos/732590177610307

@Snollygoster Not the greatest warm up, looked like a lot of the Super Rugby players struggled to get up for this one. My thoughts- Surprised Curry is first choice back up 12 instead of Webber to 13 & Garland to 12. Ware came on at 13 instead of wing & looked good. Collier not involved in the team at all, I'd probably have him ahead of Curry but can see why you pick Curry for the leadership, work ethic etc. Narawa looked to be a bit slow, clearly been asked to put on weight but may have got the balance a bit wrong at the moment. Cole Forbes was outstanding when he came on at 15, made a real difference. Blake struggled with the new laws, can't be so much of a pest like he usually is. I think the laws reward big strong players who have good jackal technique & that is not him. Forwards were outmuscled & gave away a few easy tries close to the ruck which is concerning. Kumeroa 19s captain from last year played, not sure whether he will be in the squad.

Yupp BOP starting team was Thwaites, Vella, Mafileo, Leaupepe, Carroll, Blake, Kaprik, Tupe, Campbell, Black, Fuatai, Tiatia, Skipwith-Garland, Webber, Narawa. Tiatia got injured, surprisingly for me Curry came straight on at 12 rather than moving Webber in to centre.

Anyone watched the latest gym post from union, is that Joe Tupe in grey with the towel around his neck or am I seeing things? Not sure who the frizzy haired one 2 shots before him is either. Confirmed from that Lalomilo, Skipwith-Garland, Curry, Campbell, Dickson and Harris are in sqaud. Lets hope they name a team for Friday otherwise we'll wait for the squad Monday.

I'm not sure on Super Rugby but you'd presume back to Japan, he has been running the waters for his local club Opotiki lately. Matenga wasn't interested in a pay cut & had a tiff with Clayton.

Franklin & Matenga aren't signing. Really lacking a specialist 8 & ball carrying ability in the loose trio.

Anyone know if Niall Williams chose not to play or simply wasn't picked?
Tenika Willison played club rugby in the Mount but has been back training with Waikato FPC.