Canterbury vs Hawkes Bay
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Need that bonus point
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taniwharugby said:
@higgins did it just go back or did it go out/dead, the latter is what attracts sanctions.
No, just went backwards and not into touch, Canty damn well scored from it! The ref the other night only mentioned the deliberate knock back and not the fact it trickled into touch when carding Collins.
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I hope HB sign Fakatava to a long term contract
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Glad to see Renton playing again. Pity it is for the bad guys
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Missed this game. How did Fakatava, McLutchie and Flanders go?
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Disclaimer - I only saw second half - Fakatava played better than any HB halfback for quite a few seasons (*edit - probably best since Kahn Fotuali'i). Good decisions, great passing. McLutchie looks to be getting better every game. Flanders was solid but unspectacular, however overall HB dominated the rucks and turnovers so good effort by the forwards
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Those are the three I want the Canes to snap up. Flanders has signed for three seasons, but looking to the future it will be great to lock up oth Fakatava and McLutchie as our halves pairing post TJ and Beaudy.
Fakatava looks like a young Genia and McLutchie is a natural playmaker that makes others standout around him ala Aaron Cruden-esque
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@canes4life The Canes will probably sign some average players from Wellington or elsewhere instead. Heaven forbid they'll go over their usual Hawke's Bay players ratio.
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Fakatava played really well and McLutchie continues to show further improvement every time he takes the field. Flanders was industrious putting in a lot of cover defence but not quote so prominent with ball in hand as he can be on a good day. All in all it was very encouraging from a HB supporters point of view considering the amount of youngsters and inexperience at this level amongst a lot of the others as well that we had out there today. Disappointed to have lost, as all supporters should be when that happens, but it could have been a lot worse all things considered. I was also impressed with the pace both teams played the game at today from start to finish.
Final Score: Canterbury 49 - 24 Hawkes Bay -
Higgins said:
You are possibly right there. He looks to be a club player just filling in for the day to me, at least body shape wise anyway. Is he a member of the original squad or an injury replacement? I don't recall seeing him play for the Bs when they played Wellington Samoans in Porirua a couple of weeks ago.
Tucker was named in the original squad.
Funaki is the injury cover for Hannon Brighouse, who is no longer injured (he played for the Saracens), but Funaki was apparently preferred for this game. Maybe Brighouse played for the Saracens to gain match fitness.
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If you combine all the promising young players from Wellington, Manawatu and Hawkes Bay that could very well end up at the Canes, then there are very promising signs post World Cup.
Geoff Cridge, Tim Farrell, Lincoln McLutchie, Folau Fakatava (Hawkes Bay), Bryaden Iose, Liam Mitchell (Manawatu) Asafo Aumua, Alex Fidow, Du Plessis Kirifi, Billy Proctor, Isaia Walker-Leawere & Xavier Numia (Wellington)
That provides a fairly good backbone going forward. We just need guys like Gareth Evans to stick around to ensure there is some experience to help lead and get the full potential out of some of these players.
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Also Mason Kean if he can stay injury free
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@stockcar86 He is a prop right? I remember him being talked up but he hasn't been cited. What's wrong with him?
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@higgins Yeah, I'm not unhappy with this game. Result isn't the blow-out that I expected and the performance was promising. For most of the game, the defence worked reasonably well and attack was still pretty exciting. I love that Fakatava-McClutchie combo in the halves!
Flanders suffered mostly from the fact that the Canterbury forwards were so much bigger. I think he still has to get bigger and stronger before he can really compete, but that's just a matter of time.
Toala didn't get much game time, but didn't look out of place.
I hope to see all our youngsters get an invite for the NZ U20s camp this year.
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Stockcar86 said:
Also Mason Kean if he can stay injury free
The few times he played last year, I wasn't impressed but that was under Philpott. This year he didn't even make the squad. I'm hoping Tavita-Metcalfe will be better.
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This article makes mention of him playing rugby league. Maybe someone like Number10 who is closer to the action might know a bit more about his current whereabouts. http://nzrl.co.nz/rugby-league-sam-mageles-fitness-tool/
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Not sure what happened to Mason Kean this year.
He switched clubs to play for Tamatea this year (from MAC) and I only watched Tamatea once, which was against Clive in the final round Maddison Trophy match.
So he certainly was playing at the end of the club season.
He was in the initial 52-man Magpies training squad back in April but hasn't even played for the HB Development team from August onwards, and they have used over 50 players in their programme.
If he's played the local league competition since the end of Tamatea's season then I'm not quite sure why.
Personally, I think Tim Farrell and Pouri Rakete-Stones went past him last year in the Magpies setup.
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Canes4life said:
If you combine all the promising young players from Wellington, Manawatu and Hawkes Bay that could very well end up at the Canes, then there are very promising signs post World Cup.
Geoff Cridge, Tim Farrell, Lincoln McLutchie, Folau Fakatava (Hawkes Bay), Bryaden Iose, Liam Mitchell (Manawatu) Asafo Aumua, Alex Fidow, Du Plessis Kirifi, Billy Proctor, Isaia Walker-Leawere & Xavier Numia (Wellington)
That provides a fairly good backbone going forward. We just need guys like Gareth Evans to stick around to ensure there is some experience to help lead and get the full potential out of some of these players.
You forgot Flanders and Lowe, but - also in the Bay - there are Kianu Kereru-Symes, who has been a revelation after Ash Dixon's injury; Danny Toala, who only got his first run today, but who is a massive talent; Will Tremain; Josiah Tavita-Metcalfe, another young promising prop who's still waiting for his Magpies debut; and not to mention some of the talent of this year's Napier Boys squad, such as hooker Tyrone Thompson, prop Patrick Teddy, centre Leo Thompson.
Hawke's Bay's dominance in Hurricanes school rugby is coming to fruition; here's hoping that the Canes will actually sign the majority of these players instead of the Highlanders and Chiefs. I understand there's interest from the Chiefs and Crusaders in some of the forwards I mentioned.
