Auckland vs Wellington
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15 Billy Proctor (Marist St Pats)
14 Wes Goosen (Old Boys University)
13 Vince Aso (Paremata-Plimmerton)
12 Peter Umaga-Jensen (Wainuiomata)
11 Ben Lam (Tawa)
10 Jackson Garden-Bachop (Northern United)
9 Kemara Hauiti-Parapara (Tawa)
8 Vaea Fifita (Wellington)
7 Du'Plessis Kirifi (Northern United) (c)
6 Mateaki Kafatolu (Petone)
5 James Blackwell (Petone)
4 Josh Furno (Western Suburbs)
3 Alex Fidow (Oriental-Rongotai)
2 Asafo Aumua (Avalon)
1 Xavier Numia (Oriental-Rongotai)16 James O'Reilly (Hutt Old Boys Marist)
17 Sitiveni Paongo (Tawa)
18 Kaliopasi Uluilakepa (Petone)
19 Naitoa Ah Kuoi (Marist St Pats)
20 Teariki Ben-Nicholas (Old Boys University)
21 Campbell Woodmass (Northern United)
22 Trent Renata (Oriental-Rongotai)
23 Pepesana Patafilo (Tawa)Fifita and Gardon-Bachop returing are the chagnes from last week
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Good to see Scrafton and Trainor back.
That backline looks really good on paper, but hopefully we use them more this week. We were all excited about getting Manu back, but he's hardly touched the ball since coming back. Our attack has been too tight and too forward orientated.
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I will be keen to see how Fifita goes at 8. His best position is not lock and hes just not quite right for 6. But he could be very good at 8
Surprised that TBN was dropped from the starting team though. Not a rest but dropped it seems
"It's tough on Teariki Ben-Nicholas who has been in really good form but we know he will provide us with some real energy off the bench, along with a number of other players, against a quality Auckland side." -
@Winger After watching him initially play No. 8 in club rugby before being switched to blindside, I think you will find that he is not overly assured in the No. 8 position where scrums are concerned. The main downside being a struggle to tidy his own team's feed when the scrum was back pedaling under pressure and I would be surprised if much had changed in that over the intervening five years or so since the switch in positions was made. We will get a good chance to evaluate that if the Wellington scrum has not improved since it was rather shown up by the BoP team a couple of weeks back and with the same tight five fronting again, indicating it probably hasn't, things might get a bit scary for them on Sunday afternoon. However having said that here is something that sort of contradicts the above. Incidentally the green number 19 outpaced by Fifita is none other than Ben-Nicholas.
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The quality of Auckland's performances this year has been consistent. Unfortunately that's not a good thing. Apart from the Northland game the attack has misfired and scrambling defence has kept us in matches
We'll need more against Wellington
Canterbury losing, Waikato and Harbour getting zeros points - the results have fallen our way this weekend. Hopefully we capitalise on that.
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Good patience from us after a poor start. Looks like Gibson's injured again. Probably season ending knowing his injury record.
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@African-Monkey It doesn't look good for him.
We're running out of backrowers. Papali'i and Sotutu shouldn't be too far away though.
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Good hustle there from Ruru to get that try.
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@African-Monkey said in Auckland vs Wellington:
Good hustle there from Ruru to get that try.
I'm an Auckland supporter and don't like those being awarded. Holding off the ball annoys the hell out of me. Still, there's a lot I'm grumpy about these days it appears
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Apart from the first try and Redinger-Kapa being just a fraction too slow getting off the scrum for the 2nd try, our defence has been good in general. Trainor's kicking game has been good from the back too.
I feel that Teariki Ben-Nicholas could be key when he comes on with Fifita moving to 6.
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@African-Monkey MCL 🙁
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My God our attack is a mess this year.
