Tasman v Auckland
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@Hooroo said in Ta$man v Auckland:
No, I quite like them as a team. I just class Hawkes bay in with Southland, Northland and Manawatu as the rubbish clubs. It's a legacy thing. The top flight embarrassments, if you will
Manawatu have at least won an NPC title, even if it was back in 1980.
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@Chris-B said in Ta$man v Auckland:
@Cantab79 said in Ta$man v Auckland:
That Ta$man teams looks Super Rugby strength, and will be almost impossible to beat for the title this year. They will need to choke to give anyone else a chance of winning, or suffer some serious injury setbacks.
Their depth across the park is brilliant. As a Canterbury fan I wonder how so many of the Crusaders' players have been allowed to drift north for the Mitre 10 Cup? In saying that I will be very happy for them if they do win this year and bring the Mitre 10 Cup back to the Crusaders region.
At full strength Ta$man is pretty strong, but far from bolted out of reach. A couple of injuries to key players and we're back in the pack.
Of the Crusaders players, Crockett, Strange, Blackadder, Hunt, Faingaanuku and Havili are all products of Nelson College. Pretty sure Taufua (loaned from Canterbury), Jordan, Perry and Makalio all made their NPC debuts for Ta$man (as, I'm pretty sure did Lomax, Parkinson, Squire, Christie, Nankivell, Aumua, Roach, Uchida, and Paea). Salmon and Tima are also Nelson College products - the Moli bros are Marlborough College products.
I think Will Jordan is the significant miss by Canterbury. I doubt Nankivell or Christie would have been close to making the Canterbury team when Ta$man signed them.
Yep, I was gonna poke holes in Cantab79's post as well. Jordan is the only Crusader from Canterbury originally now at Ta$man, of concern. The other Ta$man Crusaders are either from the Ta$man region or Ta$man (not Canterbury) buy-ins, or off-casts who've come good.
In general though there have been quite a few high profile guys over the last few years who've somehow escaped from the camp, when you add Jordan to ALB, Alaimalo, Lentjes, Retallick and D McKenzie (yes I know, only one year at CC, but he was still in the system and escaped).
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Shut up Kane Hames..
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