Hurricanes v Blues
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@No-Quarter said in Hurricanes v Blues:
I'd be surprised if the Canes make the finals without Beauden.
I think the Canes will be there or thereabouts.
Currently they're in eighth - I guess the question is which team below them is likely to get past them. I guess most likely would be the Rebels or Reds with lots of games in the Australian conference - but, those teams need to start collecting points.
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@Chris-B Yes you did, it ended up about 30 odd to about 20 odd after the Blues scored a try and kicked a couple of late penalties. I was busy dealing with a lot of other things going on at the time and did not really pay much attention to the play.
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I think the Canes will get there, especially if we can get Ardie back soon.
The one guy that we probably couldn't afford to lose for the Chiefs and Crusaders games coming up is Lomax. How costly will this red card be on our campaign? Well we will have to wait and see.
I would bring Ben May back into the fold as the starting 3 and leave Fidow on the bench.
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@Canes4life I think May was one of the reasons why the Hunters' scrum dominated Blues A in the first half, on Saturday. It's no secret that I'm not a huge fan of his, but he's a big lump of a man who adds a lot of weight to the pack.
Assuming the citing will be upheld, the Canes will probably lose Lomax for about 3 games/weeks.
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@Stargazer Lomax has been suspended for 3 weeks as per the article above.
Numia might be unavailable too due to concussion.
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Worrying times for the Canes, their depth will be tested heavily over the next three weeks.
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@Canes4life said in Hurricanes v Blues:
The one guy that we probably couldn't afford to lose for the Chiefs and Crusaders games coming up is Lomax. How costly will this red card be on our campaign? Well we will have to wait and see.
If you're being brutally realistic then losing Lomax for away games vs Chiefs and Crusaders might not be the worst thing in the world.
He'll get a compulsory rest in games that the Canes definitely will not be (and would not have been) favourites for.
The real damage is letting four points slip away vs the Blues and the need to ensure the same thing doesn't happen vs the Bulls.
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@Canes4life So if Armstrong is still out, Rakete-Stones will likely start at LH, and Fidow/May for TH. Who'll be the reserve LH? Sitiveni Paongo, who started for the Hunters? He didn't really impress on Saturday .... It's either him or Morgan Poi, I guess. I hope Armstrong will be back, even if it's only for the last 30 minutes.
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Yeah I would say so, what about Mafileo who played in those first two games?
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@Canes4life Playing “Rapid Rugby", I think.
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@No-Quarter said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@Chris-B said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@taniwharugby said in Hurricanes v Blues:
Was at a function on Friday night with Grant Fox and Glenn Taylor, and Fox reckoned Blues would make finals but didn't have the squad to win.
Both said it was thier tight 5 making the difference this year with Taylor making special mention of Tuipuluto's form and also Robinson.
I think that's a pretty decent bet.
What I most didn't like about the Blues performance was that they were losing both the scrums and lineouts in the first 20 minutes and, while Parsons improves the lineout throwing, he's a weakness around the paddock. And scrums - I suspect there's other scrums more dominant that what the Canes have that would have to be matched in the play-offs.
However, there's still time for the Blues to get better in these aspects and they've got some physical specimens. And people like Nock are starting deliver on their promise.
The real wildcard is what Beauden can bring. He's the sort of player who turns five point losses into five point wins.
I'd be surprised if the Canes make the finals without Beauden. He's done exactly that time and time again the past couple of seasons and has made us look a lot better than we are.
You can say what you like about his credentials as a test 10, but in the more open Super rugby he's an absolutely superstar in that position and is regularly the difference.
Ardie is the other diffecernce maker, both at SR and ABs, at least he is coming back to the canes. Hopefully he'll tell TJ to calm down
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@Stargazer said in Hurricanes v Blues:
@Bovidae Ah, hadn't seen that yet. Have been too busy to read the news (and the Fern).
#booboo
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The cards were easy decisions but I didnt like the way the ref controlled the game from the start, creating flow is a must between nz teams, other than that i feel wellington scoring after a minute was the worse thing that they did as after that they seemed to relaxed, b4 they knew it and 1 million free kicks later it was still only 5nil. But well done blues finally got sm rub of the green.
