Wellington Lions 2021
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@canes4life oh you mean O'Reilly...as you were.
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@canes4life said in Wellington Lions 2021:
Instead of bombarding the NPC page with Wellington squad news, I thought it would make sense to start a Wellington Lions thread for anyone interested.
Not sure when the squad is named but the below are confirmed signings so far:
Props:
Pek Cowan
Xavier Numia
Fraser Armstrong
Vince SakariaHookers:
Asafo Aumua
Dane Coles
Tyrone Thompson
James O'ReillyLocks:
Taine Plumtree
Dominic Bird
Naitoa Ah Koui
James BlackwellLoose Forwards:
Caleb Delany
Du'Plessis Kirifi
Sam Smith
Iona Apineru
Keelan Whitman
Ardie Savea
Josh SouthallHalfbacks:
TJ Perenara
Richard Judd
Connor CollinsFirst Fives:
Jackson Garden-Bachop
Aiden Morgan
Ruben LoveMidfield:
Billy Proctor
Vince Aso
Peter Umaga-JensenOutside Backs:
Julian Savea
Connor Garden-Bachop
Wes Goosen
Papasani Patafilo
Tomasi AlosioLooks like the Lions management have finally come to their senses and discarded A. Fidow. Not sure if their Hurricanes conterparts have the intelligence to do likewise.
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@higgins I don't think they've discarded Alex Fidow. He wasn't on the photos because his mother passed away. Besides, if the Hurricanes have him in the squad, Wellington will as well, unless they've offloaded him to one of the other NPC squads ...
That brings me to Owen Franks ... is he going to play NPC for Wellington? Or for someone else?
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@stargazer I think Fidow will be in the squad, but yeah he's probably not there because of bereavement leave. Naitoa Ah Koui isn't in the shoot either which makes me think a few players couldn't make the shoot day.
Hopefully Owen is a late addition. Man it's good to see Dom Bird in Black & Gold, finally we have some height in the lineout.
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@canes4life Ah Kuoi has been poached by BOP.
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@canes4life no Naitoa, "apparently" they went with Bird instead so wellingtons other team BoP have taken him
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@canes4life My memory might be playing tricks with he but I thought that D. Bird was a poor mans BBBR or a rich mans Isaac Ross, sort of a half way between the two type of player.
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@canes4life said in Wellington Lions 2021:
@higgins either way he's an improvement on Blackwell, even though Blackwell will most likely start as well.
Being the reigning Captain of course he will start!!!
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@canes4life Either way the team management clearly see his leadership qualities as being too indispensable to see him languishing on the bench at the start of games.
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The squad is as follows (* denotes uncapped)
Tomasi Alosio
Iona Apineru *
Fraser Armstrong *
Vince Aso
Asafo Aumua
Dominic Bird *
James Blackwell
Dane Coles
Connor Collins
Pekahou Cowan *
Caleb Delany
Alex Fidow
Connor Garden-Bachop
Jackson Garden-Bachop
Wes Goosen
Richard Judd *
Bruce Kauika-Petersen
Du’Plessis Kirifi
Ruben Love
Brandyn Laursen
Aidan Morgan
Xavier Numia
James O’Reilly
Pepesana Patafilo
TJ Perenara
Taine Plumtree
Billy Proctor
Vincent Sakaria
Ardie Savea
Julian Savea
Sam Smith
Josh Southall *
Tyrone Thompson
Peter Umaga-Jensen
Keelan Whitman * -
@Canes4life no Riley Higgins
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@mikey07 said in Wellington Lions 2021:
@Bones Theres some HOBM players in there see Laursen gets a go after being the 10 for the last 3-4 years
Such obvious favouritism. Hopefully having most of the rest of the side littered with his HOBM teammates will help.
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@mikey07 none of the Hurricanes Under 20s from Wellington made the cut apart from Morgan & Love. Higgins should definitely be there, maybe there is a restriction on how many players you can have in the squad that are around the 19/20 age bracket? Otherwise it's laughable that he's missed out to the very mediocre Alosio.
What I don't get is that Higgins / Lakai aren't part of the dev team either... anyone know why?
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@canes4life said in Wellington Lions 2021:
@mikey07 none of the Hurricanes Under 20s made the cut apart from Morgan & Love. Higgins should definitely be there, maybe there is a restriction on how many players you can have in the squad that are around the 19/20 age bracket? Otherwise it's laughable that he's missed out to the very mediocre Alosio.
You may be right. Both Harry Godfrey and Frank Lochore made the Shield Snorters squad. Godfrey is U19 and Lochore at least U20. Tiaki Fabish and Jordan Thompson-Dunn are not in the squad. I expect them to be named in the HB Saracens (Jonty Stewart has been named in our U19 squad; Godfrey, too, btw).
What I don't get is that Higgins / Lakai aren't part of the dev team either... anyone know why?
Maybe in the Wellington U19s?