This worth a listen. They talk to the BOPRU CEO about the number of Super players in the squad next year, TTT and Rapid rugby. https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/plenty-of-steam/e/65036094?autoplay=true

Clayton McMiillan Ross Geldenhuys

Yep if you pick any of the older players who played 50 tests you'd be fairly safe

I get BOP press releases emailed to me, I will try and post them more.

That 3rd Bay try was sweet. Funny sort of game. Not sure what the tactics of the Magpies were in that first half. On their heels in defence and the line speed was very poor. Got it together a little better in the second half, but it begs the question why they didn’t do it in the first when the Bay were playing a fairly conventional attack. The Bay loose forwards continue to impress once again and Tiatia was hitting the line with a bit of oomph rather than running cross field. Very good win Bay.

@Snollygoster Okay, predictably no response !! I've since found out that Campbell is out for the season and Chris Eves is playing for the Development team on Saturday at the Domain (as are 4 or 5 other contracted players)

@taniwharugby bugger injuries are like a cancer when loosing,

@Number-10 said in Taranaki vs BOP: Sept 30, 1995 - BOP won 41-27 Wow that's pretty momentous then - must be one of the longer streaks broken then.

Meh, it was only Waikato...

Yes, its strange to think that, but for a poor conversion and stupid pass to Ioane, we could possibly be unbeaten at this stage. In reality I really don't think that we deserve to be unbeaten however. We just can't seem to capitalize on the advantage and "put a team away". And yes, that decision to continue scrumming rather than take a penalty kick was odd in retrospect. Some of the tactics in general were odd actually and ultimately unsuccessful. One thing that is noticeable this year is the chip (or grubber) kick beyond the defensive line out to a waiting player which seems to be working for some teams. I saw them practicing it in the warmup using Narawa but was never used during the game. Despite my negativeness and cynicism there is plenty to be happy about this year. It would have to rate as the best year for a long time with many players excelling and a minimum of injuries (possibly). Like Kiwipie said, the permutations for the finals are beginning to become apparent. I still think that on our day we can beat anyone but no win is guaranteed but this year we seem to be more consistent .

@Steven-Harris said in North Harbour v Bay of Plenty: @JK interesting that Northland who had a club day at the Magpies game on Saturday attracted over 7;000 people,.probably the best crowd of the 2019 Mitre 10 Cup ..it was promoted vey well..;with free buses laid on for all the clubs that were able to attend. Wasn’t a huge amount of promotion for the harbour one and certainly none from our club given the game clashed with junior prize giving which was a very well attended affair. I imagine it would be the same for many other shore clubs given junior rugby finished on the Saturday for the season

@Dice We had some shockers like Emersen Tamura-Paki, Jono Owen and Isi Tu'ungafasi who were barely club standard. He's done ok since leaving has Isi but he was awful for us.

@Stargazer A lot of attacking talent in the back line for the bay Ravouvou had a good game and was replaced at half time By Narawa who was just as dangerous when he came on. Forward pack was really dominant and I never felt like Waikato would get back into it. The Waikato Centre had a great game defiantly got the better of Webber.

I thought Koroi was a fullback/wing? Why would they bother with him there. Rats that Ioane was unable to play. Maybe they could use someone like Fletcher Smith in their team. Wait.

Squad named Tuesday hence they played under Wasps banner today. Team looked good today, B Team against Wellington was competitive, thought Collier played particularly well. Half against Counties & likely top team next week was Ross Harris Thwaites Wardlaw Carroll Blake Karpik Papalii Judd Hollinshead Fuatai Garland Webber Narawa Tiatia. 34-0 win, defence brilliant. Three tries through defensive pressure forcing silly passes on their own goal line for intercepts. Tiatia was exceptional, talk huge could always hear him barking & menacing on attack. Papalii definitely what we needed with his big abrasive style. Everybody played well in second half except Webber, dropped a few balls & looked rusty.

@Higgins Yep, that's it! Managed to finally find the "Global Rapid Rugby" thread. If I can find more info on the Steamers' rapid rugby plans, I'll post it in that thread.

Oh what could have been. If we played with the acuracy we showed today, we'd be in the semis. Though another game where we leaked points in the last 20. Fitness needs to be looked at next year. Narawa looked great on the wing. Plenty of positives from the pack. We needed a better centre (shame Foketi was injured all season) this year. A new backs coach too. We were too predictable. Shame we didn't have Monty Ioane this year. He was electric. I'm still dumbfounded how he missed out on a super contract.

@higgins said in Southland vs BOP: All very quiet in here as Bay of Plenty are trying to achieve the seemingly impossible, losing to Southland. We really gave it a good go. Despite setpiece dominance and a maul that was walking them back and winning a penalty every time, we contrived to keep handing Southland opportunities and they have some dangerous runners. If we had lost, it would have been peak choke. With the hooter gone, be a man up, have your own 5m attacking scrum, win the scrum, have the ball in the half-back's hands about to kick it 10m into touch - and still finish the game frantically defending your own line is quite an achievement.

Definitely has the potential to be a great Super Rugby player, he’ll be in and around the squad but another year with NZ 20’s & M10 before Super Rugby wont hurt. Love how he keeps things straight & attacks the line constantly, better first five defender than most. Looks to be trying too hard to win like most Steamers at the moment, hopefully they can just let loose against Southland and will see his best. Goal kicking definitely a major work on struggled at Jock Hobbs as well as M10.

Particularly the goalkicker that hit the upright from directly in front.