Southland v Hawke's Bay
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Magpies team for the game against Southland:
- Ricky Riccitelli
- Ash Dixon (c)
- Ben May
- Geoff Cridge
- Mark Abbott
- Trent Boswell-Wakefield
- Tony Lamborn
- Fa'alemiga Selesele
- Brad Weber
- Ihaia West
- Mason Emerson
- Tiaan Falcon
- Robbie Fruean
- Jonah Lowe
- Matt Garland
Reserves:
16. Jorian Tangaere
17. Jason Long
18. Tolu Fahamokioa
19. Ross Filipo
20. Ben Hamelink
21. Chris Eaton
22. Billy Ropiha
23. Ryan TongiaMost significant change compared to previous games is Robbie Fruean being named at centre, Jonah Lowe moving to the right wing and Ryan Tongia taking place on the bench with Matt Garland remaining at fullback. The rest is like the game v Auckland.
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Southland:
- Joe Walsh
- Brayden Mitchell
- Guy Millar
- Mike McKee
- Matt Philip
- Bill Fukofuka
- Phil Halder
- Mika Mafi
- Jimmy Cowan
- Wharenui Hawera
- Jaye Thompson-Te Muunu
- Dylan Collier
- Kieran Moffat
- Tauasosi Tuimavave
- Junior Ngaluafe
Reserves: 16. Jason Rutledge, 17. Peni Ravi, 18. Reuben Northover, 19. Michael Stewart, 20. Josh Clark, 21. Michael Dowsett, 22. James Schrader, 23. Mike Molloy.
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Couple of penalties have been successful, the second of which sees the Southland No 8 binned and then Hometowm sees fit to bin West for a completely innocous feather like holding back of a Southland player on a touchies/TMO intervention. Hawera converts and somehow the halftime score is Southland 12 - 10 Hawkes Bay
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A try to Ash Dixon from a driving maul from a linout right in the right hand corner opens the second half. With West still in the bin Tiaan Falcon is the deputised goalkicker but he too is about as succussful as West has been tonight with the touchies waving it away Southland 12 - 15 Hawkes Bay forty two minutes gone
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Is this the end? Not only have Southland thread their way through the Bay's paper thin tackling but also Brad Weber has been replaced . To make matters worse the conversion is nailed right from the right hand corner Southland 22 - 22 Hawkes Bay after sixty minutes
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A sneaky move (a perfectly disguised miscommunication between Eaton and Selesele from an attacking scrum) sees a penalty given to the Bay from which West eventually rugby league kicks the ball out wide for Mason Emerson to take on the full and score in a tackle in the left hand corner. West converts Southland 22 - 29 Hawkes Bay after sixty six minutes
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Now another try this time to Tony Lambourn in the right hand corner is nicely converted by West and that is followed up almost immediately with West himself scrambling over in the left hand corner in a scruffy passage of play. He converts. From the restart West this time is the villan, throwing a pass that is intercepted resulting in a converted try to cap off a flurry of scoring Southland 29 - 43 Hawkes Bay after seventy six minutes
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It's over Southland 29 - 43 Hawkes Bay but we cannot read anything into that given that both teams have been awfully poor all season. It really was a dance of the desperates but at least a win will make it slightly easier for me to get to sleep tonight. As an aside did anyone manage to spot whether Mr. Philpott was in attendance tonight? Having a win sort of indicates he probably had nothing to do with the preparation of the team.
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Well, it's nice to get a bonus point win, but that's about it.
The Magpies still can't tackle. We just had much more possession and, therefore, try scoring opportunities because Southland was worse than us. If we hadn't given away so many penalties in our own half - also thanks to Jackson - and Hawera hadn't been such a good kicker (I think he's among the top kickers in M10 Cup), the points difference would have been a lot bigger. Against most other opponents, we would have struggled again though, because we wouldn't have so much possession and given away even more penalties in our own half.
Jackson was so blind that he should wear +20 glasses. He didn't see Southland's knock-ons & forward passes, but penalised the Magpies for a Southland knock-on and sent West to the bin for nothing. Maybe to compensate because as a hometown ref he regretted sending the Southland player to the bin?
Ihaia's goal kicking: he should get some advice from the league coach (forgot who it was) who managed to convert Mo'unga from a terrible kicker into a good kicker half-way through the Super season.
On a positive note: the 6 tries and the bonus point win will be good for self-confidence. Hopefully that will translate into improvement. Ta$man isn't going that well this season, so a win should be possible. A 9 day break should provide plenty of time to rest up and train on our weaknesses. Not having high hopes though. It just isn't our year.
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@Stargazer said in Southland v Hawke's Bay:
Ta$man isn't going that well this season, so a win should be possible. A 9 day break should provide plenty of time to rest up and train on our weaknesses. Not having high hopes though. It just isn't our year.
That's being a bit optimistic. They are our bogey team and damn Marty Banks always plays a blinder against us. Even when we are having a good year they seem to tip us up so lord only knows what they will do to us in a bad year. If it was Northland you were referring to then I might agree with you! Hell I'm very worried about the prospect of losing to the Steamers and the ramifications should that eventuate.
