Crusaders vs Force
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David Havili, Digby Ioane, Tim Bateman, Ryan Crotty, George Bridge, Mitchell Hunt, Mitchell Drummond, Jordan Taufua, Matt Todd, Scott Barrett, Sam Whitelock (c) , Luke Romano, Owen Franks, Codie Taylor, Wyatt Crockett
Reserves: Ben Funnell, Tim Perry, Mike Alaalatoa, Mitchell Dunshea, Pete Samu, Bryn Hall, Marty McKenzie, Manasa Mataele
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An interesting configuration.
I really like the loose forward selections - gives us an elite test match height lineout with Romano, Whitelock and Barrett - and the prospect that Read could be added to the mix to give us a lineout that could match the ABs! Caveat is, of course, that Barrett can excel in the other blindside duties. Dunshea gives the obvious option to move Barrett to lock as the game progresses, with Samu covering 7/8.
Seems like Razor is running Drummond and Hall against one-another - they'll sort out a pecking order shortly.
Interesting midfiled selection. I would have thought Bateman 12, Crotty 13 would be more logical. Can Ioane cover centre? Or is Havili the midfield cover, with McKenzie covering fullback?
Is Wainui injured? If not, this selection doesn't bode well for him. He looked like a weak link against the Blues and maybe Razor sees that as well.
Not looking too bad, despite the injury toll in the backs.
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Never been sold on Wainui. Razor inherited him from Blackadder. Toddy seemed to think Wainui was a better bet than Rob Thompson.
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@Chris-B. I'm also surprised that Bateman is named at 13; I thought he was brought back into the Crusaders squad to cover 10 and 12; we'll see how it will be played on the field.
Havili will cover 12. He played there when Crotty was injured last year. After Crotty's return (and Fonotia lost his spot), Crotty moved to 13 and Havili again played at 12.
McKenzie will cover 10 and 15.
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I'd have thought Crotty will be staying at 12 as they shake down their top back line. Makes sense from that angle to see how Bateman goes at 13 compared to 12. I think they'll go alright, but expect to see Crotty taking most of the hit up runs.
I really liked Bateman when he was at the Canes and thought he was pretty decent prior to that. Not the biggest midfielder but he's got skills and is a clever player. Good pick up by the Saders imo.
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Bateman played an NPC season at 13 a while back so I don't mind that call. I like Crotty defensively at 12.
Scott Barrett finished out the match last week pretty well at blindside. But Romano has provided spark off the bench which we won't get this week.
Wainui is NPC standard at best at that stage. Many work ons on both sides of the ball.
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The Force have left Dane Haylett-Petty at home to rest so they're obviously not taking these 2 games that seriously.
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@Bovidae That's hilarious, considering they just had their bye!
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Luke Morahan, Alex Newsome, Curtis Rona, Marcel Brache, Chance Peni, Jono Lance (c), Ryan Louwrens, Richard Hardwick, Kane Koteka, Isi Naisarani, Matt Philip, Ross Haylett-Petty, Jermaine Ainsley, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Ben Daley
Reserves: Heath Tessmann, Pek Cowan, Tetera Faulkner, Richie Arnold, Matt Hodgson, Michael Ruru, Ian Prior, Robbie Coleman
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I think Goodhues value in the Crusaders backline went up with his absence last week, although things did look better the moment Wainui went off.
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Is that the worst starting xv ever put out by an Aussie SR side?
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@Duluth I know the name of more players on the bench than the starting 15....
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It definitely looks like they are conceding this game. Perhaps they are targeting next week vs the Blues.
However the fact they rested Dane Haylett-Petty for the NZ tour implies they are saving themselves for the Aussie derbies
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TPN must be pissed off to be relegated to that starting team.
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@ACT-Crusader Yeah - Romano provides some additional bulk and muscle that our pack is a bit short on when he's not there.
Packweight when we have Whitelock and Barrett as locks seems to be about 865kg - which always looks a bit light when the opposition is fielding 900+kg packs. Luckily to date we've got plenty of technique to more than hold our own, but an extra 20 kg added to the pack through the re-shuffle might give us a bit more power and dominance in the scrum and maul.
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I'm pretty excited about Barrett at 6. The AB selectors will be watching closely too - adds a lot of value if we can have someone genuinely cover lock/6 on the bench.
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@No-Quarter said in Crusaders vs Force:
I'm pretty excited about Barrett at 6. The AB selectors will be watching closely too - adds a lot of value if we can have someone genuinely cover lock/6 on the bench.
Me too, still think he's a bit on the small side for a starting place at lock in the big games.
I mentioned in previous threads that I thought Robertson would look at playing him at 6. He would have seen him play club rugby there. Definitely a better option than Bedwell-Curtis.
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Easier to go from 6 to lock than the other way around so Barrett will need as much time in that position as possible.
While having utilities on the AB bench is an advantage I'd be happy to see both Retallick and Whitelock play the full 80 mins. Squire would be most at risk if Barrett is a success at 6.
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Would be interesting if S Barrett and Ardie were on the ABs bench - you could have lock and all 3 loosie positions covered (insert joke about midfield and/or ardie's height as a lock option here)
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@SammyC I thought Razor didn't bother going to club rugby?!
Have you seen Dunshea play at all, Sammy?
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@Chris-B. said in Crusaders vs Force:
@SammyC I thought Razor didn't bother going to club rugby?!
Have you seen Dunshea play at all, Sammy?
He goes, But not to games involving a certain club I support.
Can't recall seeing dunshea, I'll ask the old man, he remembers players a bit better than me.
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@SammyC said in Crusaders vs Force:
@Chris-B. said in Crusaders vs Force:
@SammyC I thought Razor didn't bother going to club rugby?!
Have you seen Dunshea play at all, Sammy?
He goes, But not to games involving a certain club I support.
Can't recall seeing dunshea, I'll ask the old man, he remembers players a bit better than me.
@Chris-B i just had a look and see he plays for Lincoln. So was probably at lock in the 2 games last year I saw Barrett at 6.
Both Lincoln locks looked bigger than Barrett from the sideline, so at least we aren't taking the Umaga approach of selecting shrimps in that position.
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Old but interesting article. Dunshea clearly on Razor's radar.
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@Duluth said in Crusaders vs Force:
Luke Morahan, Alex Newsome, Curtis Rona, Marcel Brache, Chance Peni, Jono Lance (c), Ryan Louwrens, Richard Hardwick, Kane Koteka, Isi Naisarani, Matt Philip, Ross Haylett-Petty, Jermaine Ainsley, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Ben Daley
Reserves: Heath Tessmann, Pek Cowan, Tetera Faulkner, Richie Arnold, Matt Hodgson, Michael Ruru, Ian Prior, Robbie Coleman
Who?
Crikey. Unknown bunch of names in that lot
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@booboo I read that list of names and started thinking Morahan is a back and probably a fullback. But, for some reason I thought Lance was a flanker. It wasn't until I got to TPN that I was completely sure whether the team list was backs/forwards or vice-versa.
I have no comment, otherwise, to make oin the quality of their team until the match has been played!
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@Chris-B. Haha. Me too.
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Did Hunt just put up a bomb when 5m out from the line with numbers outside him? Burn him, there's no redemption from that.
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@Bones said in Crusaders vs Force:
Did Hunt just put up a bomb when 5m out from the line with numbers outside him? Burn him, there's no redemption from that.
There's too much of that kickpass strategy at the moment. It should only be a very rare tactic, not to be used all the time.
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Crusaders backs have the penetration of limp celery
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How the hell is Hoffman employed as a ref?
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The Crusaders can be a frustrating team to support!
Has any team given away more intercept tries in the past five years?
Then we've got a pack with seven All Blacks and our scrum is arsing about risking a card for our prop 15 metres from our own line.
Possibly the most embarrassing thing of all is that I'm pretty sure, according to the Sky broadcast stats, the Force have a 95kg lock!
Fake News!!!
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@antipodean cant prejudice blind people, and I guess letting him out there with his guide dog would look stupid!
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Have to say, Digby Ioane looks very useful. How on earth is he doing signed with an NZ team?
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This is a crap watch for a while
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Game seems to be a complete lottery as far as refereeing goes.
Seven man Crusaders scrum destroys the Force, where the eight men were being pinged out of the game.
Why does Pete Samu not get binned for the early tackle with a try in the offing?
Many others I can't comprehend!
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The Force.
Got to love them.Chose the stupidist name "Force" and combine it with a dull vague geographic reference of "Western" in a competition that now covers the ENTIRE Southern Hemisphere plus a bit of the north. West of where? The international date line, or Kalgoorlie?
They chose the colour blue for their kit, for no good reason, unless the reason was they actually wanted to look like 64.83% of the other teams who were already in the comp before they arrived and already wearing blue.
Now after a decade they appear to have changed their kit into the more sensible WA colours of yellow/black, so now only like 1 other team rather than 6. But they seemed to have decided that of all the possible patterns to arrange yellow/black such as a band or hoops, raglan, sash, chevron etc that they would choose a swirly almost exact replica hurricane retro kit from 1996/97.
How could any fan resist the lure of tribalism to such a unique sporting 'brand'.
Is there no one west of the WA/SA border with a single original thought?
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Well, we win and get a bonus point. The rolling maul is working well.
Do we play The Bye next week? I might watch that - it might be more entertaining than this second half!
David Havili is so much better when he just sticks to the basics. Good game David!
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@Rapido said in Crusaders vs Force:
But they seemed to have decided that of all the possible patterns to arrange yellow/black such as a band or hoops, raglan, sash, chevron etc that they would choose a swirly almost exact replica hurricane retro kit from 1996/97.
Its a stylised black swan, I believe.
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@Chris-B. We play the Tahs next week. Hopefully we fire up a bit. Hard to say to much about this game. Force didn't put much pressure on the breakdown and seemed intent on allowing us to maintain possession.
Positives were no major injuries and Drummond/Hunt got another game under their belts together.
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@ACT-Crusader ..and we finally got a bonus point....and we're top of the table!
edit: The board won't allow my html small font joke.
