Auckland vs Otago
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1 Sam Prattley - Captain (Pakuranga)
2 Mike Sosene-Feagai (Mt Wellington)
3 Marcel Renata (University)
4 Evan Olmstead (Suburbs)
5 Jack Whetton (Grammar TEC)
6 Hoskins Sotutu (Marist)
7 Dalton Papali’i (Pakuranga)
8 Akira Ioane (Ponsonby)
9 Jonathan Ruru (University)
10 Harry Plummer (Grammar TEC)
11 Salesi Rayasi (Marist)
12 Tanielu Tele’a (Marist)
13 Tumua Manu (College Rifles)
14 Caleb Clarke (Suburbs)
15 Jacob Umaga (Eden)16 Robbie Abel (College Rifles)
17 Ezekiel Lindenmuth (Suburbs)
18 Marco Fepulea’i (Ponsonby)
19 Fa’atiga Lemalu (Papatoetoe)
20 Waimana Riedlinger-Kapa (Ponsonby)*
21 Adrian Choat (Waitemata)*
22 Leon Fukofuka (Marist)
23 Joe Ravouvou (College Rifles)Unavailable due to injury: Blake Gibson (quad), Lyndon Dunshea (shoulder), Leif Schwencke (head), Melani Nanai (head), Jordan Trainor (shoulder), TJ Faiane (shoulder), Dan Kirkpatrick (neck), Michael Fatialofa (knee), Taleni Seu (back – season), Taniela Koroi (arm – season)
Auckland to rise to the challenge of Otago
Tanielu Tele’a, Hoskins Sotutu, Caleb Clarke and Jacob Umaga to make first starts of the season...
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Gibson was training with the team in the gym today, so hopefully it's more of a precaution.
A few injured players now though.
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Melani Nanai (head)
I agree that he must have injured his head based on conceding that late yellow card that nearly cost Auckland the game!
Excited to see Tele'a's first start. Same with Riedlinger-Kapa off the bench.
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Well with all the help Auckland now have on board, I expect them to iwin the bloody thing!
If Akira has another good outing, plus with some recommendation from Ted, I wonder whether the third Bled or Japan is an option? -
@KiwiMurph said:
Excited to see Tele'a's first start. Same with Riedlinger-Kapa off the bench.
Choat is another one who could make a debut from the bench. They seem to rate him highly, he's probably the reason Havili missed out on the squad
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A very young backline. I expect this to be a close game similar to the Taranaki game.
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That squad should get the job done, but it's a potential banana skin game with all the changes. All the new combos might cause some chemistry issues.
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A 6/2 split
Midfield cover isn't great
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@duluth I think fullback cover is actually worse.
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Looking forward to going along.
especially as I've scored a corporate box - not bad for my first NPC game for a few years
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@nzzp you deserve it after going along to all the Blues games this year bro.
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KiwiMurph said:
@nzzp you deserve it after going along to all the Blues games this year bro.
It's been hard going, that's for sure.
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African Monkey said:
A very young backline.
Average age from no.6 to 15 would be around 21...ish...!
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Duluth said:
@KiwiMurph said:
Excited to see Tele'a's first start. Same with Riedlinger-Kapa off the bench.
Choat is another one who could make a debut from the bench. They seem to rate him highly, he's probably the reason Havili missed out on the squad
Choat and Kapa were the standouts for Auckland B against Counties B on Saturday. Good to see coach Ieremia sticking to his word in terms of rewarding form players when and where possible.
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@nogusta Yesh he's done it all year. I am interested to see how Jacob Umaga goes at the back. Trainor's been solid without being anything special and hopefully some time away in the lower grades has done Caleb Clarke some good. Glad that they haven't just picked him for the sake of picking him and forcing him to learn on the job when he didn't deserve to be there. Hopefully he puts in a better performance than what he did against Waikato.
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Otago seemed to have named a secondish XV with eight changes, basically deciding to throw the game as unwinable even if they put out their best. So it should be an absolute pumping.
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@southernmann Where's Geoff Toovey?!!!
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@kiwimurph Ruru can cover 10, but that would leave Plummer covering 15? Or perhaps Rayasi? He has a decent boot.
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Clarke is going to have his defence tested by Nareki - one of the form wingers in the comp.
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Telea clearly not fit if he gets injured that early.
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I think Telea missed an overlap there.
Hope he's OK.
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That weird yellow card again. Deliberately knocking a ball back into touch. Very similar to "that" SBW card. I don't agree with it.
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@stargazer I do. Fuck off Collins.
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@kiwimurph Would you have agreed with it, if it had happened at the other side of the field?
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Well that's a new rule to me. He certainly did not throw it into touch so how can it possibly be a yellow card?
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Rayasi could've scored if he went for the corner, but he tried to go inside.
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@higgins You cannot deliberately throw, knock or place the ball into touch. If anything he's lucky it wasn't a penalty try.
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@stargazer to be honest a large part of it is my hatred of Collins.
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Anonymous said:
@higgins You cannot deliberately throw, knock or place the ball into touch. If anything he's lucky it wasn't a penalty try.
A matter of opinion then. To me it did not look like a deliberate throw into touch.
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@anonymous It's a stupid rule. Kicking a ball out deliberately is okay, but not knocking it out with your hand. It went backward too. Ughh.
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The ref did not mention knock on during the delivery of his decision. I thought he simply said something like "deliberately knocking it back" which is not a penalisable offence much less a yellow card one/ You might recall TBW got dealt to for a deliberate knock back in a HB v Otago game in Dunedin a few years back. Might even have been the game we relieved them of the Shield.
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An underrated skill of halfbacks is being able to organise a maul.
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@higgins It's the knocking it into touch that was the issue.
A player must not: b. Intentionally knock, place, push or throw the ball with arm or hand from the playing area. -
Hopefully Whetton is good for next week, but I doubt it. That looks like at least a two week injury.
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Stargazer said:
@anonymous It's a stupid rule. Kicking a ball out deliberately is okay, but not knocking it out with your hand. It went backward too. Ughh.
It's only stupid if you also think deliberate knock forwards are stupid. It's to prevent the defending team from easily stopping attacking moves. Just look how easy it is to rugby league for teams to knock the ball dead instead of grounding it.
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Umaga has some ability.
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Anonymous said:
@higgins It's the knocking it into touch that was the issue.
A player must not: b. Intentionally knock, place, push or throw the ball with arm or hand from the playing area.OK, thanks for that. Wonder when referees will start issuing cards for deliberate knock ons when players intentionally drop the ball forward when in possession of the ball playing under penalty advantage then.
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@anonymous Disagree. There's a big difference between knocking it forward and knocking it back.
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Another Collins error...
