Southland v North Harbour

[Stargazer]

Southland

1 Joe Walsh
2 Flynn Thomas (C)
3 Morgan Mitchell
4 Ben Fotheringham
5 Mike McKee
6 Charles Alaimalo
7 Matt James
8 Bill Fukofuka (50th Game)
9 Logan Crowley
10 Marty McKenzie
11 Lausii Taliauli
12 Ray Nu'u
13 Javaan Fa'amoe-Ioane (debut)
14 Isaac Te Tamaki
15 Josh Moorby

16 Greg Pleasants-Tate
17 Shaun Stodart
18 Howard Sililoto (debut)
19 Ray Tatafu
20 Taine Te Whata (debut)
21 Jay Renton
22 Scott Eade
23 Moses Faletolu

[Tim]

[Bovidae]

So Big Karl's injury was not that serious?

He could still hear his name read out on Wed.

[African Monkey]

Marty McKenzie scores. Southland 7-0 after 12 mins.

[DrivingMaul]

@Bovidae I don't think he'll be going to Japan but great to see he is fit enough to play

[DrivingMaul]

@African-Monkey Could Southland make a game of this?

[African Monkey]

@DrivingMaul I really hope so but they'll eventually fade lets be honest here.

[DrivingMaul]

Southland scrum going backwards and with McKenzie going off for a HIA it feels like the dam is about to burst

[DrivingMaul]

Little scores off the back of a solid scrum so Harbour get their first score and at last some reward for being on top 7-7
Will that be the start of the dam bursting?

[African Monkey]

@DrivingMaul Yeah Southland starting to make silly mistakes now like McKee giving a dumb penalty away and Nu'u throwing a dumb offload.

[Tim]

Harbour are very scrappy on attack. Need to use their big men as ball carriers.

[African Monkey]

7-7 at HT. Southland fighting hard but a poor miss from Scott Eade is not what they needed after they got some good ball.

[DrivingMaul]

To be fair to Southland they didn't let their heads drop when they conceded and are staying tenaciously in this one even if they did miss a penalty to take the lead back 7-7 HT

[African Monkey]

How the hell did McGahan miss that?!

[DrivingMaul]

@African-Monkey How did Southland not match up on defence? All that hard work gone to waste because of 1 lazy moment

[African Monkey]

@DrivingMaul Yeah poor miss by Matt James.

[African Monkey]

And now it is game over. Scott Eade has been poor since coming on.

[Dice]

Duffie looked slow on that break.

[DrivingMaul]

@Dice I think there's a bunch of tired bodies out there

[African Monkey]

@Dice Why did the Blues re-sign him?

[DrivingMaul]

@African-Monkey Good under the high ball as we saw against the Lions, so a solid player. Was part of the All Blacks camp not that long ago

[African Monkey]

@DrivingMaul Yeah but that was 2 years ago. His form has fallen off a cliff since then. Too many injuries over his career.

[DrivingMaul]

Harbour trying to throw this game away! A man up and let Southland run round them out wide! 12-19

[Dice]

@African-Monkey I just talk myself into thinking that the signing isn't bad because we got a free additional spot given to us because of Clarke going to 7s.

[African Monkey]

Could have been a whole different game had Harbour not scored that length of the field intercept.

[DrivingMaul]

@African-Monkey Or if Southland had a scrum....

[African Monkey]

@DrivingMaul That North Harbour scrum is damaging at this level.

[DrivingMaul]

@African-Monkey Yup it's got them out of jail tonight, obviously their taking long range tries is also impoartant

[Duluth]

[sparky]

Add Karl T to those who had a very good game this weekend and reminding the selectors what he can offer.

[JK]

Some pretty good tries in the game from both sides.

Good to get a win, even if over Southland