Tasman v Northland
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Northland team named for the, er match v Tasman.
Wright (Cap) Atkins, Straker
Mayanavanua, Caird
McNamara, Stokes, Byrne
Grant, Debreczeni
Hohaia (VC) Cherrington
Rae, Gregory, HylandBench: Olsen, Tu'ungafasi, Te Whata-Colley, Funaki, Matich, Taylor (Debut) Smith, Roberts-Te Nana
Injury Bench: Ranger, Robinson, Goodhue, Hawkins, Levien, Sweetman, Matiu, Nock, Jacobson, Tua
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Once upon a time I’d have given us a chance over Tasman...oh how times have changed.
If we can conjure another effort like last week I’ll take that. Just keep it reasonably respectable and try and scab a four try bonus.
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@J77 we have a powerful injury bench....
Yea if we can tidy up some of those pathetically soft tries we let in last week and show some of that attacking spark we saw for the first time last week, I'l be happy...
Am thinking Tasman will score 50+, we will (hopefully) score 20+
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Already a minor victory for Northland...Matt Johnson isn't playing.
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@Chiefy07 would love to see Gregory and Hyland in midfield. That we haven't tried that given how poor we have been says everything about current setup.
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Tasman are resting several players, either by not naming them at all or naming them on the bench. Damn, they are supposed to do that next week!
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I really rate Makalio. Maybe he does not suit the ABs fast game but he is the third best hooker in NZ behind Coles and Taylor IMO.
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@Stargazer I'm not sure they're quite good enough to do what they're doing, but against North Auckland they probably have enough fire-power and insurance on the bench to be ok.
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Dangerous throw by Tasman 4 on Aorangi Stokes is ignored.
Northland fighting hard but Tasman getting on top with overwhelming possession and territory in the 2nd quarter.
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In all the time I have been supporting the Taniwha , I can’t believe the number of injuries we have had ..have showed some heart in the first 30 minutes,but this could get ugly..
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Great defence from Wil Grant
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How the hell did the official miss the forward pass from Hunt..?..gee when your not having a ton of luck with injuries..you don’t need the official getting things wrong
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Despite Tasman's 19 - 6 lead, I think Northland have really put up a good fight.
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@Gunner I think this 2nd half is going to be damage limitation, the guys are playing with a bit of heart, but I suspect Tasman will overwhelm us in the 2nd half,.like the look of Wil Grant...,and then we lose Gregory and Caird hopefully not to serious ..hopefully the injury to Debrezini’s ankle is not to bad..god it’s sucks to be a Taniwha supporter in 2019..!
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Poor read from Renata Roberts..this could get ugly
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@Steven-Harris I switched it on to see that...switched off again.
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52-6 in the end to Tasman, just really disappointed that we let the score blow out in the last several minutes..Tasman have such a strong squad, and when you able to bring on a Wyatt Crocket there’s going to be no let up at scrum time..and that’s pretty much what happened , got dusted at scrum time ..and the sheer weight of possession told on a team that had tackled all day..
Congratulations to Wil Grant on debut..thought the forwards battled away gamely and did well to slow a lot of Tasmans ball down , they actually kept Liam Squire in check in the main,but unfortunately it was a total gulf in class...
As for Blake Hohaia, he’s been the biggest disappointment of the season..he just makes so many poor decisions in the midfield , he had a hand in at least 4 of Tasman tries today with 2 poor kicks which ended up in tries, a horrible offload that saw Wil Jordon go ninety metres , and fell for a dummy which saw O’Malley run 40metres for a try..I will cut Roberts TeNana a bit of slack, but he sprinted off his wing at least 3 x times , 2 which resulted in tries. -
@Steven-Harris said in Tasman v Northland:
As for
Blake Hohaiaour midfield,he’sbeen the biggest disappointment of the season.THe other part of the problem wasnt even there today.
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@taniwharugby some things need to to be changed.
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Very pleasant afternoon at Traf. Park. As Steven Harris mentioned, a bit of a pity for the Taniwha that the floodgates opened a bit in the final 10 minutes.
Freddie has a bit of advice for our former compadres on Steve Tew's hit list:
Keep yourself alive, yeah
Keep yourself alive
It'll take you all your time and money
Honey you'll survive -
The injuries seem to have been an issue the last few years, their must be a factor that is leading to this.
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@Nath-Jac yeah and the injury ward this season seems unprecedented, we have been without half a dozen starters pretty much all year and upto 9 at other times...I expect maybe gameplans havent been suitably adjusted to allow for the rookie players whose experience/ability isnt upto expectations.
Losing half a team of your best players would kill any team at this level, bar probably Tasman.
Thats not to say I still think we should have been better, but losing erodes confidence...
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@taniwharugby agree, all sides have injuries. I don’t think we have had injuries in the midfield. So yes while we have more than our share this year, we have not been up to standard even allowing for this.
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The problem is that not only is it a long injury list but it is of our best players. Of our main players, probably only Jack Debreczeni is the only one who hasn't missed a game or gone off early with injury.
Olsen, Goodhue, Robinson, Matich, Jacobson, Nock, Ranger, Hyland, Gregory, Tua are probably all 1st choice starters. Then add in Matiu who didn't start as first string but has probably been our best player and it makes for sorry reading. 2/3 of our first choice starting XV have missed most of the season.
I would be hesitant to blame the coaches too much. I think the forwards have mostly performed well, set piece has been very good considering the injury list. The backs have been poor but I would put most of that down to the midfield. They offer nothing in attack and regularly out of position or falling off tackles in defence. We have relied too much on individual play from guys like Hyland and Gregory and even then, if we had a decent midfield we would probably have more space for them too. The coaches need to take some responsibility for persisting with Johnson and Hohaia instead of moving Gregory back into midfield.
On the Brightside - a lot of players have been blooded creating depth for next season.
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@Chiefy07 said in Tasman v Northland:
Jack Debreczeni
The irony there is he seemed to be made of glass in Super rugby haha!
Yeah I mentioned the players we are missing above being a factor, and maybe the expectation has been the newbies will be able to execute plans they had when they were anticipating our 'best' players would have been available.
I think the coaches need to take some of the heat, they provide the gameplans, conditioning (coaching group) culture etc...seems there is a bit wrong at present.
