Wellington vs Northland
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Yeah buses are fine. I just don't want to have to sit on one from the Hutt to Sky Stadium which could be a 30 minute journey in peak traffic.
I want me train, which is often down for maintenance on weekend.
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@taniwharugby
Ranger is done for the season , In surgery today where they will put a metal plate in , it was a clean break to the are , so it should heal faster , a real bugger especially when your stuck on 99 x games .
There’s an outside chance he will come back for one game , but unless he’s got a Fijian witch doctor aka Waisake Naholo.., he might have to wait until next year .
Likely replacement will be Kalani Going.
Also Tom Robinson will be unavailable for 6 x weeks, good news is , there is no symptoms of the concussion , hoping their will be an assessment depending on recovery and he can be cleared for round 8 or 9..Also hearing a replacement halfback will be added as Sam Nock may not be available this weekend..
When it rains it pours , feels like the season is over before it started ..
Got a fair idea who it is, but will announce it later in the week. -
@steven-harris yeah bro, I'm all set for a long season....maybe our coaches are still hanging onto the fact this is largely the same team that made the final last year and not thinking they needed to do much to lift from there.
I can only hope Saturday was an anomaly and our players will step up this weekend and show some mettle, we have won our last 2 games in Whangarei v 'naki, so
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@taniwharugby said in Wellington vs Northland:
@steven-harris yeah bro, I'm all set for a long season....maybe our coaches are still hanging onto the fact this is largely the same team that made the final last year and not thinking they needed to do much to lift from there.
I can only hope Saturday was an anomaly and our players will step up this weekend and show some mettle, we have won our last 2 games in Whangarei v 'naki, so
Hope springs eternal if you are a Northland fan. But there was very clear evidence with selections and the performance that we are a long way away from where we should be.
Frankly it is not good enough with all the players we now have - or should have . Our expectation (mine?) is that we should be competitive in every game.
Some players didn’t look fit? How does that happen? But smashing yourself up in a preseason game against Auckland a week out for a start is not smart. Save that for the first game at least.
As a team they were all over the place. I know nothing about scrums but from the first scrum Te Whata-Colley was clearly angling in. When the pressure was applied he was folded and popped. The backline defence was terrible e.g. Blake Hohaia at one point ran about 5 metres up and out of the line and then fell over. Gregory had to stop and turn in to cover the massive gap he left. When he fell over we had no one defending in the centre’s.
Ruck and maul work. One time when we were on attack, Goodhue peeled off a ruck to take the next ball up which he duly received and took forward but he was absolutely 100% by himself. Not a Northland player to be seen when we were hot on attack. Of course the ball was turned over. It’s going to be a very long season if your forwards can’t do the work at ruck and maul time.
We had the ball stripped one on one 5 times - wtf?
And then, our lineout work with Olsen off the field was just awful.
When the team plays together everyone lifts. But when, the team plays like we did on Saturday, everyone looks bad.
Players have to want to make their tackles ( looking at you Johnny Cooper ) and then get up and clean out - intensity, speed. Trust your mate to do their job, stay in the pattern.
The feeling is that last year was a false dawn and the Management team haven’t done the hard work in the off season.
That said Reihana looked awesome. 👍