Hurricanes vs Crusaders
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A big clash in the capital on Friday night with the Canes and Crusaders both looking to advance their campaigns. The Hurricanes are now in must win territory, lose this game and it could almost spell curtains on their campaign, win this game and they will be right back in the hunt with a bunch of winnable games coming up.
On the injury front, we won't know until tomorrow afternoon how many players both teams will have unavailable. There are still question marks about the fitness of Havili, Ennor etc for the Crusaders, and there is also still uncertainty around the fitness of Billy Proctor for the Hurricanes.
The Canes are unlikely to have Caleb Delany for this game who failed an HIA against the Blues and with Gallagher already out with a hamstring injury, it's likely either Tucker or Plummer will come into the starting side.
Likely teams for Friday:
Hurricanes: 1. Numia 2. Aumua 3. Lomax 4. Tucker 5. Walker-Leawere 6. Iose 7. Kirifi 8. Lakai 9. Roigard 10. Hohepa 11. Naholo 12. Umaga-Jensen 13. Sullivan 14. Punivai 15. Love
16. Devery 17. Rakete-Stones 18. Tosi 19. Plummer 20. Shields 21. Vijoen 22. Harkin 23. HigginsCrusaders: 1. Williams 2. Taylor 3. Newell 4. Barrett 5. Shalfoon 6. Grace 7. Blackadder 8. Lio-Willie 9. Hotham 10. Kemara 11. Reece/Springer 12. Havili/McLeod 13. Ennor/Reece 14. Fihaki 15. Jordan
16. Moananu 17. Bower 18. Calder 19. Strange 20. Christie/Kellow 21. Preston 22. O'Connor 23. McLeod/Aumua -
@Canes4life said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
A big clash in the capital on Friday night with the Canes and Crusaders both looking to advance their campaigns. The Hurricanes are now in must win territory, lose this game and it could almost spell curtains on their campaign, win this game and they will be right back in the hunt with a bunch of winnable games coming up.
On the injury front, we won't know until tomorrow afternoon how many players both teams will have unavailable. There are still question marks about the fitness of Havili, Ennor etc for the Crusaders, and there is also still uncertainty around the fitness of Billy Proctor for the Hurricanes.
The Canes are unlikely to have Caleb Delany for this game who failed an HIA against the Blues and with Gallagher already out with a hamstring injury, it's likely either Tucker or Plummer will come into the starting side.
Likely teams for Friday:
Hurricanes: 1. Numia 2. Aumua 3. Lomax 4. Tucker 5. Walker-Leawere 6. Iose 7. Kirifi 8. Lakai 9. Roigard 10. Hohepa 11. Naholo 12. Umaga-Jensen 13. Sullivan 14. Punivai 15. Love
16. Devery 17. Rakete-Stones 18. Tosi 19. Plummer 20. Shields 21. Vijoen 22. Harkin 23. HigginsCrusaders: 1. Williams 2. Taylor 3. Newell 4. Barrett 5. Shalfoon 6. Grace 7. Blackadder 8. Lio-Willie 9. Hotham 10. Kemara 11. Reece/Springer 12. Havili/McLeod 13. Ennor/Reece 14. Fihaki 15. Jordan
16. Moananu 17. Bower 18. Calder 19. Strange 20. Christie/Kellow 21. Preston 22. O'Connor 23. McLeod/AumuaThe Crusaders team on paper just oozes averageness.
an out of form Barrett, maligned loosies Grace and Blackadder, more maligned ABs in Havili/McLeod/Ennor/Reece, the pedestrian looking Springer and Jordan at fullback ( @Bones )
If the Canes can't lift for this one they don't deserve to be anywhere near the title race.
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Am i looking at last season with rose tinted glasses, or were our tight 5 a lot more dominant last year? I swear our scrum used to put the acid on pretty well against a few teams and with that came good ball running from Aumua & numia. Doesnt seem to be happening this year.
Back line is looking a little better - if Higgins can be injected for PUJ we could start to look pretty dangerous. -
@DurryMexted said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
Am i looking at last season with rose tinted glasses, or were our tight 5 a lot more dominant last year? I swear our scrum used to put the acid on pretty well against a few teams and with that came good ball running from Aumua & numia. Doesnt seem to be happening this year.
Back line is looking a little better - if Higgins can be injected for PUJ we could start to look pretty dangerous.Maybe slightly, Lomax and Aumua have only played a couple of games this season so you can't expect them to be in top form just yet. I think the Canes really need to attack the Crusaders through the middle, I think we can exploit them with our power game. It may not have worked as well against the Blues because of their bigger pack but I think having a crack at them up front could bear fruit for us on Friday.
The biggest improvement the Canes need to make is their option taking. Kirifi needs to go for the kill and needs to stop being so conservative with his option taking. The successful teams this year are the ones that have gone for tries over penalties and I think that tactic will suit the Canes style of play. We aren't a conservative team and being conservative against the Blues probably cost us victory on Saturday.
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@MN5 said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
@Canes4life said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
A big clash in the capital on Friday night with the Canes and Crusaders both looking to advance their campaigns. The Hurricanes are now in must win territory, lose this game and it could almost spell curtains on their campaign, win this game and they will be right back in the hunt with a bunch of winnable games coming up.
On the injury front, we won't know until tomorrow afternoon how many players both teams will have unavailable. There are still question marks about the fitness of Havili, Ennor etc for the Crusaders, and there is also still uncertainty around the fitness of Billy Proctor for the Hurricanes.
The Canes are unlikely to have Caleb Delany for this game who failed an HIA against the Blues and with Gallagher already out with a hamstring injury, it's likely either Tucker or Plummer will come into the starting side.
Likely teams for Friday:
Hurricanes: 1. Numia 2. Aumua 3. Lomax 4. Tucker 5. Walker-Leawere 6. Iose 7. Kirifi 8. Lakai 9. Roigard 10. Hohepa 11. Naholo 12. Umaga-Jensen 13. Sullivan 14. Punivai 15. Love
16. Devery 17. Rakete-Stones 18. Tosi 19. Plummer 20. Shields 21. Vijoen 22. Harkin 23. HigginsCrusaders: 1. Williams 2. Taylor 3. Newell 4. Barrett 5. Shalfoon 6. Grace 7. Blackadder 8. Lio-Willie 9. Hotham 10. Kemara 11. Reece/Springer 12. Havili/McLeod 13. Ennor/Reece 14. Fihaki 15. Jordan
16. Moananu 17. Bower 18. Calder 19. Strange 20. Christie/Kellow 21. Preston 22. O'Connor 23. McLeod/AumuaThe Crusaders team on paper just oozes averageness.
an out of form Barrett, maligned loosies Grace and Blackadder, more maligned ABs in Havili/McLeod/Ennor/Reece, the pedestrian looking Springer and Jordan at fullback ( @Bones )
If the Canes can't lift for this one they don't deserve to be anywhere near the title race.
Yep canes by a thousand
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@Chris said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
@george33 said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
@Chris is Scott Barrett fit, thought he had a hand injury?
I think he is good to play.
possibly not good to play well, but good to play
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Hurricanes looking at potentially moving Love to 10. Quite honestly with the players out at the moment it needs to happen. Hohepa's kicking is costing us dearly, like it did for the Crusader's last year.
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@Canes4life im glad they are looking at that. To be fair to Hohepa (as a big critic of him being selected in the squad at all), his distribution has been not bad, and hes a bigger body which means he doesnt get knocked around as much as Godfrey. But he offers so little in the kicking and carrying departments, evident with Roigard and Love doing most of our tactical kicking, and the guy was just hooking all his kicks at goal on Sat.
Would we assume Banks at 15? Or Harkin as they have done a couple of times? (not sure 15 really suits him)
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@DurryMexted said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
@Canes4life im glad they are looking at that. To be fair to Hohepa (as a big critic of him being selected in the squad at all), his distribution has been not bad, and hes a bigger body which means he doesnt get knocked around as much as Godfrey. But he offers so little in the kicking and carrying departments, evident with Roigard and Love doing most of our tactical kicking, and the guy was just hooking all his kicks at goal on Sat.
Would we assume Banks at 15? Or Harkin as they have done a couple of times? (not sure 15 really suits him)
Im not sure why they haven’t given Harkin a shot at 10. He was one of the in form 10s in the NPC and he seems cool, calm and collected. He isn’t really a 15 so I find it odd they keep putting him there. Why not play Love at 15 and give Harkin a shot at 10 this week, it would make the most sense.
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I was at the game in Napier earlier this year. Harkin didn't look comfortable at fullback. I think he's a out and out 10.
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From an AB perspective I like the idea of giving Love a chance to show what he can do at 10
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@Crazy-Horse said in Hurricanes vs Crusaders:
From an AB perspective I like the idea of giving Love a chance to show what he can do at 10
Yeah that was my thoughts too. If he makes a success of it, bloody brilliant. He's a lot, lot better than when he last gave it a shot (which was a pretty ordinary go at it).
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numbers 1-3 is the clash of the match!
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Based on training photos today it looks like this is the Canes 23.
- Numia
- Aumua (c)
- Lomax
- Delany
- Walker-Leawere
- Iose
- Kirifi (c)
- Lakai
- Roigard
- Love
- Naholo
- Umaga-Jensen
- Sullivan
- Punivai
- Harkin
- Tuputupu
- Rakete-Stones
- Tosi
- Tucker
- Shields
- Enari
- Hohepa
- Finenganofo
