Toll Northland Mitre 10 Cup Squad for 2017
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@J77 yeah they could have had it fade into the darker blue at the bottom with the patterns in a darker blue again, so they were visible up close but on TV would have just looked dark blue.
Like @Gunner says, cool story bro, but not my cup of tea...that said, if it makes our players play better, I love it
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Northland Team to play North Harbour @ QBE Stadium, Albany.
Kick-off TODAY @ 2:30pm- Howard Sililoto
- Matt Moulds
- Namatahi Waa
- Tim Bond
- Josh Goodhue
- Murray Douglas
- Jack Ram
- Matt Matich
- Sam Nock
- Peter Breen
- Rene Ranger
- Troy Gilbert
- Tamati Tua
- Jordan Hyland
- Matty Wright
- Ross Wright
- Ropate Rinakama
- Phil Kite
- Chris Apoua
- Josh Larsen
- Kara Pryor
- Dan Pryor
- Jacob Matiu
- Michael Faleafa
- Matty Markwick
- Dan Hawkins
- Monty Lama
Looks possibly the strongest team available with the exception of Jack Goodhue,,Solomon Alaimalo & Jone Macilai.
Will be at the game,will keep you all posted.. -
10 minutes Northland looking good in the opening minutes,but it's the Harbour winger that scores from a counter attack,very poor option from Ranger with a pass which put Tua under pressure,ball turned over,Ben Volavol the conversion,Harbour 7-0
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15 m Great offload from Matt Wright sees Jordon Hyland score in the corner after some great build up by the forwards,Harbour 7-5
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30 minutes gone,Northland dominating field position and territory,but the score is still 7-5 Harbour
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36 minutes, try out of nothing for Harbour under the posts after a searching run from Lee,Northland players stood and watched converted by Volavola,Harbou 14-5
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Halftime at QBE stadium,Harbour lead 14-5,Northland will frustrated,they have dominated field position and ball,but through errors of their own makings,find themselves down,good for the Taniwha have been Namatahi Waa,Matt Matich,Josh Goodhue,Tamati Tua and Jordon Highland have been very good,For Harbour Matt Duffy and Tevita Lee have been very slippery
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10 minutes 2nd half,Penalty try Harbour converted by Gatland 21-5
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15 minutes Gatland pen,24-5
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25 minutes ,Lots of changes in the 2nd half,Harbour domination field & possession,with so much ball points will eventually come
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35 Min 2nd Try to Harbour right winger,Gatland conversion Harbour 31-5
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Final score 31-5 Harbour,4 x tries to 1 in the end,the rest of the points come from penalties,will send through a few thoughts later tonight...!
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cheers @Steven-Harris
Bit of a disappointing scoreline even if it is just pre-season.
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I will start with the good,the set piece scrum apart from one wobbly scrum in the main was very good,the lineout in the first half was good but in the 2nd half was struggled at times,but that may have had more to do with Moulds having left field just before halftime with a rib injury.
Matt Matich when he was on got through a mountain of work,not far behind was Namatahi Waa,Josh Goodhue and Matt Moulds while he was on.
Kara Pryor and Dan Pryor were defensively very good when they came on in the 2nd half,and were instrumental in keeping Harbour at bay when they had all the ball and possession,even Josh Goodhue pitched in with the odd turnover
In the backs Jordon Highland stood out with good option taking,strong carries and was rewarded with a good try which he finished well,Tamati Tua also looked strong in the midfield,looks several KGs heavier than last year,very good off short passes,and defended well.
Was disappointed with the halves,where I thought Nock & Breen failed to gel,some of the passing left a bit to be desired,the receivers stopping to receive passes,not to mention some of their option taking,
Nock did limp off with what looked like an ankle injury,hopefully not too seriousRene Ranger continues to be an enigma,with some really good stuff and some really awful option taking,to be fair to Rene he was still trying things right to the finish,one thing he is exceptional at,is his over the ball stuff,pulled off at least 3 turnovers.
Northland only had 3 available backs,Monty Lama,Dan Hawkins & Matt Marwick who played well when he came on,had to deal with some very poor ball at times.
A solid enough first half,but did not take all their chances,thought at times they tried to play too much rugby,when they actually looked more dangerous when they went through the forwards,pick and go and mauling,had Harbour on the back foot on several occasions.
The poorest part of the performance was the defence on Matt Duffy & Tevita Lee especially,Lee ran around like he had a disease that nobody wanted to catch,his try he set up came about by running 30 metres sideways finding a hole that had'nt been covered,getting behind Northland and drawing the last man.
From a Harbour Piece,Lee was always dangerous whenever he had the ball,Glen Preston in the forwards was my pick,but the Harbour player of the day was Matt Duffy,looked the best player on the paddock,all class
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@Steven-Harris great to catch up today!
Today was such a contrast to last weeks match, for me the huge difference was the fact Harbour had the likes of Li, Duffy, Stevenson and Parsons back in their lineup. Those guys made a huge difference for them. On today's evidence they should make a reasonable impact on the Premiership.
For Northland, as Steve said, we started well enough. I thought we were going to give them a torrid time as we had them camped in their territory for the first 20 odd minutes.
From there it came unstuck, we were trying too much and seemed to be kicking possession away way too much.
My thoughts on good performances echo Steves, so no need to delve into that side of things.
I still think with a 10 day break we'll put the Steamers to the sword come Sunday, I like the look of this squad, and with three quality players still to arrive I think we'll be humming!
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I hate pre-season games, win and they mean nothing, lose and you start to wonder if this is just more of the same!
If we can have next to no injuries, I think we should make the top 4 and be aiming for the final. Is Wright our 3rd hooker behind Moulds & Olsen?
@Steven-Harris @J77 how did Bond & Murray go?
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@taniwharugby I think we're still well on track, yesterday will be a good wake up call for the team, they'll take heaps out of it and as I said earlier, I think we'll hit the ground running against BOP.
Looking back, Harbour only scored 3 proper tries (one penalty try) and our defence for the best part was good. I just think we need to work on shutting dangerous runners down before they get going, that was our only big downside yesterday. We became turnstiles for the likes of Li and Duffy.
Bond and Murray have officially retired from rowing mate!
I'm picking you mean Bond and Douglas? Both were a lot quieter than the week before, but were solid in the tight exchanges. Nothing flashy, just solid..
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@taniwharugby and yep, Wright was reserve hooker yesterday as Olsen didn't strip.
