v BOP
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Awful lineout. Possibly match loser
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Excellent second half
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@Donsteppa said in v BOP:
@taniwharugby said in v BOP:
What a joke.
Best squad since last century and we playing like Muppets.
Need to bring breen and macilai on and take wright and Hawkins off
Game of two halves at this stage...
Yep...wow, what a turn around, playing into a stiff breeze, BOP get up 21-7 at the break, turn around, and Northland come out firing, make a few changes, and then we win 28-23!
Top result! Yes that first 40 sucked arse, impatience, errors abound, but to come and turn that around in the second spell, as they did, wow!
Then , to defend thier line for the last 8 or 9 minutes, big heart!
Have massive concerns about our kicking from hand, particularly Hawkins, he was getting less distance down wind than BOP were into the wind, just not good enough at this level.
He gives it his all every week, but in my opinion, his all isnt up to this level.
Ranger was hot and cold, after making the big break he ignores Alaimalo on his outside and play breaks down, luckily we scored soon after.
Alaimalo looks to have bulked up in his time with the Chiefs! Maciali looks to have bulked up too, alot...but still has some silky skills.
Looked much sharper with Breen running the ship.
Bit concerned with MacLeod, he takes such a big wind up to pass, and then he kicked it out on the full a couple of times...
Cant wait to see Jack Goodhue out there alongside Tua, another who looks to have put some kegs on!
Plenty of players were all over the shop 1st half, but came out different.
Our bench made a great impact!
Will chuck up a poll shortly.
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@taniwharugby Winners are grinners and we showed great heart. Thought we out pasioned them in second half. But we need to build that on speed, intensity and accuracy for future games. This season we look to have better squad all over so we just need performances to match.
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still concerns over our lineout, but we will give most teams a tickle up at scrum time I think!
Hope Nock isnt too serious, cos he needs a decent run uninjured, otherwise they need to bring Pitman in I think
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just re-watched the highlights, Ranger made the correct decision to not pass, from where I was I couldnt see the guy between him and Alaimalo.
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Great win, but ill be honest, after the first half I was thinking here we go again....
Found some real spark in that 2nd 40 and scored some really good tries.
Once they all got the shit out of their system they all played reasonably well, I like TR do have serious concerns about McLeod though...
Macalai has piled on the pounds hasn't he, still looks reasonably sharp though.
We've got good depth when you consider we still have Goodhue to come back in, Ranger will obviously have to go to the wing which isn't all bad, he'll be able to roam from there. M Wright might be under pressure to retain his spot too, Macalai needs to be starting I think.
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Auckland had a good 10 who kept pinning Northland back though.
No teams lists.. was it Wiseguy Faiane?
Don't think it was Wiseguy mate, he was pretty sharp though, as was their 7.
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Are there no decent barbers in North Auckland? 😀
The pick of the games for round 1. Good skills in what looked a beauty of day for running rugby.
Taniwha forwards played well and provided good ball. Was impressed with the Taniwha backline and that halfback looks good, although he did look a little gassed by around the 60th minute trying to get to every ruck.
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@ACT-Crusader said in v BOP:
Are there no decent barbers in North Auckland? 😀
If you had to design a prototype North Auckland player from the last couple of decades, he'd definately have dreadlocks
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@ACT-Crusader well given the ones I expect you are referring to all spent majority of the last year or so outside of Northland....
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Well played Northland. And must have been a good HT team talk as your second half performance looked like a different team. Not easy to come back from 23-7 and you took us apart for 30 minutes. Pryor brothers were huge. Now go and beat the other Div 2 teams for us please?
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Classic game of two halves.
I, like TR, was sitting there thinking we were in for another long season..but that 2nd half turnaround just blew me away!
I had an inkling that if we got some more possession in that first half we could have been in par with BOP, but they just starved us of the ball, classic under the jumper stuff.
Line outs sucked somewhat, we'll need to clean that up, as it was a real contrast from what I saw in Kerikeri a couple of weeks back. Scrum was awesome, but the ref seemed to favour BOP a bit there by letting collapsed scrums go on, therefore making it like golden oldies in a sense.
Our backs carved in the 2nd 40, and those loosies were menacing as mentioned.
Hopefully Nock is back this week, as Macleod, while good in broken play, made some simple errors in terms of box kicking etc.
Would like to see Breen running the cutter this week too.
Not sure what the deal with Moulds is, he looked to be favouring those ribs he hurt in pre-season. Was quite impressed with Olsen when he came on though.
I'm picking we'll be close to full strength against Auckland with Jack Goodhue back, so it could be interesting down there. A tough one, but not beyond this team if it clicks for 80 minutes.
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Can't disagree with a lot that has been said,the really good points were,they were able to lift their performance after the break,score points when they were able to hold the ball,and much credit has to be given to the players that came off the bench,Macilai,Ram,Wright,Rinakama,Breen and I thought MacLeod added a lot of energy,just the odd kick that went a bit to far,but that was more about execution,the ideas were definitely the right ones..easily his best performance in the Taniwha jersey.
I see Ranger & Bond took the POD honors,but my POD was Tamati Tua,his improvent,not to mention his physical stature in a year has been amazing,from what I saw in gerneral he made very few errors,and looked very powerful in contact..
Like most of you,fix the lineouts,as previously said,if this team can maintain ball,they have got points.
As for the official,Brandon Pickerall,there seemed like some strange calls in and around the scrums,but I was glad he was very consistent at the breakdowns..especially when those vital turnovers were required.On a final note,disappointed to hear the Northland Bs,got pipped at the post with a last minute penalty after owning the Auckland forwards for a good part of the match,still some really good signs when the team under your top team is going well.
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@Steven-Harris my issue with MacLeod is his passing and kicking, IIRC he kicked a number out on the full last year too so is a bit of an issue, while his passing, he seems to have a very slow laborious action, that isnt overly accurate.
His running has certainly improved since last year, if he can tidy up his kicking and improve his passing, then he will be a very good squad member.
I thought Tamati was excellent as well, the prospect of him and Goodhue in our midfield is exciting, and while we will probably lose Goodhue to the ABs at some point, hopefully Tamati will form a good part of our mid-field for years to come.
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@Steven-Harris I ended up voting for Kara, Tua, and Ram. Interesting as I thought so many players contributed to the lift in energy in the second half, the scrum was really good, and the reserves were good making it hard to choose. Overall I agree that Tua was my player of the day. A physical display with good decision making. Kara was very good on the line and over the ball. Ram played his part in two tries - the surge to the line when apparently held up demonstrated his power in that close contact play, and he showed good hands to put Macalai away. But I was really pleased with the way Ranger worked himself into the game and think he will have a big season. Man we have some good backs this year and some really good players will warm the bench from time to time. Plus we have the best hair of any team.
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Don't think it was Wiseguy mate, he was pretty sharp though, as was their 7.
Ha, it was Elkington-MacDonald. He wasted one of his rare good games for the B's! Wiseguy was with the U19's
Looks like that team might have got first choice over the B's (Wiseguy is in the full squad Elkington-MacDonald isn't)
Northland U19's lost to the Auckland U19's 55-0