Taranaki v Tasman
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Getting closer to full strength - though obviously without Havili and Hames (and Squire who we never expected to have).
We don't have the option of Aumua, who might have already edged himself ahead of Joass - so no proper midfield cover. If we lose a midfielder, I'd guess O'Malley would slot into second five.
Interesting that Blackadder Jr. seems to be the preferred option at 6 ahead of Pete Samu - he's going pretty well too and would be a decent Super pick-up for someone.
Other slightly interesting feature is that they started the season with Joass at 12 and Nankivell at 13 - they've swapped as the season has progressed.
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The more I watch Perofeta, the more I see our future All Black 10. Time on the ball under pressure.
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Perofeta throws the ball to a Ta$man player as if he already had his Blues jersey on
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Much better from Perofeta
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I'll just take a deep breath over how you could manage two of those in 26 minutes.
Free points for Taranaki.
Some weak work at the breakdown, as well, giving soft penalties and the tries have come too easily for Taranaki.
On the plus side, the scrum is going well and there's some reasonable endeavour in the attack.
Most concerning thing - given most of the points are likely gone - is seeing Halanukonuka come off after 30 minutes. Hopefully precautionary, since he seemed to be running freely.
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So much gormless play by Ta$man.
We scramble a bonus point.
Makalio probably the best for us. Honourable mention for Tim Perry who wasted two minutes before play got re-started after Jordan's YC.
Taranaki was good in the first half but, to be honest, pretty poor in the second - they could have put 60 on us pretty easily.
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More examples of the law around players in the air being stupid. In both cases the jumper jumped very late and directly toward the player on the ground.
Players are being made to put themselves into dangerous places to secure possession and defenders are being told to either jump or get out of the way in a game that is 'played on your feet'.
Yes, the player could have avoided the situation but watch that first one especially. He wasn't carrying forward momentum to jump successfully but if he had stepped aside (as it is suggested he should do) Tamanivalu didn't even need to jump, he could have caught the ball on the ground and run right past.
Way too much incentive to put the ball in the air and create danger. There has to be some responsibility on the jumper as well.