Steamers v Otago Semi

taniwharugby

@kiwipie don't recall that year or that game you mention....

16 point loss to Wellington, 22 point loss to Cantabs, 6 point loss to Southland....

GagaBoy

I'll be interested to see the Otago line up. When we played them round robin, about 5 of their players were back from injury and were underdone. I don't think they will be this time around. Any injuries on the Bay front?

Snollygoster

@gagaboy Good luck trying to get details of injuries through the press or The BOPRU.

Before the Waikato game Solomona Sakalia, Isaac Te Aute and Liam Steel were all officially unavailable due to injury and I think Retallick was the only one who left the field injured during that game with an injury. We have really been lucky on the injury front this year.

KiwiPie

@gagaboy They are a very dangerous opponent - we have to be much better on defence this weekend, we slipped off too many tackles or just hit the man around the legs without holding them enabling them to get up and carry on.

Stargazer

GagaBoy

Bay are late in naming their lineup. I am assuming that we have some injury concerns... hopefully not too severe!

Snollygoster

This is a team we beat a couple of weeks back by 8 points.

They were at home.

We had more territory and possession.

We scored two more tries than they did.

We had more line breaks, beat more defenders, had more off loads and they conceded more turnovers.

This week we play them at home and they will be without their top try scorer. You would have to say that that bodes well for us but this is BOP.........

Donsteppa

@snollygoster said in Steamers v Otago Semi:

You would have to say that that bodes well for us but this is BOP.........

Yep - time to start hiding behind the couch in preparation for hiding behind the stand

Snollygoster

The Bay of Plenty Steamers is as follows:

Aidan Ross (21)
Liam Polwart (11)
Jeff Thwaites (18)
Keepa Mewett (32)
Troy Callander (20)
Mitchell Karpik (3)
Hugh Blake (17)
Jesse Parete (17)
Richard Judd (8)
Mike Delany (69) – Vice Captain
Joe Webber (23)
Terrence Hepetema (16)
Lalakai Foketi (26)
Monty Ioane (27)
Chase Tiatia (23)

Reserves:
16. James O’Reilly (15)
17. Jordan Lay (6)
18. James Lay (7)
19. Tyler Ardron (4)
20. Henry Stowers (16)
21. Matthew Garland (1)
22. Luke Campbell (14)
23. Elijah Nicholas (15)

Tom Franklin out with family commitments apparently.

GagaBoy

Tough gig for the forwards with Franklin and Retallick. Line out loses options, but some good scavengers. Ardron will need to provide some punch when he gets on - I haven’t seen anything from him this season thus far.

Good backline again, but Judd could count himself lucky. hopefully he regains some form this game.

kev

Well done guys. Thought you would have too much for Otago. Good luck for finals.

taniwharugby

Congrats fellas, nice win!

KiwiPie

They kept coming back so we couldn't relax. Glad Koroi didn't start the game. But we did play well overall and deserved it I think. And home before 5 - love the Domain

KiwiPie

And very glad Koroi didn't play the whole game. Man he was good and we could hardly lay a hand on him.

Annoyed by ... players being tackled and getting up after the tackled rolls away.

Snollygoster

A pleasing win. Especially so without Franklin and also being one player down for 10 minutes. Still an annoying number of mistakes but that was a good win against a good team so I'm happy.

Wellington will justifiably be extreme favorites for the final so it will be interesting how The Bay play that game.

Anyone know how Judd is ? He didn't look good.

GagaBoy

Yep - good win. Particularly without Retallick and Franklin. I thought Callander was good. Blake and Karpik outstanding - be interesting to see what the loose trio will be for Wellington. Backline superb. Bring on the final.

The Silver Fern

Steamers v Otago Semi