Blues 2018
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@dice yeah pretty thin on candidates for a leader, unless you go back to Kaino, PT doesn't seem ideal...Blake Gibson would be a player who demands selection, but not sure on his leadership.
I'm not a fan of Parsons full stop, but he leads NH and did for the Blues last year.
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@kiwimurph I think if Pulu reigns in the errors, he'll be fine. His error rate was not near as high at the Chiefs as it was with the Blues this year. I think Tana just lets him go rouge here, which leads him to trying too much. A good 10 could help that though, as he might not be compelled to do so much.
@taniwharugby Yup, I think going back to Kaino would be a backwards move.
From what I've seen of Gibson over the years, he's quiet as a mouse and seems pretty camera shy. He use to stutter like crazy in pre/post-game interviews when he was captain at St Kents, so I don't think he'd want captaincy even if offered. Even so, TJ Faiane felt like the real captain of that St Kents team.
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@dice Yep I don't think the Blues 10s helped Pulu - i'd like to see the Pulu/Perofeta combo be given a serious go. They looked really promising vs B&I Lions.
If the Blues have a similar plan to this past season I imagine quite a few of these extra players will be taken to the Brisbane 10s alongside Carlos for a run.
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@kiwimurph well if 'los goes well in the 10's...
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Good to see Afeaki as scrum coach too. From memory Harbour's scrum was good in Mitre 10 Cup. Blues badly needed to address their scrum for years (especially when replacements came on).
I imagine he had some input in not selecting Prattley either - that's a good sign in itself.
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@wurzel said in Blues 2018:
Pulu strikes me as someone with a bit of a discipline problem, and often seems to have bad rapport with refs. Would be well down my list of potential captains.
You could have said the same about Dane Coles before Canes made him captain
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@kiwimurph Good to see Afeaki has a business and I hope he got a decent insurance payout. He probably would have been a regular fixture in black by now if not for concussion.
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@wurzel said in Blues 2018:
Pulu strikes me as someone with a bit of a discipline problem, and often seems to have bad rapport with refs. Would be well down my list of potential captains.
Can't say I've ever noticed this, apart from the odd high shot. Care to point out some examples?
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@dice said in Blues 2018:
I think if Pulu reigns in the errors, he'll be fine. His error rate was not near as high at the Chiefs as it was with the Blues this year.
Pulu didn't play as many minutes for the Chiefs as he does for the Blues. I like Pulu as a player but in the big games TKB always started with Pulu being the finisher. Against tired players he could be sensational.
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@bones said in Blues 2018:
@wurzel said in Blues 2018:
Pulu strikes me as someone with a bit of a discipline problem, and often seems to have bad rapport with refs. Would be well down my list of potential captains.
Can't say I've ever noticed this, apart from the odd high shot. Care to point out some examples?
Pulling the padding off the post in the recent npc game was a pretty stupid move. Not something i'd want my captain doing.
While i think the Blues need to change things up a bit im not sure Pulu is the guy to do it. Don't ask me who is though. SBW?
It's the second time i've seen the point about the Blues ABs turning up after the Lions with a "poor attitude". Kind of a weird thing to bring up. Firstly there aren't many Blues ABs so it is really singling these guys out. Secondly the Blues season was well and truely over by then. The attitude of the ABs post lions had nothing to do with that.
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@tim Yes from the article posted by @Daffy-Jaffy from 1 December (it confusingly mentions 9 players then names 8, so I wonder if the 9th is Adrian Smith).
Four young players, all part of the Blues Under-20s and selected for the New Zealand Under-20 training squad, join the Blues for 10 weeks fulltime training as part of the Interim Training Contract scheme. They are Rob Cobb, Hoskins Sotutu, Harry Plummer and Tanielu Tele’a. There are a further nine players who have joined as replacements for injured or for All Blacks and Maori All Blacks who are staged back into Super Rugby in January. The eight are Marcel Renata (Auckland), Ross Wright (Northland), Jacob Pierce (Auckland), Antonio Kirikiri (Manawatu), Lewis Gjaltema (North Harbour), Orbyn Leger (Counties Manukau), Sione Havili (Auckland) and Jordan Hyland (Northland).Blues Rugby
The official home of the Blues rugby team. Buy tickets and merchandise, get the latest news, view results and go behind-the-scenes with our players.
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From the main squad, extended training squad, and players known to be training with the Blues, the following (who are not unavailable due to AB commitments) are not in the squad for the Chiefs game:
Mafileo
Smith
CobbParsons
Apisai
MouldsScrafton
Gibson
PryorGjaltema
JohnsonOf those, Gjaltema is fourth halfback, and Smith and Cobb are the seventh (and backup hooker) and eighth props, and Johnson is out for the season.
Parsons and Gibson had shoulder surgery in the off-season, and Scrafton had his early in the NPC season. Gibson is expected to miss the first few rounds, and I'd imagine Parsons might miss some too. Haven't seen him in training pics. Hopefully Scrafton will be available from the start - he's been in training pics from before Christmas.
I am wondering if they are using this game to decide on a fourth hooker to cover for Parsons, rather than having an injury crisis.
IIRC, Pryor had off-season surgery too, but has been training with the team, so am hoping that he, Scrafton, and Parsons are being eased back in, and will be available in round one.
