NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry)
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Just got back from the game, what an epic final. My kids had a great time, two new rugby converts.
Can’t believe we won that with three of our first choice forwards out. That and a another awful performance from Jackson.
Great team effort to claw that back and just roll over the top of the cantabs.
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@chchfanatic said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
Ioane is a flog. Totally outplayed by whitelock
@chchfanatic said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
Ioane is a flog. Totally outplayed by whitelock
Looks like the Russians have hacked the fern
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Watched the final today sitting with Highlanders tighthead prop Siate Tokolahi who also plays for the Canterbury Mitre 10 Cup.he is currently out injured,he has signed with Highlanders for another 2 seasons but was telling me Alex Hodgeman is returning to Auckland next year for Mitre 10 Cup,has signed for 2 years
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@kiwimurph haha I bet you were nervy during the game though. To be honest with the team we’ve had all year we did bloody well to make it that far. Having Luke whitelock and joe moody last week certainly helped. Auckland too good on the day. I’ll still take 9-11 years though
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@steven-harris Nice.
Didn't Tokalahi get poached by Canterbury out of high school?
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Loved that we were behind by 17 a couple of times in the match, and then our forwards squeezed the life out of the cantab team.
Awesome control in atrocious conditions, I never been that wet.
Reading this thread has been hilarious. The shit Akira gets from the usual suspects (especially early on). Yet, again, he helps drag his team over the line.
The support he got at the ground was something else. Unbelievablely loud crowd.
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@tim Siate played for Sacred Heart in Auckland not overly big for a tighthead,was telling me he’s 115kgs and he’s been told to put on 3-5 more Kgs..reckons the 2 best looseheads he’s been up against are Wyatt Crockett and Karl Tu’nukuafe..really good bugger,only 25 years old.
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@tim said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
Good cameo from Fukofuka. His pass and clearing kicks are quicker than Ruru's. He's a good player.
This was a strange game as two Auckland players who have been instrumental in their season (Ruru and Abel) were really poor. Their replacements definitely added something when they came on.
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Little bit about Olmstead:
Olmstead moved to Sydney, Australia with his family when he was three years old, before returning to Canada in 2011 for the IRB World Junior Trophy. He has since played for the Parramatta Two Blues in Sydney's Shute Shield and the Prairie Wolf Pack in the Canadian Rugby Championship.[3] At the beginning of 2016, Olmstead signed with London Scottish F.C. in the RFU Championship for the rest of the season.[4]
Olmstead's great-uncle is Hockey Hall of Famer Bert Olmstead, who played for Chicago, Montreal and Toronto from 1948 to 1962.[5]
From reddit:
I played with Evan at high school. He’s Australian and capped for Canada through his parents. He was a good player, never our best player or the most talented but a hard worker who I recall putting in the effort off the pitch. Interestingly enough, we had 2 Australian and 5 NSW state representatives in the same team and Evan is the only one who made it as a professional player. Glad to see him doing well. He was always a nice guy.
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@kirwan Yep, this thread is a crack up. It's all Whitelock was so dominant in the first half, yeah a first half when Canterbury dominated possession and territory. Where was Whitelock in the 2nd half when Akira dragged Auckland by the scruff of the neck into the game? The only noticeable thing was being offside and not get carded for it.
@chchfanatic said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
Was a great game of footy won by the best team all season. Canterbury played awesome today but just couldn’t get up. Today showed why whitelock is an all black and ioane is a pretender. The crusaders were offered ioane to try and sort him out. Razor just laughed at them and said he’s not what we’re looking for.
You never go full retard.
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Didn't know the score, youtubed the All Blacks channel for the highlights. Got excited, wow of a game even in highlights
fluffybunnies switched from the 33 all equaliser to 40-33 and that's it. No last try, I assume there was a last try?
Production standards people, standards.
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Well done Orcs. Great game to watch.
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@siam said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
Didn't know the score, youtubed the All Blacks channel for the highlights. Got excited, wow of a game even in highlights
fluffybunnies switched from the 33 all equaliser to 40-33 and that's it. No last try, I assume there was a last try?
Production standards people, standards.
Yep... WTF? I saw a comment in the thread suggesting it was a rather good one also.
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Well, finally got to a keyboard after the game. What a farking unbelievable experience. Everything you want in sport rolled into a couple of hours. We had a bunch of kids in our group, and you can bet they'll all want to go to more games next season.
Firstly, well done to the administrators for free entry. 20k must be the biggest crowd in provincial games for, what 10-15 years? Since the 9/9/9 model got demolished. The crowd just kept coming in, they kept opening up new parts of the stadium, and it was a great atmosphere. I suspect if yo uvalue that in terms of exposure and engagement, it pays for itself.
Auckland were woeful in the first half, strangely tentative. We missed those 3/4 forwards - in Christchurch we could defend a maul, but were just not able to stop it. Result: a 17-0 lead, YC and penalty try. I was surprised given the dominance (and expected weather) why Canty didn't go for the corner at the end of the first. THat would have won the game - penalties at that point help, but don't close it out. And this is from someone who's a dedicated 'take the 3' person!
Canterbury were clinical all game. Solid, but unspectacular. Whitelock L and Romano their key players - to be frank , not many other players stood out for them.
A word on the weahter - I was watching metservice rain radar in Half 1-- could see it rolling in. Thankfully they opened the southern stand for punters, or it would have been a wet wet second 40, and with kids probably pulling the pin early.
Rather than talk about the game specifics (and how frustrating Glen J is as a ref), I wan tto talk about changes in Auckland. I haven't bothered going to see them for a few years, despite having a season ticket. They have looked terrible - disorganised, uninterested, arrogant, and awful. This year that has changed bigtime. I have been most impressed with their mental toughness and resilience all year. We had no right to win the games against Wel and Naki - but we did through sheer refusal to give up. It's a characteristic of some of the great late 90's Crusaders teams and All Blacks, and this group had it is spades. The clutch conversion by Plummer was as pressure a kick as you'll see, and is just an isolated example of mental toughness.
To do what they did yesterday, coming back from 17-0 down, missing players and leaders, and still finding a way to come back from every punch that Canterbury landed was remarkable. After last year avoiding relegation, I was just stoked to see them play well and win some games. Making the playoffs was a bonus, hosting playoffs exceeded that, and winning the final at home in front of a crowd like that is just sensational.
I did not expect to say it this year, but I am exceptionally proud of the team, their mental toughness and resilience, and how they have put pride back in the famous blue and white hoops.
It finally feels like a healthy environment to be in, where people are achieving to their potential. Sadly, I suspect that we won't keep the coaching team next year - they'll get offered opportunities too good to turn down.
I'm going to finish with some optimism. We're on the up - the new (ish) contracting model means that we are able to retain some of the talent that we produce, and the future is bright for Auckland rugby at last. This supporter is stoked.
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@tim said in NPC Final - Auckland vs Canterbury (free entry):
@siam Yeah, they missed the last try (ex-Crusaders player Fukofuka). I was annoyed too.
He scored right in front of where we were, didn't ground the ball (hid it with his body), and then scooted 15 m closer to the posts.
Question for those who may have watched - woudl Auck have got the trophy if it was tied at the end of extra time? I thoguht it likely as we both beat them in round robin, and finished first, but buggered if i'd looked up the rules before heading to the ground
