Taranaki v Auckland

[Nepia]

@Higgins said in Taranaki v Auckland:

@Stargazer There is something heartwarming seeing a bunch of real kiwi country blokes man handling and outmuscling a pack of city slingers back over their own line for a beautiful try!

TBH, I wonder how many of those blokes are actually country blokes.

Tony Johnson's differing pitches of voice when the Naki scored and then when Auckland scored certainly adds weight to Blues fans accusations of bias when he's commenting their games. When Naki scored he was so excited I assumed that I was watching the Ta$man Invitational Baabaas XV or the Crusaders. When Auckland scored I assumed someone told him his Nana just died.

[African Monkey]

Suprised Taranaki are going for the shot here with their rolling maul going so well.

Nicke kick from Perofeta having said that.

[Stargazer]

Perofeta has been a bit hot and cold in this game, but that was a nice intercept. Too bad he lost the ball immediately after.

[Higgins]

@African-Monkey Agreed, their scrum is looking a bit dodgy. Wonder why Taranaki have stopped producing the good number of decent props they did for a fair while until a couple of years ago?

[Stargazer]

Awesome clearance kick.

Has Naholo touched the ball, yet?

[Steven Harris]

@Higgins Taranaki are missing Ruben O’Neil and Mitchell Graham who are both injured , 2 of their corner stone props .throw in an 18 year old and 19 year old in the middle row who probably have not developed physically against a pretty solid Auckland tight 5..your gonna struggle ..

[Higgins]

@Steven-Harris I like the look of that number 4 for the 'Naki. I see he is out of Wesley College so presume he must be originally from Auckland (via Tonga?) befere landing in Taranaki last year after making the Schools Baabaas in 2016 and the Schools Team itself in 2017. Just a shame Ken LAban is missing when we need to be filled in on important details like who was his mother's next door neighbour, which NRL side he was linked with etc etc to fill in the missing information.

[Steven Harris]

@Higgins a couple good young guys putting theirs hands up ,really impressed with AJ Lam..seriously hard to put down..

[Dice]

Some great hands in that try.

[African Monkey]

Great hands from Manu there taking a near impossible offload.

[nzzp]

@African-Monkey said in Taranaki v Auckland:

Great hands from Manu there taking a near impossible offload.

that was tremendous, great work

[Bovidae]

@African-Monkey said in Taranaki v Auckland:

@Steven-Harris Did TJ say earlier that his dad's Matt Lord (former North Harbour lock)?

Yes, I didn't know that. I watched Lord play a lot at Ham BHS. He will be a good prospect when he adds some bulk to his frame.

[African Monkey]

@Bovidae Time really does fly haha. It doesn't feel like long ago that his dad was a young prospect himself.

[nakosi]

Is it raining or both team nervous , seeing that small scoreline?

[African Monkey]

@nakosi Both sides muscling up on defence.

For all of Papali'i's good stuff, He really needs to learn to play to the ref's interpretations. He tends to play to what he thinks is right instead of what the ref sees as right.

[nzzp]

That is some good defence right there, well done Auckland

[Bovidae]

Naholo looks SLOW

[Steven Harris]

Renata matching Waisake for pace..lol

[African Monkey]

@Bovidae The run of a man who can't be arsed anymore haha.

[Stargazer]

@Bovidae I've had the impression all season that Naholo isn't giving it 100% anymore. It wasn't much different during Super Rugby. Maybe he's already mentally switched off, ready to move to England.