Blues 2020
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@Jonty-lean I think they have better players signed to be honest.
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@rotated said in Blues 2020:
When was that?
Radio sport Wednesday morning after 7:30am sports news. I tried to sort a link for you but the 'week on demand' page isn't working for me. Won't load anything before Thursday. You could try it yourself here -
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@Tim I think I read on here from Steven Harris that Sam Caird will be training with the team as injury cover, I guess that's for C/T. Interestingly MacDonald said on the radio that Tucker can also play 6 and 8 so that explains why he was grouped with the back rowers on some team lists I saw.
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So what's your first choice XXIII?
- Karl T
- Parsons
- Ofa T
- Tuipulotu
- Pierce
- Robinson
- Papalii
- Ioane
- Christie
- Barrett/Plummer
- Ioane
- Faiane
- Marchant
- Narawa
- Perofeta
Reserves:
- Niuia
- Hodgman
- Renata (Thought he went well in NPC in the scrum)
- Tucker/GCT
- Gibson
- Nock
- Tele'a/Plummer
- Duffie/Telea
Hooker and Lock are hard to pick, as are the lock and loose forward reserve. Hopefully there's a healthy level of rotation. Uncertainty over fullback. Wouldn't be surprised to see Marchant and Ioane swap places.
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@Daffy-Jaffy MacDonald said that they wanted Sione Havili, but he chose the Crusaders. Bugger.
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@Daffy-Jaffy said in Blues 2020:
@rotated said in Blues 2020:
When was that?
Radio sport Wednesday morning after 7:30am sports news. I tried to sort a link for you but the 'week on demand' page isn't working for me. Won't load anything before Thursday. You could try it yourself here -
Appreciate that. Thanks!
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@Tim Once that happened I would have chased Mitch Jacobson or Slade McDowell before Lamborn. I was surprised neither was picked by their local team. i guess they wanted experience. Re: your team above, The more I look at the balance of the back rowers picked I think you are right that they will use Papalii at 7. I don't think its his best position but it gets all the best players on the park together.
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@Tim Meh, not as fussed about missing out on him as a lot of others are on here. Lamborn's ok as backup.
Still too many glaring holes for me especially in the backs. 9 as usual, depth at 12 and 15 could become problem positions for us. I'd assume that Plummer/Groundwater could see a bit of gametime should Faiane go down. Fullback worries me. Think we're screwed there when Perofeta and Duffie inevitably get injured. Maybe Narawa's worth a look there?
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@Bones Settle down mate anything's better than him
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@African-Monkey said in Blues 2020:
@Bones Settle down mate anything's better than him
We could play without a fullback and be ahead of where we were with Collins on the field.
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@Daffy-Jaffy said in Blues 2020:
Once that happened I would have chased Mitch Jacobson or Slade McDowell before Lamborn. I was surprised neither was picked by their local team.
Unfortunately for Mitch the Chiefs have 3 opensides in their squad so were never going to pick a 4th.
Interestingly MacDonald said on the radio that Tucker can also play 6 and 8 so that explains why he was grouped with the back rowers on some team lists I saw.
I mentioned that earlier. Remember that Tucker played at no.6 for the NZ Provincial Barbarians against the Lions and played there a few times for Waikato this year. When he has played for his club it has usually been at no.8.
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@Bovidae I am a fan of Tucker - how do you think he might go covering 6 or 8 at super level? I have only seen him play lock.
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@Daffy-Jaffy I think Tucker might be better suited at 6 in SR because he isn't the tallest lock going around. One of his biggest assets is his mobility. No.8 would require more ball-handling from scrums but I am sure he could do a job there too if required.
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@Daffy-Jaffy said in Blues 2020:
The more I look at the balance of the back rowers picked I think you are right that they will use Papalii at 7. I don't think its his best position but it gets all the best players on the park together.
Yeah, there's a lot of 6 cover in the squad so that suggests Papali'i will be used at 7 often
I agree it's not his best position. For some reason his judgement is off and he pushes the refs too hard.. hopefully he fixes that quickly.
I've been saying for a year that I think he's the best blindside in NZ. I hope he still gets significant time in his best spot.It's more about Gibson fading a little IMO. If it's a choice between Robinson or Gibson in the starting xv, Gibson misses out.
That has implications for the captaincy
Last year it was co-captains: Tuipulotu and Gibson. No captain has been announced yet but I assume it will Tuipulotu on his own
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@Duluth While I think the captaincy is good for P.T. i'm not sure he is that good a captain if you know what I mean. It seems to fire him up to play well but he may be not verbal enough with his team or so strategically aware . TJ.F has been mentioned as an option. Papalii has been seen as a leader since his school days but maybe too early yet?
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@Daffy-Jaffy Yeah Patty's always been a quiet guy in general which is why I was suprised he ever got the gig in the first place. I'd prefer TJ Faiane to have it tbh.
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