Hawke's Bay v Poverty Bay (RS)
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An absolutely stunner of a day here in The Bay today with a with not a cloud to be seen in the bright blue sky. The thermometer sitting out the back is sitting on 18 degrees (and an even better 21 in the sun on the sheltered front deck) with just the faintest of northerlies although come kickoff time the sea breeze from the bank end of the ground is likely to have made an appearance.
Despite the rain plaguing big parts of the country we have had very little so the underfoot conditions will be excellent. For @Nepia @Magpie_in_aus you should be able to watch the demolition on STAN. Kickoff over here is 3.05pm NZ time. Hastings BHS and Napier BHS both have away Super8 games being screened on the Maori TV Youtube channel which @Stargazer has posted the links in the HB Schools thread which you can use as curtainraisers.
All my Magpies gear is still in Wellington damn it all but will see if I can get a replacement flag at McLean Park and will give it a big wave just for you guys.
With a bit of luck might run into @Stockcar86 so we can start the selection process for the 2022 HB NPC Tipping Team. we may be down one or two this year as have not seen or heard from Propsicle since I have temporarily relocated up home and Life Member @PAJ s current whereabouts is unknown. @kiwimatrix you might have to be make yourself available for selection! -
@Higgins lessssggooooooo Weka
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For those watching on TV, your commentators will be Tony Johnson, Richard Turner and Ian Smith.
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Unsurprisingly, a big win for the Magpies. The battle of the birds was never going to end differently.
Seriously pleased for Tupou Ma'afu Afunga, who scored a hat-trick on debut. It's clear why he is one of the development players. Not good was that he left the field injured. Hopefully not too serious.
All our rookie loosies scored, with Smith scoring late in the game and Gimblett scoring his first for the Magpies.
Caleb Makene had a very good game at 10. He was a bit unlucky at the end to receive a hospital from Bryn Evans, which lead directly to the final try of the game to Poverty Bay's no. 10, who scored two tries today, but couldn't nail any of his kicks at goal.
The commentators, esp TJ, were seriously fluffing the Poverty Bay TH prop. I think TJ even considered him as MotM.
The official MotM was, obviously, Tupou Ma'afu Afunga, who had a game that he'll remember forever.Tu'itavuki went well for us on the left wing, but also seemed to leave the field injured. Looked like his old hamstring injury playing up. Fomai went off with what looked like cramp. About Fomai, is it just me, or is losing more and more speed? No shame, he's 30.
Ahh, and then Harry Godfrey, apart from a few missed kicks at goal, he had a fantastic game. That lad has a really big future, I'm sure of it. Strangely enough, TJ kept on saying that he had played for the Chiefs Development team, this year. He probably didn't watch the Hurricanes U20s play then. It seems unlikely that he played for both franchises, unless those Chiefs Development games were late in the SR season (after the U20 tournament) and they signed him with immediate effect. Haha, that would be a great pick-up, but unlikely.
Critical note: the Magpies need to work on their defence on the try line. It was way too easy for Poverty Bay to score some of their tries from the pick and go.
One last thing. There were way too few spectators at this game. Why? Because the outcome is predictable? The weather was great; although it was one-way traffic, it was entertaining; many SR players making their return. Looked like a nice afternoon out with the family.
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@FakatavaAllBlack said in Hawke's Bay v Poverty Bay (RS):
Nearly hit the century, I like Harry GODfrey
He's such a prospect. Only 19 years old, and already such good skills. He'll definitely get more game time, this season. And hopefully a SR contract. Future All Black, I hope.
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@Stargazer said in Hawke's Bay v Poverty Bay (RS):
Unsurprisingly, a big win for the Magpies. The battle of the birds was never going to end differently.
Seriously pleased for Tupou Ma'afu Afunga, who scored a hat-trick on debut. It's clear why he is one of the development players. Not good was that he left the field injured. Hopefully not too serious.
All our rookie loosies scored, with Smith scoring late in the game and Gimblett scoring his first for the Magpies.
Caleb Makene had a very good game at 10. He was a bit unlucky at the end to receive a hospital from Bryn Evans, which lead directly to the final try of the game. To Poverty Bay's no. 10, who scored two tries today, but couldn't nail any of his kicks at goal.
The commentators, esp TJ, were seriously fluffing the Poverty Bay TH prop. I think TJ even considered him as MotM.
The official MotM was, obviously, Tupou Ma'afu Afunga, who had a game that he'll remember forever.Tu'itavuki went well for us on the left wing, but also seemed to leave the field injured. Looked like his old hamstring injury playing up. Fomai went off with what looked like cramp. About Fomai, is it just me, or is losing more and more speed? No shame, he's 30.
Ahh, and then Harry Godfrey, apart from a few missed kicks at goal, he had a fantastic game. That lad has a really big future, I'm sure of it. Strangely enough, TJ kept on saying that he had played for the Chiefs Development team, this year. He probably didn't watch the Hurricanes U20s play then. It seems unlikely that he played for both franchises, unless those Chiefs Development games were late in the SR season (after the U20 tournament) and they signed him with immediate effect. Haha, that would be a great pick-up, but unlikely.
Critical note: the Magpies need to work on their defence on the try line. It was way too easy for Poverty Bay to score some of their tries from the pick and go.
One last thing. There were way too few spectators at this game. Why? Because the outcome is predictable? The weather was great; although it was one-way traffic, it was entertaining; many SR players making their return. Looked like a nice afternoon out with the family.
Poverty Bay's tighthead is James Higgins who was on the radar of the super teams age group sides about 6 years ago. He had a major knee injury, think it was toward the end of his GBHS days that ruled him out for a year or so. Then fronted at the Wellington Football Club and blew out that knee up at Lyndhurst Park playing against Tawa. Pretty sure it was opening day of the season and my heart went out to him as he was carted away from the ground for hospital attention knowing it was probably the end of his career. Not sure what happened after that but a few years later he was playing for someone down in Central Otago but has been back up in Poverty Bay for the last year or three.
As per attendance just the Harris Stand was open and looked to be about three and a half thousand up there so at least four thousand were there all told. There was a massive queue lined up outside the ground waiting to have their bags checked and to be scanned in when I arrived about fifteen minutes prior to kick off. Me being me I found a way to Petone shuffle my way in ahead of the queue but there would have still been heaps outside waiting admittance when kick off started. No chance of delaying kick off so more people could get in these days thanks to television schedules.
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One thing that was very noticeable was that the HB backline stood up quite flat and the speed of the passing was super quick as they flicked it out in real quick fashion. Maybe this will be something to keep up their sleeves to try later on this season. There was also a number of runners changing the line of the attack which opened big gaps. This must be set against an opposition that is about mid level Heartland Championship and one that was missing five players injured in the Club Final last weekend. The pace of the game was simply something that they took an awful long time for them to get used to. This was emphasised by the score looking like it would be about 120 points after just ten minutes had gone. The visitors did well to regroup and prevent that happening and even had periods of attack that saw pressure on the HB line. Having said that as soon as they made an error it almost always resulted in a try being conceded down the other end almost immediately.
As a guide to how my guys will play come further Shield Defenses it did not show us a lot eg there were no HB special lineout drives for tries until right near the end. We might get a better indication of the game plan to be used when they play Waikato in the opening round of the NPC next weekend.
To mark this victory I am toasting the result with a Monteiths Gold Dust Hazy Pale Ale, sadly only got a six pack when a box would be more appreciated.
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@Higgins said in Hawke's Bay v Poverty Bay (RS):
An absolutely stunner of a day here in The Bay today with a with not a cloud to be seen in the bright blue sky. The thermometer sitting out the back is sitting on 18 degrees (and an even better 21 in the sun on the sheltered front deck) with just the faintest of northerlies although come kickoff time the sea breeze from the bank end of the ground is likely to have made an appearance.
Despite the rain plaguing big parts of the country we have had very little so the underfoot conditions will be excellent. For @Nepia @Magpie_in_aus you should be able to watch the demolition on STAN. Kickoff over here is 3.05pm NZ time. Hastings BHS and Napier BHS both have away Super8 games being screened on the Maori TV Youtube channel which @Stargazer has posted the links in the HB Schools thread which you can use as curtainraisers.
All my Magpies gear is still in Wellington damn it all but will see if I can get a replacement flag at McLean Park and will give it a big wave just for you guys.
With a bit of luck might run into @Stockcar86 so we can start the selection process for the 2022 HB NPC Tipping Team. we may be down one or two this year as have not seen or heard from Propsicle since I have temporarily relocated up home and Life Member @PAJ s current whereabouts is unknown. @kiwimatrix you might have to be make yourself available for selection!Sorry @Higgins - I was just around the corner playing tennis at Nelson Park during the game, and just watched the recording when I got home
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Tuitavuki was a thigh problem.
HBRU expect to make a small profit - the crowd today was bigger than the South Canterbury crowd, and they didn't have to turn on the lights - which cost per hour to turn on.
All the Silver Lake money to the provinces gets paid to them on August 20.
