Northland v Canterbury
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Neutral here - thought Northland were overall the better side but lacked the quality in the redzone. I suspect Canterbury will grind their way to a comfortable win from here, but if Northland can just liven up a little bit in the backs, this game is there for the taking.
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Great work from Rob Rush gets undone by a very poor exit
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Dumb from Brady Rush , the defensive line had done their job
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Taniwha lucky Canterbury scored , may have been another YC
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Just too many por decisions and none of the 50-50s goingnour way
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Goose well and truly cooked , needed to land some blows in the first half ,
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Very poor second half...too many penalties
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I'll put the motm poll up in the morning...
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Scratchy first hit out, but a couple of positives:
- Ferg looks assured
- midfield could be a real handful. Great to see Crotty back out there in (sequenced) red n black
- some of the interplay between the forwards was nice.
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Well that was extremely disappointing.
We were well in it at the break, in fact, felt we were slightly on top everywhere bar the scoreboard, but gee, that 2nd half.
Also, gotta say, at the game, it didnt feel our disipline was as bad as the penalty count was.
Canterbury backs were flirting with the offside line all game, but got away with it more than they didnt, which put immense pressure on our back who were struggling anyway with no real punch.
Thought for the most part, our pack went well, Rob Rush gets through some work, Adams has a nice turn of pace and alongside Moulds and Apoua, form a strong front row, although like years gone by, we have lapses and then get destroyed despite being rock solid rest of game.
Thought a couple of scrum pens were bloody harsh, we got pinged when they dropped the bind and collapsed, and another when they popped, also thought Rangers was a tough one, but then I am of the opinion if you get a hand to it and it goes up, you had a shot at it, so aside from those more obvious examples, rest was less to argue about and we just werent good enough, particularly in the backs and our work under the high ball and aimless kicking (gee, where do we see this) and Canterbury were better with thier kicking, even when we had an aimless forceback comp.
Thought Goodhue had some nice touches in the 1st half, but he and Tua werent great in the 2nd, also think they need to swap positions, and the less said about that kick by Goodhue, the better!
Jonah Mau'u started well, but looked gassed, liked the work of our locks, Matich tried hard all game, and do wonder if he had taken that ball under the Canterbury posts, how different things might have panned out, given within 2 mins of that, they went 100m from thier in goal to score.
We do lack punch outwide, Brady Rush goes pretty well, looks to added some size and works hard off the ball, but with Pisi out, I wonder who they will bring in, while I want to see Tama Anderson, I doubt he will provide what was clearly lacking, maybe an SOS to Jone Maciali?
Very, very disappointing game in the end, which makes Wednesday even less appealing, meaning the fear of a 0/3 start, looking a bit more likely...
@kev yeah we did look underdone, and given they had an odd length season (10 teams, RR of 12 games plus finals) and a week off for KIngs Birthday weekend, soemthing they need to look at next year, cant come in off 1 game, I reckon they have a trial game week after the final, then 2 pre-season games at least.
For the Cantabs Harmon was excellent, into everything, is a bit shorter and wider than I thought he was, but has an engine! Burke controlled things well, but all up they looked a well drilled team, looking at Romano warm up, reckon this will be his last season, he seems to limit his movement alot.
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Vote for your MOTM
https://www.forum.thesilverfern.com/topic/6141/northland-motm-v-caterbury
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@taniwharugby we were competitive in contact but lacked quality in everything we did. Option taking, execution. Looked like individuals. Late change of coach and only one warm up game maybe.
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Watching this game as a neutral, these were my general feelings:
Northland
- Started fairly okay, though benefitted from Canterbury being poor. I wouldn't say they were bad in the second half, they just weren't at the level of Canterbury who will probably win the competition
- Tight five went well, and the loosies were fine, but it was the backs who struggled. Reihana had a bit of a shocker IMO
- Actually forgot Goodhue was on the field until his shocker of a kick. The game just didn't flow his way.
- Sorely missed Moorby in the outside backs, as they had no penetration without him
- I wouldn't worry too much if I was a Northland fan, though they have the potential to be 0-3 at the end of next week with Moorby absent, and that will pretty much be them done for the season
Canterbury
- Really shit start, with Calder having a mare early, though he grew into it. Bell was rusty, but also grew as the game went on. He is going to have a big season
- Rest of the forwards were good, largely better than their opposites. It was a case of patience for them, and they eventually broke Northland down. For the first game of the season that was pretty good.
- Drummond and Murray were big game changers, and impacted the game well
