Northland v Tasman
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@taniwharugby said in Northland v Ta$man:
@kev nope
I'll join the humble pie club. Seems to be a trend every time I spout pessimistic glass half empty rants it comes back to bite me..maybe I should do it more often.
Outstanding performance by Northland last night, one of the most complete performances I have seen for some time. To beat a very strong Ta$man side emphatically like that just shows what we can do to any side on our day. The key now is to back it up, as we usually have a tendency to crash and burn a week later. I will be expecting nothing less than a handsome victory against Manawatu next weekend.
How good is Heremaia Murray? Hopefully he elevates himself to a Super Rugby main squad contract next year, if he continues with this form he'll definitely deserve it.
Good to see Coree Te Whata-Colley back, the scrum totally dominated with his presence. Also nice to see one of my Far North boys Hayden Jurlina get his debut, he's proof you don't have to be playing in the Whangarei club competition to crack it.
Also, what a fitting birthday present for the great man Super Sid Going!
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@J77 yep, holy shit where did that come from?
Sure I still take issues with a few selections (and the wider problems still exist) but gee, the lads pulled together last night and didnt just do the business, in those conditions, they gave Ta$man an absolute dust up.
That was off the back of a colossal defensive effort last night, that passage where they threw everything, 20+ phases at us, we were controlled and disiplined, was so good to watch.
Our defence simply smothered them across the park, pressuring them into errors, slowing the ball to thier mid-field, so much so that Aumua only had 1 of his trademark bullocking runs, even Tavatavanawai wasnt able to get himself going.
But it didnt just end there, normally we would be all defence and no fire, but we attacked them too, scoring a some excellent tries.
As a Taniwha fan we have grown accustomed to us showing glimpses of that in matches, and I sat there nervously awaiting our usual capitulation; not last night, we maintained the intensity for the full 80, with many of the players that needed to put in a good shift, doing so.
Our scrum that was shaky last week, was rock solid at times, young Lemisio showed that a week is a long time and held up his side much better this week, our lineout was very good (unlike thiers) with BKP putting in some shift last night.
The whole pack deserved to take a bow, they all manned up and did thier job carrying, cleaning and making tackles, and then a few more tackles.
All the reserves put the effort in and did thier jobs, even big CTC who is rather unfit, you saw him pop up making tackles in some of those multi phase efforts of Ta$man while doing the business at scrumtime - this fella has all the attributes to go to the next level and I love watching him play, just loves the physical game.
Congrats to Jurlina on his debut, put in a good shift.
Milo-Harris had a few average passes, but like what he brings, even his back up Hape put in a couple of outstanding kicks and cleared the ball well when he came on.
Reihana missed a couple of kicks he shouldnt have, and that pen off the posts, where was our chase, it coulda ended badly, otherwise he seems to be growing at this level with consistent starts.
Much maligned Hohaia still gives me the shits when he rushes out of the line and also lost a couple of balls to turnovers, but for the most part he just did his job.
Tua again was fairly anonymous, while Goodhue played simply when he came on, ran hard and straight, then made his tackles, just provides a good calm influence out there.
The combo of Moorby and Murray is looking pretty sharp, providing good kicking options along with some great attacking options, Rush on the other hand seems to be battling, although I do like the fact he chases kicks hard putting pressure on, but gee he makes some silly mistakes too.
Hopefully no new injuries this week, MacNamara didnt look like a new injury, just the same one he seemed to be struggling with already this season.
All in all, like, yeah, what the actual was that, but as @J77 says, now we need to back it up next week.
Thought I should add, was one of PIckerills better games I have seen, his policing of the ruck was as lacklustre as usual, but he was pretty consistent inallowing both sides plenty of lattitude, sure he missed some stuff, but did so both ways that I saw.
Have updated the poll with results from the Southland game, and if you havent voted, get in there.
https://www.forum.thesilverfern.com/topic/6188/northland-motm-v-tasman/3
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That was awesome! We were strong up front and dangerous in the backs. Apart from a couple of over throws at lineout the set piece was very strong. Good to see Lemisio have a good game after some struggles at the scrum in first few games. I thought Adam's was very strong, holding his end up at the scrum but also strong with ball in hand. Was surprised how consistent BKPs throwing was - rest of his game very good as usual.
As good as Northland were, Ta$man were uncharacteristically poor. They seemed to give up on their lineout halfway through the first half.
I thought LHE had been one of our best in the first half so guessing he went off injured especially given he was replaced by a loosie (Jurlina). Will be a big loss if he's out. Thought that was first game that Rob Rush played near the level of last season - hope he keeps that up.
LMH went well, going to be hard for Nock to break back in I think. Hohaia had one of his best ever games but still think we're better served with Goodhue at 12. Just stronger physically in defense and attack and also better distributor. Tua was quiet but still had some good runs - getting the ball in traffic rather than in space this year unfortunately. As others mentioned Moorby back into form and Murray carrying on his good form. Obviously the tries and runs etc getting the attention but what a handy weapon his left boot is too.
We really needed that result after a bit of a bumbling first week. I wonder if the storm week had been reversed and we played Southland first whether all 3 games might've been better. Hopefully we can carry it on!
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Bloody outstanding.
I think they headed up north expecting us to gift them a bonus point win and we sat them on their arse.
This game gives me de ja vue in terms of two other amazing home games that I was lucky enough to be in the stands for over the last 10 years or so. Both had very similar score lines to last night's game from memory. One against Wellington, and the other was Waikato.
Unfortunately I now live down the line and couldn't be there last night. But I live near enough to Palmy to make a Friday afternoon road trip pretty tempting after that performance.
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@Chiefy07 said in Northland v Ta$man:
👉🏼Hohaia had one of his best ever games 🤷🏻♂️
I am going to send the police around to do a welfare check on you after the attched comment
