Auckland Rugby 2024
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@Nogusta I find it very disappointing that they would sign aging journeymen like Ah Wong (34) and Curry (30) (and Brumbie Tuilama) rather that promoting young talent from within the region. Then they wonder why young talent leaves. The primary role of our NPC team should always be to create pathways to professional careers for young and club players, not just to try and win sort term with aging imports. Those players are unlikely to make a difference in results anyway and won't be there long. Far better to develop experience with a younger squad to produce longer lasting success. I can live with Malolo signing. He is an Auckland boy originally and at only 26 has time to develop and contribute long term. If I was a promising young Lock why would I stay around when they bring Curry and Tuilama in ahead of me? As for Ah Wong, no thanks, there is plenty of young back talent around the clubs and acadamy.
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@Daffy-Jaffy said in Auckland Rugby 2024:
@Nogusta I find it very disappointing that they would sign aging journeymen like Ah Wong (34) and Curry (30) (and Brumbie Tuilama) rather that promoting young talent from within the region. Then they wonder why young talent leaves. The primary role of our NPC team should always be to create pathways to professional careers for young and club players, not just to try and win sort term with aging imports. Those players are unlikely to make a difference in results anyway and won't be there long. Far better to develop experience with a younger squad to produce longer lasting success. I can live with Malolo signing. He is an Auckland boy originally and at only 26 has time to develop and contribute long term. If I was a promising young Lock why would I stay around when they bring Curry and Tuilama in ahead of me? As for Ah Wong, no thanks, there is plenty of young back talent around the clubs and acadamy.
So short sighted eh. There should never be an excuse for Auckland to bring in players.
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@Daffy-Jaffy Fully agree. Michael Curry really struggled at SR level to the point where Moana had to bring in an English import to win them some line-out ball. Ah Wong? Really? We're never short of wingers in Auckland rugby. Like you, I can also live with Sama Malolo being there as we usually carry the odd journeyman at hooker, but yeah, not a fan of these signings blocking up local talent. We're starting to look like Canterbury.
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@African-Monkey said in Auckland Rugby 2024:
Ah Wong? Really?
Agree with the rest of the post too. Butt this one stands out as the worst call
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@SouthernMann said in Auckland Rugby 2024:
@Daffy-Jaffy said in Auckland Rugby 2024:
@Nogusta I find it very disappointing that they would sign aging journeymen like Ah Wong (34) and Curry (30) (and Brumbie Tuilama) rather that promoting young talent from within the region. Then they wonder why young talent leaves. The primary role of our NPC team should always be to create pathways to professional careers for young and club players, not just to try and win sort term with aging imports. Those players are unlikely to make a difference in results anyway and won't be there long. Far better to develop experience with a younger squad to produce longer lasting success. I can live with Malolo signing. He is an Auckland boy originally and at only 26 has time to develop and contribute long term. If I was a promising young Lock why would I stay around when they bring Curry and Tuilama in ahead of me? As for Ah Wong, no thanks, there is plenty of young back talent around the clubs and acadamy.
So short sighted eh. There should never be an excuse for Auckland to bring in players.
Yep, Auckland has almost too much talent, hence why so many leave, so is criminal for them to overlook locals, and they have signed some average non-local players the last couple of seasons too.
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@SouthernMann Agreed. I would rather us struggle with locals than see us come one or 2 spots higher with out of town journeymen.
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Zarn not listed as a ten this year. Good
Akira is playing NPC? When he first announced his departure it sounded like there would be no NPC.
A few pointless selections - Ah Wong, Visinia, Jones, a couple of the locks etc. Hopefully they aren't involved in the 23 too often
Are Sullivan and Spencer fit to play now?
The more interesting names are in the wider group
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Auckland Rugby names the 2024 NPC squad with a novel ‘reverse jersey presentation’
Auckland NPC coach Craig McGrath names 37-man squad to contest Bunnings Warehouse NPC. Unique reverse jersey...
first preseason match this Friday 2nd August against Counties Manukau
Last weekends game v Northland hasn't even been mentioned on Auckland social media. I presume the next warmup is closer to the real side
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@Duluth Can't say I rate either Annandale or Curry. Out of the two, I'd take Curry but not with a lot of confidence.
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I've never watched Curry closely so don't have an opinion on him
Hopefully Annandale has improved after being on the fringes of the Blues squad. He's definitely large enough but seemed a bit tentative in contact last year.
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@Duluth Admittedly I've seen Curry at SR level which is a higher level than this, but he was part of a very dysfunctional line-out at Moana to the point where they had to bring in Tom Savage, an English journeyman just so they could win a line-out or 2, and his discipline was also poor in general play.
I hope he has improved, but those were some of the reasons I would say as to why he wasn't resigned by Moana.
Annandale looked soft last year. Again, I hope he has improved, but he didn't look up to standard for me.
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You followed Moana Pasifika closely.. any opinion on Ola Tauelangi?
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@Duluth Not really in honesty. He'd come on very late in games as Savage and Allan Craig would be left out there for the majority of games. He'd be lucky to get 5-10 minutes I'm most games he played.
Think he may have started the Chiefs game in Hamilton where they put out barely a B team? Hard to really get an opinion on any of them that night as they were so ridiculously overmatched. It was the game where Wallace Sititi announced himself.
The one from the Moana pack out of the youngsters who showed promised was Irie Papuni. Strong carrier and decent at set piece, similar to Lukhan Salakaia-Loto (all irrelevant for this conversation of course).
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@African-Monkey Its interesting that Ola played Lock in all his 11 games for MP, all but the one in 19 jersey, yet Auckland named him among the Loosies. He is unlikely to get time in the Loose Forwards with our depth there so I think he is more likely to be a backup lock/6. He is not tall at 1.94m but is solid at 115kgs. He seemed to be trusted with longer minutes as the season progressed with MP.
Ola TAUELANGI profile and stats
