Canterbury v Northland

[muddyriver]

@kev I think northland set piece goes very well this year. They have a few veterans who are good at this side of the game. This game, I worry about the loose heads (2 starters out) at scrum time and the young mid fielder on the wing vs the contestables Canterbury use a lot.

Northland at $101 to win is crazy for a team I can see making the top 8

[Duluth]

This is kicking off in a few minutes

[Duluth]

Northland wearing a darker blue this year?

[Duluth]

Nice, Northland get the first try. Good field position then patient drives at the line

[Duluth]

Let off for Northland, Poihipi kicks it dead when kicking a penalty to the corner

[Chiefy07]

Northland are definitely up for it but can't have silly mistakes like Rush ignoring the ref and giving a penalty away right in front of the posts and Trainor knocking on at the 22 under no pressure

[Chiefy07]

Pretty tight call to rule out a Northland try with a forward pass. It didn't look forward live but ref was directly in line. Good work to create the opportunity though

[Duluth]

Murray has been finding space

Good support line from Caird following Latu

Trainor with the error the ends the movement

[Duluth]

Well done Latu

Northland takes the lead back 14-10 37mins gone

[kev]

These commentators can *uck right off. Arrogance.

[kev]

Impressed by Northland. Good running options. Good shoulders into tackles. If they last the 80 they will be in this.

[kev]

That’s a home town call

[kev]

Beautiful try

[Chiefy07]

Good try. We need to keep hold of the ball. We look dangerous when we have it

Can't understand why the held up call didn't go to TMO...it looked like he may have got it down. Not even a replay or 2nd look on the coverage was weird.

[antipodean]

This post is deleted!

[Nzrugbyfan]

@kev yes blantantly ignorant

[Duluth]

No card for Heinz?

[kev]

They found our weakness and worked it. Will have to work on lineout D options - sacking and throwing a man up….

[Crazy Horse]

For Canterbury I thought the forwards did ok, but if they are going to persist with going wide rather than direct they need to find some speed, particularly in the back three. The two wings were pedestrian and Fihaki was his usual slow motion self. Apparently he is fast...

Anyone know Hutchinson's story? He didn't look like a natural winger at all.

[Chiefy07]

Would've been a very interesting game of we had better maul defense today. Think 4 or 5 tries conceded from mauls and other than that Canterbury didn't really look threatening. Considering how many tackles we had to make we hung in there and defended very well.

Also another day theres a line ball forward pass and a held up call that may well have gone our way.

Plenty to work on but overall a very positive game first up