Wellington vs Waikato (SF)
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With Peter Lakai being called up to the ABs, the Lions will desperately need either Shields or Ropeti to come back into the fray. Halalilo is too small to be an 8 IMO.
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Waikato missing Samisoni Taukei'aho, Samipeni Finau, Luke Jacobson, Cortez Ratima, Damian McKenzie and Anton Lienert-Brown.
Plus likely the injured guys from above... Ayden Johnstone, Pita Anae Ah-Sue, Hamilton Burr, James Tucker, Mitch Jacobson, Paddy McCurran, Xavier Saifaloi, Taha Kemara, D'Angelo Leuila, Austin Anderson, Gideon Wrampling, Liam Coombes-Fabling, Dan Sinkinson and Josh Moorby.
So 20 players all up... Frankly amazing they've made the semis this year at all.
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@Darren said in Wellington vs Waikato (SF):
So I think Wgtn missing Aumua, Savea, Lakai, TJ, Barrett, Proctor, Love
That leaves some pretty big holes, especially Aumua and Lakai.Not sure where the Barrett came from. We are also missing O’Reilly, Sheck, Ropeti, Patafilo and potentially Shields.
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@Canes4life said in Wellington vs Waikato (SF):
@Darren said in Wellington vs Waikato (SF):
So I think Wgtn missing Aumua, Savea, Lakai, TJ, Barrett, Proctor, Love
That leaves some pretty big holes, especially Aumua and Lakai.Not sure where the Barrett came from. We are also missing O’Reilly, Sheck, Ropeti, Patafilo and potentially Shields.
Yeah no idea, lol Got confused with Super I guess, Alzheimer's kicking in again
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@Darren I don't really think we're missing Aumua, Savea, TJ, Proctor or Love tbh. They have only played a few games, or not at all. To win the NPC you've got to forget about your ABs, for the most part.
Same with Waikato. Guys like Ratima, ALB & DMac don't count as missing imo.
Lakai is the only one I really consider a loss from our side, given he's suited up all season.
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@foobaNZ said in Wellington vs Waikato (SF):
@Darren I don't really think we're missing Aumua, Savea, TJ, Proctor or Love tbh. They have only played a few games, or not at all. To win the NPC you've got to forget about your ABs, for the most part.
Same with Waikato. Guys like Ratima, ALB & DMac don't count as missing imo.
Lakai is the only one I really consider a loss from our side, given he's suited up all season.
The team will be named later today but if our 23 looks something like the below (which I expect based on recent player movements / injuries) I'd be pretty happy and confident we'll get the job done.
- Numia
- Poasa
- Lauaki
- Ieremia
- Plummer
- Delany
- Kirifi (c)
- Shields
- Preston
- JGB
- Filipo
- Higgins
- Umaga-Jensen
- Savea
- Clarke
Reserves: - Apisai
- Kamimori
- Chrichton
- Paulo
- Halalilo
- Muriwai
- Harkin
- Solomon
Other players that may come into the mix as I'm not sure of their availability are Patafilo, Sheck and Ropeti which will strengthen us even more. I've got Shields starting because he's been used on the social campaign to promote the semi-final.
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No injury returnees apart from McCurran.
1 Ollie Norris (Hautapu)
2 Manaaki Boyle-Tiatia (University)
3 George Dyer (Fraser Tech)
4. Josh Balme (Hamilton Marist)
5 Laghlan McWhannell (Hautapu)
6 Xavier Saifoloi (University)
7 Senita Lauaki (Hautapu)
8 Malachi Wrampling (Hamilton Old Boys)
9 Xavier Roe (Hamilton Old Boys) – Captain
10 Aaron Cruden (Morrinsville Sports)
11 Aki Tuivailala (Hamilton Old Boys)
12 Quinn Tupaea (Hamilton Old Boys)
13 Bailyn Sullivan (Hamilton Marist)
14 Oli Mathis (University)
15 Tepaea Cook-Savage (Fraser Tech)16 Sean Ralph (Te Awamutu Sports) – Blazer Game (18th Waikato Cap)
17 Mason Tupaea (Hamilton Marist)
18 Sefo Kautai (Hamilton Marist)
19 Tai Cribb (Hamilton Marist)
20 Patrick McCurran (Fraser Tech)
21 Quintony Ngatai (Hautapu)
22 Newton Tudreu (Hamilton Marist)
23 Waisake Salabiau (Hautapu)
Waikato named for Bunnings NPC semi-final clash with the Wellington Lions.
Waikato will travel to the capital this week to face the Wellington Lions in a Bunnings NPC semi-final at Sky Stadium...
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@mikey07 said in Wellington vs Waikato (SF):
@Duluth Haha I tried to post it first but wouldn’t let me…glad they’ve gone with Harkin JGB must be injured no other way they’d start him.
Awesome to see Harkin start. So JGB and Umaga-Jensen also injured. We won't lose much with Proctor at 13.
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@foobaNZ said in Wellington vs Waikato (SF):
JGB has to be injured lol, only other explanation. Can't wait to see Harkin but geez be nice if they had played him last few weeks!
PUJ is a loss as he's been big recently. Hopefully Matt can perform like his brother.
So ABs aside we don't have O'Reilly, Sheck, Patafilo, Umaga-Jensen, Ropeti, and Garden-Bachop available. If you include Lakai the Lions definitely drawing on reserves. Thankfully Shields, Kirifi and Proctor have come back otherwise we would have been in trouble.
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@Bovidae said in Wellington vs Waikato (SF):
If I listed the strongest Waikato XV (minus ABs) at the start of the NPC I reckon only six are starting in this match.
On paper, Wellington look to have a lot more experience to draw from but slightly down on their strongest side as well. Ah well, it's about who turns up at the end of the day. We've seen a lot of funny results this year so anything can happen.
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