@stargazer said in BOP v Wellington:

@dice Kirifi called himself a speed bump in one of his posts on instagram.

probably thinking about organising parties instead of playing rugby.

One of the intriguing things about this season is highlighted by Daryl Gibson's own words:

"He's really lifted training, obviously having the All Black captain in our team is a real lift for our players. Certainly to see him train at the intensity he trains at for our younger players and even our senior pros, to know that's the level you've got to be at if you want to be at the very best." (Source: Rugby: All Blacks skipper Sam Cane charts return to rugby after long layoff )

While you'd expect the All Blacks captain to lift standards at training, the couple of pre-lockdown training sessions I stumbled across looked relatively chilled. To be fair, not every session can be run at 100%, but so far it's not looking good on the park against better prepared teams.

The coaching team can genuinely point to injuries. I suppose it's hard to know how much preparation comes into some injuries, or not.

@kiwipie said in Hawkes v Bay of Plenty - Shield Match!:

@cpt-kumera said in Hawkes v Bay of Plenty - Shield Match!:

Interesting chase and mitch got subbed early in the 2nd. The last 4.5 years they been our best players

Some of Tiatia's kicking was poor in that first half. And Trask wasn't a calm head at 10. We looked much better with Black at 10 and Trask at 15.

I was pretty happy you left Black on the bench as long as you did, imagine losing to an Of Plenty team with a Manawatu poach at ten. Talk about indignity.

@bayimports said in Auckland v BOP:

boo, no one wanted covid as the reason..

Gutted

Leroy carter had awesome game too even though was on wing

It's noticeable on the field how small Eklund's legs are.

He's very much got an upside down triangle physique.

@Cpt-Kumera Good commitment!

@Rapido Great impartial comments , 9 times out of 10 , I support the Magpies , but when the Taniwha played them for the shield .
Fakatava threw at least 3 forward passes off channel 1 runners
I was alongside 2 guys from the Hawkes Bay media and even they were shaking their heads , if you miss one forward pass, that’s one thing , but 3 of them in practically the position on the field , 🤦‍♂️..did not effect the result at the end of day , but certainly was not what the quality off officialdom you be getting at this level.

Am away this weekend so miss the BOP v Harbour match. What a huge one that will be! Back in time for the final v Waikato though. That is assuming that Tasman and Auckland maintain their current approach through semis. I can dream....

@ARHS I'd be pretty surprised if there's much resting done.

Home advantage is very important for the play-offs, so I don't think either team will be taking any risks unless something very odd happens to secure their positions.

But, don't tell Auckland... 🙂

@mariner4life said in BOP v Canterbury:

@Hooroo said in BOP v Canterbury:

I'm a bit late, are we still dining out on this result??

we?

NZ Rugby as a whole.

Far better back play from bop. Black put players into space this week and both half backs looked snappy. But the manawatu defence did give them space.

Much better effort from Tasman this week, with everyone contributing.

Christie especially looked like he'd shaken off some rust and things flowed better from there.

However, as above, the forward packs seemed reasonably evenly matched. The Tasman backs just had more firepower and played with more adventure.

I think it will be a lot better for TTT to stay in NZ and play some rugby rather than sitting in an Australian grandstand watching the ABs. On that performance, I wouldn't want Otere Black very near an AB jersey either.

@Bovidae said in BOP v Auckland:

The thing is that Karpik is a star at this level but has little impact in SR.

just as well this was a Mitre10 cup game then.. let the man have his 5 minutes 🙂 , although a more cohesive performance as a team, his impact at this level is important

@pukunui yeah that's the bizarre thing for me - he also lifted and drove. Seems like he's way more at fault - only mitigating factor being he had his head down and couldn't see what Fuatai was doing?

BOP Lineout kept us in it and made the difference. Need to tidy up everything else...

@Bovidae He was born in 2000, he turned 20 in January

@Hooroo said in Steamers 2020:

@Snowy said in Steamers 2020:

@Hooroo said in Steamers 2020:

Scott Curry - Midfield Back (Mount Maunganui)

Assume that is only due to sevens being covided?

Didn't know that was midfielder in 15s.

Wow, that's a peculiar fern quote!! I had no idea why that was asked of me.

I need to work on my quoting too, I guess

Because I was too lazy to go back to the original and just cut and pasted from your post.

@KiwiPie said in Bay NPC Fixtures 2020:

@Hooroo said in Bay NPC Fixtures 2020:

@KiwiPie said in Bay NPC Fixtures 2020:

Here we go - 3 Tauranga games in the final 4 weeks for that semi-final push.

NPC Fixtures 2020.jpg

Hopefully the 4th of Oct is a shield challenge....

That's taking a long view!

and hopeful

This worth a listen. They talk to the BOPRU CEO about the number of Super players in the squad next year, TTT and Rapid rugby.

Plenty of Steam - The Official Podcast of Bay of Plenty Rugby - Episode 10 2019 Winners are Grinners on Stitcher

Clayton McMiillan

Ross Geldenhuys

Yep if you pick any of the older players who played 50 tests you'd be fairly safe

I get BOP press releases emailed to me, I will try and post them more.

@Magpie_in_aus said in Battle of the Bays: Steamers v Magpies:

They win the title, create a concert called bay dreams them behave like this....https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118568012/mass-brawl-at-bay-dreams-in-bay-of-plenty

I feel you should rescind the name.

mate, anyone will tell you there are no locals at the Mount this time of year. Probably just drunken flogs on holiday escaping from shitholes like Hastings and Taradale

@Snollygoster Okay, predictably no response !!

I've since found out that Campbell is out for the season and Chris Eves is playing for the Development team on Saturday at the Domain (as are 4 or 5 other contracted players)

@taniwharugby bugger injuries are like a cancer when loosing,

@Number-10 said in Taranaki vs BOP:

Sept 30, 1995 - BOP won 41-27

Wow that's pretty momentous then - must be one of the longer streaks broken then.

Meh, it was only Waikato...

Yes, its strange to think that, but for a poor conversion and stupid pass to Ioane, we could possibly be unbeaten at this stage. In reality I really don't think that we deserve to be unbeaten however. We just can't seem to capitalize on the advantage and "put a team away".

And yes, that decision to continue scrumming rather than take a penalty kick was odd in retrospect. Some of the tactics in general were odd actually and ultimately unsuccessful. One thing that is noticeable this year is the chip (or grubber) kick beyond the defensive line out to a waiting player which seems to be working for some teams. I saw them practicing it in the warmup using Narawa but was never used during the game.

Despite my negativeness and cynicism there is plenty to be happy about this year. It would have to rate as the best year for a long time with many players excelling and a minimum of injuries (possibly).

Like Kiwipie said, the permutations for the finals are beginning to become apparent. I still think that on our day we can beat anyone but no win is guaranteed but this year we seem to be more consistent .

@Steven-Harris said in North Harbour v Bay of Plenty:

@JK interesting that Northland who had a club day at the Magpies game on Saturday attracted over 7;000 people,.probably the best crowd of the 2019 Mitre 10 Cup ..it was promoted vey well..;with free buses laid on for all the clubs that were able to attend.

Wasn’t a huge amount of promotion for the harbour one and certainly none from our club given the game clashed with junior prize giving which was a very well attended affair.

I imagine it would be the same for many other shore clubs given junior rugby finished on the Saturday for the season

@Dice We had some shockers like Emersen Tamura-Paki, Jono Owen and Isi Tu'ungafasi who were barely club standard. He's done ok since leaving has Isi but he was awful for us.

@Stargazer A lot of attacking talent in the back line for the bay Ravouvou had a good game and was replaced at half time By Narawa who was just as dangerous when he came on. Forward pack was really dominant and I never felt like Waikato would get back into it. The Waikato Centre had a great game defiantly got the better of Webber.

I thought Koroi was a fullback/wing? Why would they bother with him there. Rats that Ioane was unable to play. Maybe they could use someone like Fletcher Smith in their team.

Wait.

Squad named Tuesday hence they played under Wasps banner today. Team looked good today, B Team against Wellington was competitive, thought Collier played particularly well. Half against Counties & likely top team next week was Ross Harris Thwaites Wardlaw Carroll Blake Karpik Papalii Judd Hollinshead Fuatai Garland Webber Narawa Tiatia. 34-0 win, defence brilliant. Three tries through defensive pressure forcing silly passes on their own goal line for intercepts. Tiatia was exceptional, talk huge could always hear him barking & menacing on attack. Papalii definitely what we needed with his big abrasive style. Everybody played well in second half except Webber, dropped a few balls & looked rusty.

@Higgins Yep, that's it! Managed to finally find the "Global Rapid Rugby" thread.

If I can find more info on the Steamers' rapid rugby plans, I'll post it in that thread.

Oh what could have been. If we played with the acuracy we showed today, we'd be in the semis. Though another game where we leaked points in the last 20. Fitness needs to be looked at next year. Narawa looked great on the wing. Plenty of positives from the pack. We needed a better centre (shame Foketi was injured all season) this year. A new backs coach too. We were too predictable. Shame we didn't have Monty Ioane this year. He was electric. I'm still dumbfounded how he missed out on a super contract.

@higgins said in Southland vs BOP:

All very quiet in here as Bay of Plenty are trying to achieve the seemingly impossible, losing to Southland.

We really gave it a good go. Despite setpiece dominance and a maul that was walking them back and winning a penalty every time, we contrived to keep handing Southland opportunities and they have some dangerous runners. If we had lost, it would have been peak choke. With the hooter gone, be a man up, have your own 5m attacking scrum, win the scrum, have the ball in the half-back's hands about to kick it 10m into touch - and still finish the game frantically defending your own line is quite an achievement.

Definitely has the potential to be a great Super Rugby player, he’ll be in and around the squad but another year with NZ 20’s & M10 before Super Rugby wont hurt. Love how he keeps things straight & attacks the line constantly, better first five defender than most. Looks to be trying too hard to win like most Steamers at the moment, hopefully they can just let loose against Southland and will see his best. Goal kicking definitely a major work on struggled at Jock Hobbs as well as M10.