2017 New Zealand U20s

[Stargazer]

Half time: New Zealand lead 47 to 6

Really impressed with NZ's number 4, Sam Slade; also some very strong carries from Mikaele-Tu'u. From the backs, I quite like Price, Clarke and McKay.

Jacobson a bit mixed. Leads the team well, some good carries but also loses the ball in contact quite often. Matoe definitely not my choice for 10; his decision making not always on point and missed a few kicks at goal, including easy ones.

Samoa is disappointing. Only a few players seem to know what they are doing, including captain Losi Filipo, who also has a huge work rate.

[Stargazer]

The first subs are being made, including Rakete-Stones has come on.

Aumua scores the first try of the second half. Matoe's kick hits the post and goes under. 52-6 NZ

[Stargazer]

Penalty goal Samoa: 52-9.

Leger comes on for Umaga-Jensen.

[Stargazer]

Mikaele'Tu'u gets about 100 metres of tape around his ankle, but doesn't go off. Hope he's not injured.

Falcon replaces Matoe.

[Stargazer]

Samoa has improved a bit and was just close to trying, but now NZ is back on attack again.

[Stargazer]

By the way, Leger has moved to 10 and Falcon is playing at 12.

[NTA]

That was pretty dumb by the NZ right winger - Just take the ball out for safety, and try to defend the lineout

[Stargazer]

Great try for Samoa after a stupid mistake from Nareki. Don't try to make fancy offloads one metre from your try line when you're surrounded by opposition players. Great conversion: 52-16 NZ.

[Stargazer]

Good try Nareki, who finds a gap in the defence and goes for a run. Falcon converts: 59-16 NZ

[Stargazer]

Some great play there and now it's Jacobson who scores under the posts.

Not sure what's going on with substitutions. I clearly see someone playing in the 10 jersey, while the commentators said he was subbed off. They also seem to confuse Clarke and Nareki regularly.

Falcon has converted the try and it's 66-16 to NZ.

Now Matoe has come off again and NZ is playing with 14 players. So who's injured?

[NTA]

That was a good try by the Samoans - good vision and some serious skill.

[Stargazer]

Great try from Losi Filipo. Some of the NZ forwards were sleeping there; they didn't see him coming and reacted really slowly.

66-23 NZ

[NTA]

@Stargazer said in 2017 New Zealand U20s:

Great try from Losi Filipo. Some of the NZ forwards were sleeping there; they didn't see him coming and reacted really slowly.

66-23 NZ

Yeah the lock thought your fullback or winger had it and stopped.

[Stargazer]

Haha, Ezekiel Lindenmuth picks up the ball and goes for a run and scores a try. Not a bad run for a hooker. Falcon converts: 73-23 NZ.

[Stargazer]

Another try, this time from Papalii. Falcon converts and the full time score is 80-23.

Again hard to draw conclusions from this game, considering that the opponent was so weak. Samoa's best was definitely Losi Filipo.

I thought Slade was one of the best for NZ, with the others I mentioned at half time. Falcon seems to be the best 10 in the squad; I think I prefer Leger at 12 where he seemed more effective against Fiji.

[cgrant]

@Stargazer
The NZ Nr.4 was Walker-Leawere, not Slade. Walker-Leawere is a huge man with a moustache while Slade is a very tall, lanky guy.

[Stargazer]

The full game can be viewed on the ARU FB page here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/rugbycomau/videos/?ref=page_internal

[Rapido]

I saw a bit of Ennor on Grassroots rugby the other week, same club as Kieran Reid who was playing, scored some cracking tries.

I don't normally watch club rugby so don't have an eye for picking a guy out at what is now 4th tier, but he looked good.

[NTA]

Fark these Aussie U20s are terrible.

[Bovidae]

I haven't seen either of the games so far but was keen to watch the game against Aust. A pity this isn't played on Sat afternoon so it doesn't clash with Super rugby.