v BOP
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Well played Northland. And must have been a good HT team talk as your second half performance looked like a different team. Not easy to come back from 23-7 and you took us apart for 30 minutes. Pryor brothers were huge. Now go and beat the other Div 2 teams for us please?
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Classic game of two halves.
I, like TR, was sitting there thinking we were in for another long season..but that 2nd half turnaround just blew me away!
I had an inkling that if we got some more possession in that first half we could have been in par with BOP, but they just starved us of the ball, classic under the jumper stuff.
Line outs sucked somewhat, we'll need to clean that up, as it was a real contrast from what I saw in Kerikeri a couple of weeks back. Scrum was awesome, but the ref seemed to favour BOP a bit there by letting collapsed scrums go on, therefore making it like golden oldies in a sense.
Our backs carved in the 2nd 40, and those loosies were menacing as mentioned.
Hopefully Nock is back this week, as Macleod, while good in broken play, made some simple errors in terms of box kicking etc.
Would like to see Breen running the cutter this week too.
Not sure what the deal with Moulds is, he looked to be favouring those ribs he hurt in pre-season. Was quite impressed with Olsen when he came on though.
I'm picking we'll be close to full strength against Auckland with Jack Goodhue back, so it could be interesting down there. A tough one, but not beyond this team if it clicks for 80 minutes.
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Can't disagree with a lot that has been said,the really good points were,they were able to lift their performance after the break,score points when they were able to hold the ball,and much credit has to be given to the players that came off the bench,Macilai,Ram,Wright,Rinakama,Breen and I thought MacLeod added a lot of energy,just the odd kick that went a bit to far,but that was more about execution,the ideas were definitely the right ones..easily his best performance in the Taniwha jersey.
I see Ranger & Bond took the POD honors,but my POD was Tamati Tua,his improvent,not to mention his physical stature in a year has been amazing,from what I saw in gerneral he made very few errors,and looked very powerful in contact..
Like most of you,fix the lineouts,as previously said,if this team can maintain ball,they have got points.
As for the official,Brandon Pickerall,there seemed like some strange calls in and around the scrums,but I was glad he was very consistent at the breakdowns..especially when those vital turnovers were required.On a final note,disappointed to hear the Northland Bs,got pipped at the post with a last minute penalty after owning the Auckland forwards for a good part of the match,still some really good signs when the team under your top team is going well.
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@Steven-Harris my issue with MacLeod is his passing and kicking, IIRC he kicked a number out on the full last year too so is a bit of an issue, while his passing, he seems to have a very slow laborious action, that isnt overly accurate.
His running has certainly improved since last year, if he can tidy up his kicking and improve his passing, then he will be a very good squad member.
I thought Tamati was excellent as well, the prospect of him and Goodhue in our midfield is exciting, and while we will probably lose Goodhue to the ABs at some point, hopefully Tamati will form a good part of our mid-field for years to come.
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@Steven-Harris I ended up voting for Kara, Tua, and Ram. Interesting as I thought so many players contributed to the lift in energy in the second half, the scrum was really good, and the reserves were good making it hard to choose. Overall I agree that Tua was my player of the day. A physical display with good decision making. Kara was very good on the line and over the ball. Ram played his part in two tries - the surge to the line when apparently held up demonstrated his power in that close contact play, and he showed good hands to put Macalai away. But I was really pleased with the way Ranger worked himself into the game and think he will have a big season. Man we have some good backs this year and some really good players will warm the bench from time to time. Plus we have the best hair of any team.
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Don't think it was Wiseguy mate, he was pretty sharp though, as was their 7.
Ha, it was Elkington-MacDonald. He wasted one of his rare good games for the B's! Wiseguy was with the U19's
Looks like that team might have got first choice over the B's (Wiseguy is in the full squad Elkington-MacDonald isn't)
Northland U19's lost to the Auckland U19's 55-0
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@Duluth yeah after the game @J77 did say it was probably one of those understrength B teams Auckland often put out against us.
Northland teams always struggle at age grade level vs Auckland teams.
I know a junior rep team up here played a school team from Auckland and some of the kids were 65kg+, whereas our kids had boys that were still well under 45kg in same age grade.
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This was the Auckland Under 19 team that played Northland 19s.
A good percentage of this team played in the Auckland senior club competition,not to mention many of them are out are only a year out of many of the top Auckland secondary schools,just a sheer bigger number cream to pick from.
The captain,Waimana Riedlinger Kapa is Northland boy from the Waipapa area,just North of Kerikeri,attended Mags which I guess is the right thing to do in terms of his rugby development,,Matt Storm is also from KeriKeri,there were also 2 other boys from the Northland area in the Auckland squad,Auckland were leading 43-0 after half an hour,so it was'nt a bad effort from Northland team that only had 4 x players with senior club experience.
Apparently the Auckland team also beat Counties by a similar score.
Does'nt always give an accurate snaphot of the direction Auckland senior rugby goes,as many of the players will end up at other provinces,or returning to their home provinces.Under 19 A
Team to play Northland (19/08):
Leka Tu’ungafasi
Penisoni Fineanganofo
Michael Palmer
Waimana Riedlinger-Kapa (C)
John Akauola-Laula
Ben Sa’u
Sione Talitui
Hoskins Sotutu
Godinet Tinei
Wiseguy Faiane
Siave Togoiu
Harry Plummer
Tanielu Tele’a
Anzelo Tuitavuki
Matt Storm
Te Ariki Te Puni
Rob Cobb
Fe’ao Teutau
Otunuku Pauta
Aleks Dabek
Rilloy Suesue
Joseph Tangulu
Sebastian Visinia -
D Duluth moved this topic from Taniwha Rugby on
