Blues 2019

MacDonald has already had to call in Northland's Matt Matich and Auckland's Adrian Choat as loose forward cover, with co-captain Blake Gibson out likely a month with an ankle sprain from the training exercise with the Chiefs in Waiuku last Friday, Jed Brown also on the sideline, Jimmy Tupou still working back from his ACL and Dalton Papalii not available till the opening round under the All Blacks protocols.

So Olmsted's cover for Tupou. Might see the Auckland trio of Papalii, Ioane, and Olmsted for the first two or three weeks.

An in-form Clarke would free up Ioane to play centre ...

Tim

Looked like Akira Ioane had his arm in a gauze sling. Hopefully just a strain.

KiwiMurph

@Tim with all the mentions of no injuries i'd say it is a precaution.

Stargazer

@Tim Yeah, just saw this on his instagram:

Tim

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12200260

MN5

This post is deleted!

KiwiMurph

Cool little write up on the gameday experience in Kaikohe.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=12200323

Daffy Jaffy

The Blues and Eden Park trying some novel marketing this season -

Now you can bring that seat to the game and enjoy the atmosphere of watching your team live at the home of rugby, Eden Park.

The Blues and Eden Park have teamed up to bring you the BYO Seat Zone. Around 300 seats in the East Stand have been removed so that fans can bring their favourite seat to the game. A limited number of tickets for the BYO Seat Zone will be available at all 7 Blues home games at Eden Park this season.

“This season we’re introducing a number of new experiences and opportunities for fans in stadium on match day. The BYO Seat Zone is the first to roll out at our opening game against the Crusaders on February 16. We hope fans will have a lot of fun with the concept and that the zone encourages a party atmosphere” says Robyn Rowley, GM Fan Engagement.

Eden Park is offering fans who post photos from the Blues BYO Seat Zone the chance to win the best seats in the house for the Blues last round robin match. To be in to win the best seats – in one of the Park’s corporate suites with a second-to-none view of the action, post photos using the hashtag #BluesBYOSeat and tag @edenparknz

Tickets for the BYO Seat Zone are $20. A condition of sale is that fans must bring their own seat. It could be a folding deck chair, a bean bag or, if bunch of friends want to get together and bring an old sofa, that’s perfect.

It will be like reliving the days of the famous Eden Park Terraces and being at home on your favourite rugby-watching seat combined into one.

The Silver Fern

Blues 2019