Blues 2019
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From the official media guide ... guess who ...
COACHES SAY: Otago utility who played for NZ Schools and NZ U20s as well as more than 30 caps for his province. Moved north to the Blues for 2017 and impressed with his professional approach, allround skills and excellent communication. He sealed the fullback spot and has become a key senior leader as well as outstanding contributor. Won captaincy for Otago in 2018 and led them to the Ranfurly Shield victory.
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@tim said in Blues 2019:
@pukunui This is how we will lose to the Highlanders and Hurricanes next year:
Forwards get 60% possession and territory, backs let in a couple of soft tries through the midfield, we have a lineout in the opposition 22 with time almost up, throw in is not straight or is knocked on. Five to seven point loss.
SBW to go down with a calf strain, out for 6-8 weeks. Pulu to take an age to clear ever ruck as he looks around like a meerkat for a gap to run through. Collins to be slow as fuck but communicate really really well "Run Rieko Run!" "Hey guys, pass it to Akira, he is really good".
Parsons to give the same post game interview in the same old headgear. Tana to scratch his head in his interview and say "um well we are really getting there this time". TSF to spend a couple of days speculating why Akira is still being ignored by the ABs selectors.
Good, i hate change anyway. -
IIRC, the Blues haven't named a captain yet?
This is Pulu's official bio:
COACHES SAY: The Auckland-born halfback took on the added role as captain in 2018, a responsibility he handled with great heart and desire. Injury sidelined him for the middle six games of the season which proved a disruption to his own game and we never saw the hard-running best from Pulu on the field. He returns for a final time from his duties in Japan for the 2019 season.
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@tim said in Blues 2019:
@pukunui This is how we will lose to the Highlanders and Hurricanes next year:
Forwards get 60% possession and territory, backs let in a couple of soft tries through the midfield, we have a lineout in the opposition 22 with time almost up, throw in is not straight or is knocked on. Five to seven point loss.
wait, I'm pretty sure I've seen that movie
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@tim said in Blues 2019:
From the official media guide ... guess who ...
COACHES SAY: Otago utility who played for NZ Schools and NZ U20s as well as more than 30 caps for his province. Moved north to the Blues for 2017 and impressed with his professional approach, allround skills and excellent communication. He sealed the fullback spot and has become a key senior leader as well as outstanding contributor. Won captaincy for Otago in 2018 and led them to the Ranfurly Shield victory.
Ben Smith Jr.?
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The Blues selections highlight areas for improvement in the NZ Franchise system.
When you are the bottom team, recruitment is obviously a more difficult task and I imagine that, at times, longer contracts have to be offered to secure players. If those selections don't pan out (and every franchise gets those) you are stuck with the player and squad fixes are made more difficult.As for Olmstead, does anyone know the situation regarding approval (or not) by NZRU? They have been heavily involved in trying to rejuvenate the code in Auckland and I imagine they would prefer a local taking the spot over an import. Maybe the criticisms in that area are misdirected until we find out what actually happened in that regard.
I also don't get the Nonu signing on the surface however maybe he is more a backup and training selection. I'll cop flack for this but remember that Umaga in his late playing days played a role at CM where he worked as mentor for a couple of midfield players that grew very quickly from his example and help. One is now an international for the number two team in the world, the other recently cemented a long term contract up north. Maybe there is a hope for a similar acceleration for Faiane?
I doubt SBW will play that much (he never does anyway) but SBW and Nonu offer solid foundations in the centres that can be used either starting, finishing or as injury cover.
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What are the chances Alama coaches the development team?
Also, I wonder if Olmstead and Abel will stick around for an injury call-up. Abel said that he's willing to wait for an injury call-up, so we might have to hope we're the first team to pick up a hooker injury.
A couple of weeks ago, Olmstead said he was talking to a few teams, but no one signed him in the end. I wonder if the talks were more about injury cover than anything else.
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@dice said in Blues 2019:
What are the chances Alama coaches the development team?
Last season the Harbour coaches took the U20 and Dev team, IIRC.
Sounds like Ieremia has a lot planned for Auckland in early 2019 though, including a tour with an Auckland Dev team in February.
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@kiwimurph said in Blues 2019:
@daffy-jaffy he got injured again in Mitre 10 Cup.
Blues tend to have a history of picking impressive U20 players who get injured early on in their career - Faiane, Gibson, to some degree Papali'i etc
They just happen to be all from St Kents.
Duffie also went to St Kents and he started his career with so many injuries. He was the Blake Gibson before Blake Gibson.
Scrafton is another St Kents boy, but he didn't start his career with injuries, he's just getting all his big injuries now.
I wonder how serious Telea's injury is, because I saw him at the final and he had a big knee brace on. There didn't seem to be much in the contact that injured him, so I'm assuming it was an ACL.
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@dice said in Blues 2019:
I wonder how serious Telea's injury is, because I saw him at the final and he had a big knee brace on. There didn't seem to be much in the contact that injured him, so I'm assuming it was an ACL.
Who's the likely replacement? Leger?
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