Hurricanes 2019 Discussion
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@Higgins said in Hurricanes 2019 Discussion:
You are not going to win a super rugby championship with props aged 21 or 22.
Probably not. Then again, we won a final with May, Uhila, Eves and Kainga. You just need to find props who are good enough. A great prop is handy but probably won't win you too many games. A shit scrum can cost you games though. With younger props you do risk getting penalised off the park. An older prop should have enough nous to come out of a worse match-up without giving away too many penalties.
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@Stargazer Tamati Williams but I think the Crusaders are looking at him for next season
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@Higgins But you do need to get them in the SR environment and develop them, so they'll be ready in a few years. Development contracts, game time off the bench in low-risk games etc at least for some of them. Farrell trained with the Canes during 2018 preseason. If he has a good M10 Cup season, he seems an obvious choice.
But yes, they definitely need to find some experienced players. Finding good ones in NZ, is a problem.
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@Stargazer said in Hurricanes 2019 Discussion:
@Higgins But you do need to get them in the SR environment and develop them, so they'll be ready in a few years. Development contracts, game time off the bench in low-risk games etc at least for some of them. Farrell trained with the Canes during 2018 preseason. If he has a good M10 Cup season, he seems an obvious choice.
But yes, they definitely need to find some experienced players. Finding good ones in NZ, is a problem.
Why is Farrell being promoted (on here) more than Rakete-Stones who has more experience at U20s and NPC?
Although I'd be happy for the Canes to pick up either but preferably both for full time contracts.
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Yeah the Canes need to look outside the catchment area for more experienced props. The problem is there aren't many in New Zealand so best bet is to go looking overseas or try and get someone like Uhila back to NZ.
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@Nepia I wasn't promoting Farrell more than Rakete-Stones. I was pointing out a fact: that Farrell has trained with the Canes last year. I can't recall R-S training with the Canes during preseason.
As you'll have noticed, I listed them both in my earlier post.
R-S didn't have great NPC season last year; I have no idea why, but he wasn't picked very often (they picked Apikotoa instead) and as long as May is in our squad, it will be hard for him to get starts. And now he'll have to look over his shoulder, too, with Tavita-Metcalfe coming up. Competition is good; May blocking their progress not so much. Although it has to be said that without May's weight, we struggled big time in the scrums last season.
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@Stargazer he is, but I dont know alot about him...similarly Rivez Reihana, kids that look good at age group but end up schooling in Auckland...sometimes the best chance for them to make a career in rugby (or league) is to leave northland.
Is one boy I know who is in his 2nd year at AGS, absolute rock star up here in age group, so be interesting to see if/how he progresses, another couple of boys (coached 1) both went through Roller Mills now at MAGS (Brothers in diff years)
one of the kids at the centre of the St KEnts thing last year was form Whangarei Boys.
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@Stargazer Wasn't suggesting you were, just that the discussions seem to focus more on Farrell (who seems to be a Cridge/Renton injury magnet).
I didn't mind Apikatoa, aside from the commentators seemed to love saying his name all the time.
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@Stargazer also isn't Farrell a loosehead and Rakate-Stones a tighthead or can they play both sides?
Sure it's not ideal to have a 20 year old loosehead like Numia in your ranks so young, however he has more than held his own and at times dominated opposition - showing exactly why he was ranked the no 1 school kid a few year's ago.
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@Canes4life It's all in my list
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@Stargazer haha got yah. If in doubt, refer to the list.
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Maybe we could go over to Argentina and target there props sacrilege I know but they seem to be able to scrum maybe a couple few a year or 2 for the young brigade to learn off.
Don’t rate Eves at all neither JTA or even May or maybe we can raid the Saders academy 😂 -
Might not be the tallest lock but he is well spoken: https://www.radiosport.co.nz/on-air/darcy-and-goran/audio/james-blackwell-on-the-hurricanes-recent-win-over-the-rebels/
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Interesting, he played for HOBM last week down here in Welly.
