v Otago
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@j77 apparently that head knock Douglas took fractured his eye socket...
Pryor sits on the bench...like to give Gregory a start.
Tua must be on last chance saloon, defence needs work, need to give the likes of Gregory more time and then MacNamara, Thoroughgood, Matthews a bit of a run too, you dont want an injury happening and then be forced to find if they are up to it.
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1 Aki Seiuli
2 Sekonaia Pole
3 Don Brighouse
4 Tom Rowe
5 Josh Dickson
6 Sione Misiloi
7 Naulia Dawai
8 Dylan Nel
9 Kurt Hammer
10 Josh Ioane
11 Jona Nareki
12 Matt Whaanga
13 Patelesio Tomkinson
14 Mitchell Scott
15 Michael Collins (c)Reserves:
16 Ricky Jackson
17 Tom Hill
18 Hisa Sasagi
19 Joketani Koroi
20 Slade McDowall
21 Melani Matavao
22 Matt Faddes
23 Vilimoni Koroi -
@taniwharugby it is hard to blood players and win games, the juggling act trying to give these new players game time cant be easy with out causing too much disruption, thought Tua has been the victim of some crap ball being shovelled his way on attack and apart from being steam rolled by the tank in the 1st half on Saturday though his confidence grew as the northland 4wds put the team on the front foot. It cannot be easy being a structured player when you have the likes of ranger out side or inside you playing off the cuff, I feel Tua will grow as the combination gets more familiar. I am happy for the loose trio regaining their starting positions, this will put a lot of heat on Pryor which may help him to get back to playing good open side rugby.
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@nath-jac I realise that, but at the end of the day, you still need to develop players to win, no point running the current lot into the ground and we hit storm week and end up with either tired or injured players and then have no choice but to start a rookie and hope he is upto the task.
As for Tua, dont get me wrong, I think the guy is very talented, but he hasnt made a good start with some poor decisions and poor reads on defence, and sometimes being benched for the new kid on the block might be the kick up the arse he needs.
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Not unhappy with the team but like @taniwharugby feel this may have been a chance to change things up a bit. Forwards probably wouldn't change - don't fix something that isn't broken - but might have been worth a tweak or 2 in the backs. I reckon Gregory might have been worth a crack at 12...Hohaia isn't offering much variety in attack and I think we could do with a bit more speed. Our best attacking moments often seem to come from a counter attack, would be good to see us creating more.
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least we know it will be a dry track with no wind (although we seem better into it...)
This is a must win if we have finals aspirations, especially with it being our first Championship opponent as well.
If we can play a bit smarter in our red zone and cut down the errors, we should win.
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2 poor lineouts, lucky not to concede a try.
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Ranger probably didnt need to off load that, but then HOhaia sholdnt have dropped it either
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OTago finally convert pressure into points
7-3
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poor accuracy from players and ref (missed a forward pass of Otagos off the restart)
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looked like Nareki tried to get to his feet and play the ball while being held
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very good try finished by Tua inthe corner
7-10
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still not sold on them running it form the 22 all the time
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disipline gonna cost us
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half time; 7-10
NOt sure why Goodhue was told by the ref to go back in that maul, he came right through the centre, lucky to get away without conceding points there.
Gotta cut out the errors and sort our discipline.
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blown chance there I reckon
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NIce try by Debreczeni under advantage.
7-17
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our exits still need work.
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sensational piece of defence there if stands, Nock I think
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O tago score anyway
14-17
