Tasman v Wellington (Premiership Final)
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Will Jordan is incredibly quick. That chase on Vince Aso, who is no slouch, was a beauty.
Alex Nankivell was hard and abrasive. His pairing with ALB for the Chiefs should be excellent next year.
I was impressed by TBN. Against a strong opposition, he seemed to make breaks at will. Asafo Aumua and Alex Fidow were outstanding too. Alas for the Lions, a few of their teammates were shockingly poor. -
@cgrant I didn't post any thoughts on the game.
Wellington had a nervous and poor start - dropped a couple of kick offs, missed a couple of shots at goal, let in a couple of somewhat easy tries and Ta$man were going at a point a minute.
At 23-6, my nerves had pretty much dissipated. I said at the time, that if we can get down there and score one more try, 30 points will be enough. Unfortunately it was a long wait for that next try....and in the meantime Ta$man seemed comfortable to play without the ball and defend and let Wellington back in - at 23-14 it was all on again.
The guy who really seemed to be creating problems at that stage was Ben Lam.
A wild pass by Christie almost put Blackwell in. Luckily, as I pointed out earlier, God was with us - and the ball jagged away to Levi Aumua to safely touch down. Probably the most crucial point of the game, because after that Ta$man always had a buffer on the scoreboard.
Hunt kicked another penalty after halftime - 26-14 hadn't quite taken it past two scores needed for Wellington, so still some nerves there and Mitch Hunt's next kick at goal looked like he's done his sums and realised how important it was....
Then came the Aso intercept and the Jordan chase - and Freddie has something to say about that as well....
Vince Aso: "What do you mean Flash Jordan approaching?"
He saves with a mighty hand
Every man, every woman
Every child, it's the mighty Flash.
That was impressive speed to make up I'd say at least five metres.
Still a couple more chances for Wellington to get back in the game, but the clock was ticking, a couple of big ruck turnovers by Wyatt, down close to our line and then the break by Nankivell, the pass to Flash and the crowd were leaping up and down and high fiving.
Not sure who was the official man of the match, but no prizes for guessing mine. David Havili and Wyatt were also calm heads under pressure. Nankivell made some big plays.
Fetu Paea made plenty of impact when he came on - something notable over the past several weeks. He must have been pushing Levi Aumua hard for the starting spot at centre and wouldn't be a bad super rugby pick up. Sione Havili the other unsigned player surely worth a spot somewhere.
Overall a great season. Foundations laid by Kieran Keane and Leon. Finishing touches put together by the new co-coaches Goodman and Dermody - and a shout out to defence coach Shane Christie. I think we scored 61 tries over the season and let in just 13 (4 vs Hawkes Bay, 3 vs Waikato and 6 across the other 10 games).
Next year will be re-building - we are losing Crockett, Perry, Squire, and Taufua - and I'll be surprised if we don't lose others to the ABs. That doesn't matter!
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@Siam Yeah - I think they said 10,000 people there - which was pretty good for Labour Weekend and there being an AB test immediately after.
At the end of the game, the ground announcer asked that people stay off the ground until after the presentation ceremony, but then people would be allowed to come onto the field to meet the players.
That lasted about 30 seconds and then some kids ran on and everyone else followed. They might have expected that, because they'd roped off a presentation areas. Anyway, it made it a lot better, because the crowd all gathered around singing and cheering. A bit of a pity that most people then had to rush away to watch the ABs, because the celebrations might otherwise have gone on for another hour.
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I'll put this here as well...
2020: our 150th year celebrations
In 2018 we celebrated the 150th year since the birth of the Club, known at the time as the Nelson Football Club. The Club played a hybrid form of the game — a mixture of Association football and Melbourne Rules football (now known as Australian Rules Football).
In 1870 Charles Monro introduced the club to rugby as we know it today and the club formally adopted the name Nelson Rugby Football Club.
Rugby began in 1870 with the first game ever played between Nelson and Nelson College at the Botanical Reserve in Nelson City.
In 2020 we celebrate 150 years since the establishment of the Nelson Rugby Football Club, New Zealand's oldest rugby club.
We are planning a number of events next year, building towards the 150th celebration over Queen's Birthday weekend.
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@Chris-B congratulations!, a unique honour for you to be at the birth and celebrate the 150 year event
On a serious note, well done Nelson Rugby Football Club
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@bayimports Colin's Great, Great Uncle Charles was a bloody nice bloke!
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