Canterbury v Wellington
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1 Xavier Numia, 2 James O’Reilly, 3 Alex Fidow, 4 James Blackwell, 5 Naitoa Ah Kuoi, 6 Vaea Fifita, 7 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 8 Teariki Ben-Nicholas, 9 Kemara Hauiti-Parapara, 10 Jackson Garden-Bachop, 11 Julian Savea, 12 Vince Aso, 13 Peter Umaga-Jensen, 14 Wes Goosen, 15 Billy Proctor
Reserves: 16 Tyrone Thompson, 17 Ben Aumua-Peseta, 18 Josiah Tavita-Metcalfe, 19 Caleb Delany, 20 Mateaki Kafatolu, 21 Connor Collins, 22 Trent Renata, 23 Pepesana Patafilo
The Wellington Lions will be hoping to secure a third consecutive win this weekend, taking on Canterbury at Orangetheory Stadium. Following their 32 – 10 victory over Bay of Plenty, Lions head coach, Leo Crowley, has made just three changes to the starting XV. Among those changes, Julian Savea makes his return from injury whilst Alex Fidow comes back from a concussion sustained playing Auckland. James O’Reilly also gets a run for the first time this Mitre 10 Cup campaign and Crowley’s looking forward to seeing the hooker back in action. “He’s been working hard behind the scenes to get ready for this opportunity. All considered, we probably couldn’t have named a more experienced team.” The Premiership match will be the first time Wellington has faced Canterbury since the 2019 semi-final at Sky Stadium. Coming off a loss to Hawke’s Bay on Saturday, Crowley says the Mainlanders will be looking to get their season back on track. “We realise what is ahead for us in Canterbury. They are always tough to play, but our concentration is on our own environment and players as we try to improve across all areas of our game.” He says the whole squad had a performance review of their efforts against Bay of Plenty. “We felt a bit patchy in our performance and that can happen in a shorter week. There was plenty of good play mixed in with the average stuff. Kick-off for this Saturday is 7:05pm. -
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Damn I was hoping Collins would start over Hauiti-Parapara.
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@KiwiMurph said in Canterbury v Wellington:
No Dane Coles is a bit of worry ABs wise.
Is he not in the AB camp??
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@Stargazer said in Canterbury v Wellington:
@Duluth FFS, should have given Tyrone Thompson the start instead of that d*ckhead.
Tyrone will get plenty of game time
The front row is a big plus for Wellington. It was an area of concern (esp the replacements) whereas now it looks good.
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@Hooroo said in Canterbury v Wellington:
@KiwiMurph said in Canterbury v Wellington:
No Dane Coles is a bit of worry ABs wise.
Is he not in the AB camp??
Yes he has been but they were looking to release him for this game (I also don't think the camp runs for the whole week).
The 69-test veteran had been targeting Wellington’s round-four Mitre 10 Cup clash against Canterbury in Christchurch this Saturday night for his return, though his involvement won’t be confirmed until game-eve. “That might be the plan still,” he said. “I’m fully training and ready to go. It’ll be a big week this week, so I’ll just get to Friday and make that decision. I’ve been here before [with the calf injury], so I know what it takes. I’m feeling good.” -
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@Stargazer said in Canterbury v Wellington:
@Winger I agree that the young props were a weakness last week, but Thompson had a good game. I'd prefer a Numia-Thompson-Fidow frontrow.
I was very impressed with Thompson. But sometimes its best to let young players find their feet first.
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@Canes4life said in Canterbury v Wellington:
Damn I was hoping Collins would start over Hauiti-Parapara.
What do you think of Ruben Love.
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@Stargazer said in Canterbury v Wellington:
@Duluth FFS, should have given Tyrone Thompson the start instead of that d*ckhead.
Care to elaborate?
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just another mouthy doolan with a coke problem...
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@Winger no rush on Ruben, he's still 19 I think so best to drip feed him minutes in his first year on the scene.
Haven't actually seen too much of him to be fair but he finished off that nice try last week. Probably needs to reign some of that excitement back a little bit though.
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https://www.crfu.co.nz/newsarticle/95979?newsfeedId=1043163
1 FINLAY BREWIS
2 SHILO KLEIN
3 OLI JAGER
4 LUKE ROMANO
5 MITCHELL DUNSHEA
6 REED PRINSEP (C)
7 TOM CHRISTIE
8 TOM SANDERS
9 MITCHELL DRUMMOND
10 FERGUS BURKE
11 MANASA MATAELE
12 RAMEKA POIHIPI
13 NGATUNGANE PUNIVAI
14 CHAY FIHAKI
15 JOSH MCKAY
16 SCOTT MELLOW
17 TAMAITI WILLIAMS
18 FLETCHER NEWELL
19 SAM DARRY
20 BILLY HARMON
21 EREATARA ENARI
22 BRETT CAMERON
23 ISAIAH PUNIVAI
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Some necessary changes from last week; I expect this Canterbury team to play better than last week, when Romano didn't play. Christie and Sanders starting with Harmon moved to the bench (he actually wasn't bad against Hawke's Bay) and Douglas dropped; also Burke starting instead of Cameron and McKay shifted to fullback (and Knewstubb dropped). No Lienert-Brown; IIRC he got injured, last week?
I find it hard to predict the result for this game.
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@Stargazer I’d say it will be fairly close looking at both teams.
