North Harbour v Tasman

[Stargazer]

Ta$man

1 Isi Tu'ungafasi, 2 Andrew Makalio (vc), 3 Isaac Salmon, 4 Alex Ainley, 5 Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta, 6 Jacob Norris, 7 Sione Havili, 8 Hugh Renton, 9 Finlay Christie, 10 Mitchell Hunt (vc), 11 Leicester Fainga'anuku, 12 Alex Nankivel, 13 Fetuli Paea, 14 Mark Telea, 15 David Havili (c).

Reserves: 16 Quentin MacDonald, 17 Ryan Coxon, 18 Samuel Matenga, 19 Mahonri Ngakuru, 20 Braden Stewart, 21 Dwayne Polataivao, 22 Tim O'Malley, 23 Tima Fainga'anuku

[Chris B.]

@Stargazer Good to see Finlay Christie back.

[Duluth]

1 Nic Mayhew, 2 Luteru Tolai, 3 Sione Mafileo, 4 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 5 Jacob Pierce, 6 Ethan Roots (cc), 7 Tim Sail, 8 Murphy Taramai, 9 Bryn Hall, 10 Bryn Gatland (cc), 11 Tomas Aoake, 12 Antonio Mikaele-Tu'u, 13 James Little, 14 Ngarohi McGarvey-Black, 15 Shaun Stevenson

Reserves: 16 Zane Turner, 17 Teague McElroy, 18 Jimmy Roots, 19 Xavier Cowley-Tuioti, 20 Tamarau McGahan, 21 Lewis Gjaltema, 22 Jared Page, 23 Kade Banks

[Duluth]

Hopefully Harbour puts up a decent fight but they've underwhelmed so far this season

A worrying thing is their pack seems to be gassing early. Maybe that's due to the shitty kicking game, high error rate of the backs?

The backline has been really terrible. Maybe Antonio Mikaele-Tu'u can provide some punch in the midfield. Little has been poor so I doubt the midfield will be fixed.
It'll be interesting to see how Aoake goes on the wing, he was considered a good prospect a couple of years ago but hasn't had many starts since then.

Is Jared Page contracted to the Blues next year? It's a bad sign if you a re SR player and can't break into this starting backline.
Speaking of fringe Blues players - where is Jack Heighton? Is he injured?

[Duluth]

Good win against the throw from Pierce. Easily NHs best player so far this season

[Duluth]

Very good first quarter from Aoake

[Duluth]

It’s like Telea knew the call

[Duluth]

Page started? McGarvey-Black was named in the side

[KiwiMurph]

@Duluth yep late change. Page looks more comfortable on the wing than centre.

[Steven Harris]

@Duluth was listening to the radio commentary..Parsons said that exactly

[Dice]

Very good half by Harbour.

Can they hold on? I think it'll depend on if Harbour can starve Ta$man of ball again.

[KiwiMurph]

@Dice Ta$man will have second half wind

[Chris B.]

Ta$man's worst half of the season, so far.

They've turned Havili's counter-attack over several times, so far and the handful of promising opportunities have been stymied by clumsy play.

Need to improve markedly in the 2nd 40.

Harbour pack apparently 100kgs heavier than Ta$man's!!!

[Dice]

@Chris-B said in North Harbour v Ta$man:

Ta$man's worst half of the season, so far.

They've turned Havili's counter-attack over several times, so far and the handful of promising opportunities have been stymied by clumsy play.

Need to improve markedly in the 2nd 40.

Harbour pack apparently 100kgs heavier than Ta$man's!!!

I was surprised by the numbers, but I think it's wrong. No way are Harbour averaging 121kg per man.

[Steven Harris]

@Chris-B Harbour doing very well at the breakdown ..

[Dice]

Ta$man have 13 men on the field and Harbour are going for 3. Dumb.

[Dice]

Now Ta$man get an intercept try. Nice one Harbour.

[KiwiMurph]

And thats why Harbour are last.

[KiwiPie]

What are Harbour doing here? How can they dominate so much and only be 2 points ahead? What a bizarre game

[KiwiMurph]

Telea under the high ball is no good.