Northland v North Harbour
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Captain Olsen benched, Tou gets a start..assume Atkins injured given he has been on then bench most other games??
Changes in the backs!! If they work, could be good, but jeez selectors playing with fire last 2 games given the precarious position we find ourselves in.
A few of these changes should have been tried before now.
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1 Teague McElroy, 2 Luteru Tolai, 3 Sione Mafileo, 4 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 5 Jacob Pierce, 6 Ethan Roots, 7 Dillon Hunt, 8 Murphy Taramai, 9 Bryn Hall, 10 Bryn Gatland, 11 Tomas Aoake, 12 Antonio Mikaele-Tu'u, 13 James Little, 14 Asaeli Tikoirotuma, 15 Shaun Stevenson
Reserves: 16 Zane Turner, 17 Alex Woonton, 18 Jimmy Roots, 19 Xavier Cowley-Tuioti, 20 Tim Sail, 21 Lewis Gjaltema, 22 Fine Inisi, 23 Jared Page
Mayhew is injured
Heighton dropped? -
@taniwharugby said in Northland v NH:
A few of these changes should have been tried before now
I'm confident Cooper will be an improvement. Low bar to get over..
Gregory in the midfield is good. I think his best position might be further in at 12. One of his strength in 7's was his turnovers.. he has more of a chance to get over the ball here.
Ranger earned his demotion
I haven't paid much attention to Brady Rush. Any good?
Pleased to see Matt Wright get another start. An underrated player
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@Duluth think rush had his first minutes last week, in the period I was sulking and hadn't watched...he is not a winger though...
On Hawkins, I think he has alot to offer the team. I hear from various people (not just this year) he reads the game so well, and when you watch him defensively, he is often in the right spot to make a tackle or take a kick or pass, on attack he often finds a gap but isnt able to exploit it as well as you'd hope.
I have heard he has been running many of the back trainings (unsure how true this is) so do wonder if his future does lie in the coaching side of things, and if he takes himself out of the equation how much better things might run?
I know I have given him shit over the years, the few interactions i have had with him after games, seems like a really GC and seems to love playing for Northland, so if he is able to contribute as a coach, might be the way to go!
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@taniwharugby we seem to have made all the changes at once in the backs. So as much as we were frustrated it seems like the coaches were as well. Hope the young midfield work hard on D and play with confidence. This game will be very interesting 😀👍
The criticism and praise of individual players in a team game always seems harsh but is never terminal I.e. work on changes required, train hard, improve skills, and mental approach to game. In regard to Dan his general play has been really good, but set piece play has not been as authoritative as we need.
Issue I have with our teams of recent seasons is we settle on a 15 and never change despite players not improving and often looking like they have run out of steam mid season.
That said this years squad have looked really good in parts, really physical but have not put in a good 80 yet despite the 4 wins. That in itself is a sign that if they really click they could be dangerous.
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@taniwharugby said in Northland v North Harbour:
@Duluth think rush had his first minutes last week, in the period I was sulking and hadn't watched...he is not a winger though...
Funny
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@kev we also have the 2nd worst attack....
Too much of our play we seem to be set too deep, which is fine if the ball movement is quick and the punch in the mid-field is up to it, but our movement is too slow, crucial handling errors and often no penetration, so when we retain it, we have it 2 or 3 passes along and 3m behind the advantage line.
That said, I think we have created plenty of opportunities (up until last week) but our finishing/handling/decisions making (when not to off load) has been poor.
Defensively, I think for the most part, we have been very good, although as always, we seem to defend too narrow and opposition always seem to have an extra man outside us
Some of these changes needed to be made weeks ago, now we are chasing our tails and forced to make more changes than you would like given the personnel available right now
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@taniwharugby yep
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Humid, windy and lots of rain about...
