Magpies 2021
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@stargazer Ere Enari is your man 99.9% sure
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@stargazer Richard Judd has close connections to my recently retired Club Coach down here who has recently moved to the Bay to establish a new business. Have lost his phone number so unable to give him a call to suss out if it is a possibility.
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@steven-harris He's best mates with Caleb Makene, so there's a connection.
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@stargazer I'm hoping it's Enari
I think he would be a very good buy. Does his core role very well, and behind what I think will be a very good forward pack he'd go well. -
@billsy111 said in Magpies 2021:
@stargazer I'm hoping it's Enari
I think he would be a very good buy. Does his core role very well, and behind what I think will be a very good forward pack he'd go well.Would be good to kick start his career as he'd be getting good gametime.
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From the Magpies FB page:
Hawke’s Bay Rugby today confirmed that talented Crusaders halfback Ere Enari has signed with the Magpies for the next two seasons. 24-year-old Enari, who was educated at Tu Toa and St Kentigern College before heading south to Lincoln University has been part of the Canterbury and Crusaders programmes since 2016 and played for the New Zealand Under 20’s in both 2016 and 2017. With outstanding Highlander’s halfback Folau Fakatava being ruled out of rugby for 12 months with a knee injury Magpies head coach Mark Ozich said ‘With the loss of Folau for the rest of the year and moving up to the Premiership Ere is a key acquisition to the squad. Ere brings with him immense experience having been involved with the Crusaders set up since he left school and has a desire to play and compete each week having battled through his own injuries as a young man.’ Enari will join up with his new Magpies teammates at the conclusion of the Trans- Ta$man Super Rugby, where he has been with the Crusaders since 2018, but given the depth of halfbacks, opportunities have been limited with both Mitchell Drummond and Bryn Hall performing well for the four time champions. Enari is excited about the move north saying ‘’I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to join such an awesome team of players and management in Hawkes Bay. It’s exciting and I can’t wait to contribute as much as I can to the foundation they’ve built so far and apply my trade. I’m ready to compete, and I look forward to doing that alongside a great team with huge potential.” HBRU CEO, Jay Campbell added “Ere will add real competition with our local halfbacks and provide great experience for both Connor McLeod and Zach Donaldson to call upon as they compete for positions in the 23 each week.” The Magpies first game is a Ranfurly Shield defense against North Otago on June 30th at McLean Park with their first Bunning NPC game scheduled for Saturday August 6th is away to Taranaki at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth.
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@stargazer I think signing this guy is a very good move by the Magpies. Not to dissimilar to Fakatava the way he plays the game, and has Super Rugby experience.
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@stargazer good signing..!,got a bit of ex factor as well.
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@steven-harris He's better than the current back-ups of Weber and Fakatava. How much better is still to be seen. I'm still a bit on the fence.
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@stargazer That's a shame if Geoff Cridge doesn't come back. I think he's very under rated, and worthy of a Super Rugby Contract.
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@billsy111 Yes, I agree! I read last year that he has started his own building company, so maybe he has given up on a pro rugby career after missing out on a contract for years now? I don't know where his company is; it may be in Canterbury; after all, he's from there.
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Popped along to watch Kelston Boys play Aorere College yesterday and ran into Lolagi Visinia (his old school) had a good chat with him , said he was absolutely loving it down in the Bay and it was really a chance conversation with Mark Ozich which saw him heading down to the Magpies ..
I could not help myself and ask him why Lincoln Mclutchie was over looked when the Hurricanes had all their injuries..?.
Lolagi said when those injuries went down , most of the whole Hurricanes squad thought Lincoln would be the next cab off the rank , but they were totally confused when Rubin Love was promoted up no disrespect ahead of Lincoln ..
He can only assume the current coach Jason Holland has no love for Lincoln Mclutchie which was a shame because Lincoln has genuine ability to run at the line ..Been a while since I had seen him , he had a run for Suburbs a couple of weeks ago and felt like a Koro..lol..they were also young , we joking laughed about the number of Auckland players now playing club in the Hawkes Bay ..
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@steven-harris Thanks for that info. Good to get some insight from within! So at least the Hurricanes players do rate McClutchie and it's not just us being confused about what's been going on. I hope Lincoln has a great NPC season and gets offered a contract at one of the other franchises in NZ.
It will be interesting which player (McClutchie, Falcon, Makene) gets what role (first five, fulback, bench) this season. There might be some rotation. Makene has already played with new halfback Enari, but I don't think he was playing at 10 when that happened.
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@stargazer Bloody happy he's coming back. He's very under rated. Better lock than James Blackwell in my opinion. Can cover lock and blindside. Definitely a Super Rugby player who for some reason has been ignored. Would add bloody good value to any side.
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@billsy111 said in Magpies 2021:
@stargazer Bloody happy he's coming back. He's very under rated. Better lock than James Blackwell in my opinion. Can cover lock and blindside. Definitely a Super Rugby player who for some reason has been ignored. Would add bloody good value to any side.
You could probably say the same as well if he tried out at first five against JGB. This sort of versatility would count in his favour!
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@billsy111 Yeah, it's so weird. He has been in the Hurricanes squad for a few years, during which he was injured most of the time. They put a lot of effort in his rehab and then he had an injury free NPC season, ... and they let him go. Over the next seasons, he was only getting better and better, and they signed Scrafton (and re-signed Blackwell). They're bloody useless at the Canes.
