Magpies 2021
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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.
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Saw an interesting post on the Magpies' Facebook page, in reply to comments from people complaining that the HBRU have signed an outsider instead of a local halfback.
Darryl Tapara (the poster)
Chur Paddy, Just a small whakapapa of Ereatara who was named after Ereatara Whaitiri aka Ernie Whaitiri of Whakatu, Tamatea Hard 🙂 Tama Cooper, lots of connections to Kahunungu his unlce's JB Smith & Tipene Heperi of Takapau, and the Takitimu Waka as he is half Samona from his Dad Falefatu Enari, Fatu"s mum is from Wairoa, the Smith whanau. Ere's mum Parehuia is a sister of Casey Tapara nee Whaitiri. We claim him to Whakatu with his Whaitiri uncles who are wanting to line him up to play for Clive 🙂, If uncle Ere has his way, he will line him up for Tamatea. Yes he has not played locally but he Whakapapa to us, "Bay All Day"
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@stargazer said in Magpies 2021:
unlce
I don't know why people are complaining about where this man comes from. No one did when we signed John Bradbrook years ago, or Kahn Fotuii. People have got to be realistic. We are now in the premier division and defending the Ranfurly Shield. Last time we were there we relied on a lot of local talent, and look what happened. The fact of it is this guy is better than any local halfback running around. He'll bring experience and class to the side. In my opinion he's a very good buy. Good luck to him, he'll serve Hawkes Bay well
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@billsy111 I agree. I've been critical of signing "imports" in the past, but only when I wasn't convinced they were clearly better than available locals. Guys like the Vaega brothers, Ben Power, to name just three recent examples. I'll again be critical if they sign someone like Kienan Higgins instead of Jordan Thompson-Dunn, again because I'm not convinced he's much better.
But I don't think there's any doubt Enari is much better than the local halfbacks available and he brings a lot experience that they simply don't have. I think we have some good lads coming through, but obviously, if they had had the talent of Fakatava, they'd already be in the squad. And Enari has a link to the Bay, so it's all good.
