Hawke's Bay v Northland
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@kev our work inside opposition 22 has been poor all season, last week v Otago was the worst, lack of ideas, poor execution, and inability to play what is in front of you.
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Drizzling rain here at McLean Park.
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@taniwharugby the most telling comment i had passed on me to me was, without North Harbour and Counties Manukau not competing in the 2021 Bunnings NPC ,we only had 5 teams in the championship , we only needed 2 wins we could not even achieve that .
I will watch tonite primarly to check on a couple of new guys making their debuts , but to be honest the season coming to its conclusion cant come soon enough .. -
Error-ridden game, probably because it's wet and there are lots of new faces on the field. Magpies lead 10 - 9 at the break (2 tries to 0).
Harry Godfrey looks promising; he runs Ben Smith like.
Typical Magpies scoring, with Devery scoring two tries of the line-out maul.
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Apikitoa off, Hintz on
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Tusitala has a second of delay after pulling the ball out of the ruck before he passes - really limiting the backline options
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@stockcar86 It's really annoying. So slow.
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FT: Magpies 25 - 16 Northland
Slightly messy game with lots of handling errors. The drizzle probably had a big role in that, but also the new combos with so many new players on the field. To me, outstanding for the Magpies were Gareth Evans in the pack and Harry Godfrey in the backs. I can see a big future for the young lad! Funaki's impact off the bench was massive, and Ili and Lowe also settled the sometimes slightly rattling defence in the backs.
Lots of pinball moments in this game. Not a high quality game, but still entertaining enough.
Only injury worry seems to be Joe 'Apikotoa. Hope he'll be okay for the semi v Ta$man on Saturday (4.35pm).
