NPC 2023
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@frugby over in the UK somewhere but not 100% sure. He’s obviously back until he joins the Rebels so it’s a possibility. If Canterbury can bring back Crotty there’s no reason why Welly shouldn’t go after Matt, he’s from here at the end of the day.
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@Chris-B pre season always brings results like this. Nothing new. Has little to no bearing on the actual season.
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There should be some good valued odds in the early rounds. I don't think Ta$man is as strong as previous seasons. Will multi up my boys at the Warriors with a cheeky hundyish on Friday for some spending money down in Dunedin on Saturday.
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@Canes4life said in NPC 2023:
@Chris-B pre season always brings results like this. Nothing new. Has little to no bearing on the actual season.
Sometimes - I'd be interested to know what the score was at halftime and how much the teams changed for the second half.
On paper, the starting Canterbury XV was very strong, and the Mako ran out a B team.
We should have been thumped!
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@Chris-B interesting, I thought Wellington would have done better against the Naki aswell. Maybe keeping things on ice and running through the motions.
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Canterbury ran out a lot of non squad members from their B squad in the 2nd half
And still had a number of player to come back for Rd1 Grace,Dunshea,Christie,Jager,Drummond,
Burke,BrewisMoody,McLeod,Ennor may all be back
Plus Gallagher and Darry should be back for Rd 3 -
@Steven-Harris said in NPC 2023:
@Daffy-Jaffy Good performance from Auckland, took every opportunity that came their way
Looked to have a really good attack pattern which saw them get on the outside of the Taniwha , often exploiting the visitors lack of pace
Really liked the look of Zarn Sullivan at first five , his left boot often carved off massive metres and not to afraid to take the line on when required
Based on what I saw of the halfbacks , Kalani Thomas starting , I would start with Funaki looked much more assured
Northland put a ton of heat on Thomas and at times his service to Sullivan was average
The Forward battle was a bit more even with both teams cancelling each other out ,
Ekuasi started at 8 and was always a handful on the carry , all the starting front row were very good
On RTS at fullback , there was some good and not so good doesn’t have a kicking game in fact looks awkward kickingGreat to see Faletoi Peni get a run , did most things right and showed some awesome stepping ability and on one occasion running directly over Scott Gregory look alike Ross Gladish who was a late call up from club rugby
Had a chat to him at games end , he did say the pace was way higher than club level .He will be staying with squad a few more weeks as Tanielu Tele’a has an injury
Tangitu and Rayasi looked sharp on the wings , but I have got to say I was really impressed with Corey Evans when he came on in the 2nd half , slotted into fullback and looked like he had played their all his life.
It definitely looked like one team that had already played one warm up game and another playing their first
Just a shame Northland had few bodies unavailable especially in the backline , I will update their injuries on the Northland ForumPhotosport has a small gallery of the match here: https://www.photosport.nz/gallery/230729-Auckland-v-Nthland-Preseason/G0000uzLda6WuYE0/C0000azGTB7px3Ds
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@Canes4life said in NPC 2023:
@Chris-B interesting, I thought Wellington would have done better against the Naki aswell. Maybe keeping things on ice and running through the motions.
Or maybe Tamati will take some time to find his feet as a head coach
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@Stargazer said in NPC 2023:
There are no pools in the NPC this year. Just the one single table.
Which is an improvement.
Unfortunately we still don't have a full round robin. In the regular season each team plays 10 matches.. but there are 13 other sides
This year Auckland doesn't play Counties, Wellington & Otago
Some teams will get lucky with which teams they miss. Which teams you get during 'storm week' has a big impact too
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@Duluth we open with Canterbury and 'naki in Whangarei then round out storm week away to Southland next week...so if we are sitting on 2/3, I'll be happy, but we could easily be 0/3...
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Tough start
Not playing Counties, Waikato & Wellington. Missing two of the top four sides (according to the TAB) isn't bad
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hard to build rivalries when team dont even play each other every year let alone twice a year like some sports/comps
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This post is deleted!
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The first game kicks off in 2 days so i thought I'd check the official site
Latest news? Zero on the NPC. All their time seems to be taken up with the Woman's competition, the last story on male rugby was on the 21st of June. Squad lists are of course still 2022
What about the large media sites?
Stuff in their provincial rugby section basically has no stories about the NPC (An AB story mentions players in warmup games, there is a Ranfurly Shield story and a couple of RTS articles in the last month)
NZH? No real coverage, just a RTS story a while ago
Rugbypass - I couldn't find anything about the NPC
Newshub? Couldn't see anything
1News - a story on Brad Shields. Within the last month a story on RTS and another on Crotty
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@Duluth it's ridiculous in my opinion how much coverage and build up the NPC recieves these days. It's still a crucial competition in the NZ rugby landscape which has an uncanny knack of unearthing new talent each year. Plus the pure provincial rivalry is still hard to beat I reckon. I guess the focus this year is on the World Cup so most of the media attention seems to be directed there..but we still have a window where the NPC should take the front seat for a few weeks!
