Hurricanes 2024
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@Canes4life I didn’t read about the rugby league park thing…very interesting
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Morgans name mentioned as a first. Not a good start
I just hope Laidlaw and his team don't make idiotic selections like the last lot did. And also, the Lions did this year too under super coach Ellison. Captains a big decision too.
There's a huge difference between a head coach and assistant coach. Neither Holland nor Ellison had it. And both teams suffered as a result.
The loss of their captain and star player is huge, but Laidlaw believed he had inherited a talented squad that was well-placed to combat the usual post-Rugby World Cup exodus.
The Hurricanes moved quickly to replace Savea by luring former captain Brad Shields back to Wellington, while Brayden Iose and Peter Lakai give them options across the experience spectrum at No 8.
“All the teams have lost experience, which is natural. It happens every four years, but in key positions we do have some experience and young talent that has had game time already.
“If you look at 9-10 we genuinely think we have some really good players there. BC [Brett Cameron] and Aidan [Morgan] started every week for their NPC sides and both played Super Rugby.
“We’ve got a couple of All Black halfbacks and we have two players backing them up who have started NPC
“In big positions it feels like we have got good experience and we’re still quite young, which is a nice balance. They’re young, hungry and on the way up with a bit of experience behind them.”
Once he has everyone’s names memorised, one of Laidlaw’s next jobs will be to appoint a new captain to replace Savea.
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@Winger I don't see what's wrong about Laidlaw naming Morgan as a 10, that's his position is it not...?
It's not Laidlaw's fault Morgan was signed until the end of 2024, he just has to try and get the best out of him if he's forced to play Morgan throughout the campaign.
This is why the Roigard signature was so important, because he's such a dominant playmaker and it will take that pressure off our first five, which I assume will be Brett Cameron in the first instance anyway.
If you look at the make-up of our backline, I think we have one of the more well-rounded groups in the comp.
We've got the best halfback in the comp at 9, with an experienced campaigner backing him up. We've got a first five that's on par with most in the comp (Cameron), we've got a settled centre pairing in Barrett/Proctor with arguably one the best up and coming talents providing cover for them (Higgins), we've got enough firepower on the wings to score tries (Naholo, Moorby, Sullivan, Rayasi, Sinkinson) and we have a player at fullback that is well geared to take 2024 by storm (Ruben Love) with the young Harry Godfrey backing him up.
When you look at our pack, we've got a huge portion of players who have been in Super now for 3+ years and are primed to start playing some of the best rugby of their careers. Aumua, Mafileo, Rakete-Stones, Flanders, Delany, Numia, Sangster, Kirifi, Iose and Walker-Leawere are all in that (24-26) age group range, so there are definitely no excuses going into 2024.
Let's hope Laidlaw can get the best out of this bunch.
My 1st 15 to hit the ground running next year would be:
- Numia
- Aumua
- Lomax
- Delany
- Walker-Leawere
- Shields
- Kirifi
- Flanders
- Roigard
- Cameron
- Naholo
- Barrett
- Proctor
- Sullivan
- Love
An XV of players sitting behind that shows the competition for spots which is a good sign.
- Rakete-Stones
- Devery
- Mafileo
- Tucker
- Sangster
- Howden
- Lakai
- Iose
- Perenara
- Morgan
- Rayasi
- Higgins
- Umaga-Jensen
- Moorby
- Godfrey
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Strange photo. IMHO.
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@Canes4life good luck to TJ, but based on what I saw last year, he'll be number two at the Canes.
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@antipodean said in Hurricanes 2024:
@Canes4life good luck to TJ, but based on what I saw last year, he'll be number two at the Canes.
He was our best half back in Europe last time he played. Since he didn't even play last year, a bit harsh to judge. Or is your point that cam is so (potentially to be) awesome even peak TJ will not be as good?
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@Machpants said in Hurricanes 2024:
@antipodean said in Hurricanes 2024:
@Canes4life good luck to TJ, but based on what I saw last year, he'll be number two at the Canes.
He was our best half back in Europe last time he played. Since he didn't even play last year, a bit harsh to judge. Or is your point that cam is so (potentially to be) awesome even peak TJ will not be as good?
It was some other player that played for the Māori, or subbed for Nuggy and then England score three tries in 10mins?
Roigard will be first pick IMO.
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@antipodean he hasn’t played this year and the year before that he wasn’t too bad. Had a great campaign for the Lions and then played well for the ABs. Roigard will definitely start for the Canes but TJ is also good enough to make the ABs again if he can get back to his best.
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@Canes4life I agree the opportunity is there for a lot of players to make up #s 2 & 3 for the squad. But for all their experience, Roigard played better than the rest and I expect him to continue doing so.
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This explains the Canes omission.
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@Canes4life I literally posted this is the lions 2023 thread. I reckon it was more of being pushed out then actually the reason why he wasn’t in the squad for this year.
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@mikey07 not necessarily, I think Bird may have made a last-minute decision to retire at the end of the NPC and because of that we ended up having to sign Ben Grant. Bird would surely have been selected before an MLR player if he was available.
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@Canes4life said in Hurricanes 2024:
@mikey07 not necessarily, I think Bird may have made a last-minute decision to retire at the end of the NPC and because of that we ended up having to sign Ben Grant. Bird would surely have been selected before an MLR player if he was available.
Could be wrong, but I think it is more likely the Canes selected Grant over Bird, so he was left considering his options. With the way it is worded, I think he probably had an offer to go to another NZ Super side (Presumably the Highlanders as an injury replacement) and he decided he didn't want to do that, so hung up the boots?
