Blues 2024
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Shades of the Red Conway Story - may explain a few of his ball handling issues over the seasons -
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@george33 Looks like you were bang on, well played sir.
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Patrick Tuipulotu has avoided surgery on his fractured jaw, with the Blues captain expecting to be back on the field in April after a period of rest and recovery.
While out of action and limited to light activities for the time being, Tuipulotu said it would be a bit of a struggle to maintain his weight during his time off. He said in the 10 days since he suffered the injury he has already lost 2kg and had been told he could have full-fat milk and a few more protein shakes before bed in a bid to limit the weight he would shed.
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Well done george33, you had the good oil.
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@Frank said in Blues 2024:
Well done george33, you had the good oil.
April after the bye is that not what was first reported 8 weeks
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Some injury updates:
The Blues are still without a trio of frontliners in Sam Darry (neck), Akira Ioane (calf) and All Black Ofa Tu’ungafasi (knee), with Cotter confirming all are doubtful starters for the season opener against the Drua in Whangarei on February 24. “Ofa needs to get himself conditioned. At tighthead prop you’ve got to spend more time around your contact at scrum, lineout and combinations, so he’s probably a little longer coming back in. Aki (Ioane) shouldn't be far away – he’s started knocking people around at training – and Sam is just a tweak so we’re being careful with him.”
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Time to guess the 23 for the opening game.
1 Lay
2 Riccitelli
3 Ta'avao
4 Darry
5 Beehre
6 Segner
7 Papalii
8 Sotutu9 Christie
10 Perofeta
11 Clarke
12 Plummer
13 Ioane
14 Telea
15 Sullivan16 Eklund
17 Fusitua
18 Renata
19 Suafoa
20 Choat
21 Nock
22 Evans/Heem
23 Lam -
The Blues lost captain Patrick Tuipulotu to a broken jaw in Japan. Akira Ioane’s calf injury is expected to sideline him for the first two regular season games and All Blacks prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi appears set to miss round one, too. Otherwise, though, the Blues squad is in healthy shape.
Cotter indicated his biggest selection headache is at halfback where Sam Nock and Finlay Christie are competing for the starting role.
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That sucks. I was thinking we haven’t seen much of O’Halloran during the preseason
Pretty good stand in
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Alternative headline: New Bok assistant coach gains intel coaching Blues
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Piney on ZB mentioned it's diabetes related.
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@KiwiMurph still probably the best option to get the Blues backline to its potential.
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Darry is 2.07m? The Blues website has him at 2.03m.
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@Tim said in Blues 2024:
Darry is 2.07m? The Blues website has him at 2.03m.
Measured by the same guy who measured Ardie Savea
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Good technique Rieko
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While the Blues are now two-and-two to start their campaign new head coach Cotter has issues at lock after losing Sam Darry to a serious knee injury. Darry’s injury further compounds captain Patrick Tuipulotu’s absence with a broken jaw.
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@Tim said in Blues 2024:
@Duluth Interesting that de Groot nearly signed with the Blues.
I took that as a joke from Cotter i.e. he tried to talk De Groot into signing whilst they shared the plane to Melbourne.
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I certainly hope that Darry isn't out for long. As McWhannell is injury prone too, we could soon be down to one specialist lock, and a rookie at that.
Currently fit are McWhannell and Beehre, and the lock/sixes Suafoa and Thompson (also a rookie). Who is the next choice to bring into the squad? Annandale? Not many others are available. Maybe Hallam-Eames?
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@MN5 said in Blues 2024:
@Tim said in Blues 2024:
Darry is 2.07m? The Blues website has him at 2.03m.
Measured by the same guy who measured Ardie Savea
I'd understand if they were overseas players (people seem to slip up on metric conversions)...
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@Tim Hallam-Eames is in MLR as far as I know, Caird has been with the Blues for a few weeks I believe.
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@Tim said in Blues 2024:
I certainly hope that Darry isn't out for long. As McWhannell is injury prone too, we could soon be down to one specialist lock, and a rookie at that.
Currently fit are McWhannell and Beehre, and the lock/sixes Suafoa and Thompson (also a rookie). Who is the next choice to bring into the squad? Annandale? Not many others are available. Maybe Hallam-Eames?
Annandale played a preseason game but went off with an injury. No idea what the injury was or if he is healthy now
Yeah we can’t afford anymore injuries but I’m pretty comfortable going into most games with McWhannell, Beehre & Suafoa
On the positive side the lock injuries have built depth fast. Everyone has stood up so far. When (if) everyone gets fit it’s going to be a tough selection. Similar to the loosies - two guys good enough to start won’t make the 23
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Segner with the Blues until the end of 2026
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Segner also signed with Auckland
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Bring on the German's GDR preparation.
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Love the contract
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It's going to strange hearing TJ be critical of Segner now
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From the herald -
Despite confronting stiff competition from past or present All Blacks Dalton Papali’i, Akira Ioane and Hoskins Sotutu in the stacked Blues loose forwards, Segner knocked back overtures from other Super teams - namely the Crusaders - to commit to a fulltime Auckland base.As Cotter adopts a full squad policy to this season, having already rested All Blacks Rieko Ioane and Finlay Christie, Segner is expected to return to start at blindside flanker for the Blues’ trip to Wellington this weekend after sitting out last week’s win over the Highlanders, with Akira Ioane shifting to the back of the scrum and Sotutu reverting to the bench after a standout start that includes five tries from two outings.
Sam Darry is also set for a six-to-eight-week spell on the sidelines with an MCL injury to further deplete the Blues locking stocks, while captain Patrick Tuipulotu continues his recovery from a broken jaw.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/super-rugby-anton-segner-knocks-back-rivals-to-go-all-in-on-blues-and-auckland/ -
Shame about Darry. I thought he was looking good.
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@Crazy-Horse Yeah he's had a few bad injuries in his career now, just like last year when he was also looking good.
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Segner is expected to return to start at blindside flanker for the Blues’ trip to Wellington this weekend after sitting out last week’s win over the Highlanders, with Akira Ioane shifting to the back of the scrum and Sotutu reverting to the bench after a standout start that includes five tries from two outings.
Good to hear. This is correcting an error the previous coaching made. In some seasons one or two players played excessive minutes and faded
Segner can play 3 positions, Papali'i and Ioane 2 positions and Sotutu is a specialist. So it's easy to rotate amongst that four. Then there's still Choat, & Suafoa who are can easily slot in too
Ioane at 8 is something worth using at times. A couple of the tries for Auckland last year had Zinzan like control at the base.. a lost art
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Ioane was also very dangerous from 8 with 5m scrums, would love to see more of that.
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Will Rush be in the 23 one day ? Or will he be another Ethan Roots ?
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