Blues 2024

Canes4life

Lol this came up on IG feed, thought the Blues thread would enjoy this despite him obviously playing for the Canes. So funny seeing Telea with a head of hair.

Canes4life

In terms of signings for next year, what happened to Payton Spencer? Is he in with a shout or has he aligned himself with the NZ sevens programme?

Duluth

@Canes4life

He went for 7’s this year then got injured

Tim

Gregor Paul: From flash to force - the strategic shift that changed the Blues

Tim

So, who plays 6 next year? That's a huge hole to fill.

cgrant

Segner or Suafoa.

cgrant

Among the young guns : Che Clark, Thompson (who has played lock this year), Tristyn Cook.

sparky

@Tim Segner.

African Monkey

@cgrant Suafoa probably suits Cotter's style of play more, but at the same time, I like what Segner brings but he isn't as strong in the contact areas as others.

Daffy Jaffy

Merch -

Blues Champions Range

Landers92

@cgrant said in Blues 2024:

Segner or Suafoa.

Would Rob Rush come into contention? That guy has so much talent imo.

Duluth

@Tim said in Blues 2024:

So, who plays 6 next year? That's a huge hole to fill.

Suafoa or Clark. I prefer Segner as a 7 or 8

Depends how the NPC goes

It'll be interesting to see where Segner plays for Auckland. I hope we see a a trio of: 7 Choat, 8 Segner & 6 Clark.

I assume Suafoa will mostly start at 8 for Harbour again. He probably has the inside running at this stage

Kirwan

Start with Suafoa and develop Clark. Pretty great position to be in.

Duluth

If you skim back in thread the main concern before the season kicked off was the locks. The area of weakness became a strength very quickly

Happy with any combination of Tuipulotu, Darry, Beehre, McWhannell.

Thompson had some very useful cameos. Suafoa only got a handful of mins at lock but he's still a handy loosie/lock (in 2023 he started 9 times at lock but is seems to be considered more of a loosie now)

Duluth

16 wins in a row at home now. That includes wins against all the other NZ sides

The Blues record is 21 from the first few years of SR

nzzp

@Duluth said in Blues 2024:

The Blues record is 21 from the first few years of SR

genuine questio: are you sure? I just went back and checked 96-98; I got 17 for proper comp games ... did they count preseason as well?

Edit: yes, am nerd.

Duluth

@nzzp

Is there an error here? Blues at home 96-98

Maybe you're only counting Eden Park? That was 18 17 in a row. There were 3 4 games at Pukekohe too

The current streak includes a Whangarei match

[edit] there was a small error, one of the Pukekohe games had Auckland as the location[/edit]

nzzp

@Duluth yep, that's it. Only EP for me.

mikedogz

@Duluth said in Blues 2024:

There were 4 games at Pukekohe too

Back when Pukekohe got regular super rugby.

African Monkey

@mikedogz Yeah the Blues were good like that.

The Silver Fern

Blues 2024