Canterbury vs Wellington

[Canes4life]

Wellington head down south on Sunday to Canterbury having played two Ranfurly Shield games in the last week.

With expectations low, it might be a case of sending a younger team down to try and get the job done and let those that have played longer minutes, have a rest.

I'm expecting us to send pretty close to the below team down to Canterbury with the likes of Kirifi, Delany, Numia, Patafilo, Proctor and Love having a rest.

1. Sheck
2. Southall
3. Lauaki
4. Plummer
5. Bird
6. Shields
7. Lakai
8. Whitman
9. Preston
10. Morgan
11. Webster-Nonu
12. Higgins
13. Umaga-Jensen
14. Filipo
15. Clarke
16. O'Reilly
17. Orr
18. Tevita-Metcalfe
19. Ieremia
20. Ropeti
21. Hauiti-Parapara
22. Clarke
23. Saumaki

[foobaNZ]

Couldn't be any tougher than Cant at the end of an 8 day stretch with 2 Shield defences, so, my expectations are low for this one.

Throw a young ish team out as you suggest and see what happens. Gotta play the long game ultimately.

[Chris]

Canterbury v Wellington

Sam Darry back this week

B Funnell,
J Moody
S Calder
T Cahill
M Dunshea
T Christie
B Harmon
C Grace
M Drummond
F Burke
B Murray
R Pohipi
D McLeod
M Mataele
C Fihaki

Reserves
N Hyde
T Heywood
C Toomalatai
S Darry
C Kellow
W Heinz
R Crotty
S Aliamalo

[cgrant]

Is Gardiner injured ?

[Chris]

@cgrant said in Canterbury vs Wellington:

Is Gardiner injured ?

Yes

[Duluth]

Nothing from Wellington yet but this is on the NPC website

1 Xavier Numia
2 Josh Southall
3 PJ Sheck
4 Hugo Plummer
5 Dominic Bird
6 Brad Shields
7 Sione Halalilo
8 Peter Lakai
9 Kyle Preston
10 Sam Clarke
11 Chicago Doyle
12 Riley Higgins
13 Peter Umaga-Jensen
14 Losilosivale Filipo
15 Tjay Clarke

Reserves:
16 Penieli Poasa
17 Cameron Orr
18 Josiah Tavita-Metcalfe
19 Teofilo Paulo
20 Dominic Ropeti
21 Sam Howling
22 Aidan Morgan
23 Isi Saumaki

[Canes4life]

@Duluth Chicago Doyle on the wing is a bit odd. Would of thought they would have gone for Saumaki, Webster Nonu or Faleafaga who have actually played mins there.

[mikey07]

@Canes4life Totally agree it’s like oh we have to put him somewhere oh the wing looks good. be interesting to see how Sam Clarke goes at 10, honestly I can see Canterbury by at least 10.

[Canes4life]

@mikey07 will be a worry if Canterbury didn’t win this one. I’ll be surprised if we get within 10. Shame the schedule made it so one of the most important games of the year was at the end of a Storm week. Pretty silly really, especially when crowd numbers are already low. Surely you want the best players playing in the biggest games.

[foobaNZ]

Can't see us getting up for this. Bit of a shame as I think one more win would equal our longest historically?

But no choice really after 2 defences to play the top team again. Shield and NPC title again by end of season what's most important obviously.

[Duluth]

Nice lineout move

[Duluth]

Good start Wellington. Strong clean outs in the lead up to that try. Shields has been prominent

[frugby]

Bredin sucks as a ref lol.

[frugby]

And he hates Canterbury clearly.

[Stargazer]

@frugby He always seems to pick a team.

[frugby]

That penalty against Mataele was so funny, Joe Wheeler and Ken Laban couldn't contain themselves.

[Canes4life]

Sam Clarke so much better than Morgan.

[Stargazer]

@frugby The radio commentators also regularly expressing their surprise about his decisions.

[Canes4life]

@Stargazer it’s a nice change that Canterbury aren’t getting the rub of the green for once.

[Stargazer]

@Canes4life And very convenient for you, too!