Otago 2024
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@Landers92 said in Otago 2024:
Any word on this Australian winger that was thrown around in here a few weeks back? Not announced in the squad or as development/injury cover…
Potentially Dwyer's negative feedback may have knocked it on the head.
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Otago team named to play its first pre season game against Southland on Friday.
Some interesting selections, looking forward to seeing the squad have its first run and build. Nice to see some boys rewarded for strong club seasons along with plenty of young guys getting an early chance.
Southlands Facebook page will be streaming this I’m pretty sure.
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@Landers92 Is that centre the same Levi Harmon that came from Bush to play for Poneke about eight or nine years ago? Fronted for my Axemen as well but got a bad injury pre-season that put him out for the whole year. Think he buggered off back to Poneke the next season before disappearing somewhere, at least I don't recall hearing his name mentioned in Wellington club rugby for a fair few years now.
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@Higgins said in Otago 2024:
@Landers92 Is that centre the same Levi Harmon that came from Bush to play for Poneke about eight or nine years ago? Fronted for my Axemen as well but got a bad injury pre-season that put him out for the whole year. Think he buggered off back to Poneke the next season before disappearing somewhere, at least I don't recall hearing his name mentioned in Wellington club rugby for a fair few years now.
I'm pretty sure it is. Seems like a player who had all the ability, but has just been wrecked with injuries. He scored a try in the club final on the weekend. In the report it was noted he suffered a major injury in the 2021 final. Took him a good couple of years to come back. Looks like a classic 'what if' kind of player.
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@Landers92 said in Otago 2024:
Otago team named to play its first pre season game against Southland on Friday.
Some interesting selections, looking forward to seeing the squad have its first run and build. Nice to see some boys rewarded for strong club seasons along with plenty of young guys getting an early chance.
Southlands Facebook page will be streaming this I’m pretty sure.
Seems an interesting mix between the main squad and the dirt trackers. The only guy missing from the club final is Hurley. Interesting Whaanga has been picked on the wing, while a guy outside of the squad is at centre. Geoege Bower will make a big difference this season. Is Liam Coltman even back in the country yet?
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@SouthernMann Yeah one of the first things I noticed was Whaanga on the wing, hopefully it’s just for a half or this game so coaches can see more of Harmon at 13. If Whaanga plays the next pre season game on the wing then I’ll be slightly concerned. I also noticed there was no Te Hiwi named, whether that’s just a test or pre cautionary I’m not sure.
I’ll be watching Hastie closely this season, hasn’t been able to get a good run with injury and with the halfback spots ramping up someone is going to have to take that step up.
I haven’t seen or heard anything around Coltman yet, he isn’t the most active when it comes to social media attention either so it’s anyone’s guess whether he’s back yet or not. You would think he was.
All in all it’s good to see a good mix but next weeks game will be one of more significance you would think.
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@Landers92 said in Otago 2024:
@SouthernMann Yeah one of the first things I noticed was Whaanga on the wing, hopefully it’s just for a half or this game so coaches can see more of Harmon at 13. If Whaanga plays the next pre season game on the wing then I’ll be slightly concerned. I also noticed there was no Te Hiwi named, whether that’s just a test or pre cautionary I’m not sure.
I’ll be watching Hastie closely this season, hasn’t been able to get a good run with injury and with the halfback spots ramping up someone is going to have to take that step up.
I haven’t seen or heard anything around Coltman yet, he isn’t the most active when it comes to social media attention either so it’s anyone’s guess whether he’s back yet or not. You would think he was.
> All in all it’s good to see a good mix but next weeks game will be one of more significance you would think.
That's the canterbury pre-season game?
Hastie is the most secure out of the three Highlanders, I believe. His contract still has two more years to run. Fakatava's runs out at the end of next season. Arscott's was to the end of this year. But must have been rolled over.
Asi apparently got injured in the club semi, same with Umaga-Jensen. Not sure on the severity, just read they went off before halftime. With Te Hiwi, I understand from one of the ODT videos he is carrying an injury as well.
I'd expect to see a fair bit of chopping and changing, especially in the backs.
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@SouthernMann Yeah mate the Cantebury one. It’s only a week before our first comp against Southland so you’d expect a pretty solid starting line up.
Ah nice, so an outside back injury(which we are already thin) and 2 injuries to midfields who will be expected to play a lot of minutes… great. Hopefully those injuries aren’t too bad.
I will be going along to next weeks game against Canterbury if the weather plays ball so hoping to get a good look at it all.
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Liam Coltman is back, he's been in Dunedin for a while now. Jake Te Hiwi got a wrist injury in the Landers quarter and is still a couple of weeks away from returning. Fingers crossed ready for first week. Also that Levi Harmon is the same. And yeah broken knee 2021 final in Dunedin, was going to make the Otago team if it weren't for that injury. moon boot all of 2022. First season back, scored 2 tries in final, dominated in the midfield for GI this year. So looking forward to seeing him in the provincial stage again
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@Higgins said in Otago 2024:
@Landers92 Is that centre the same Levi Harmon that came from Bush to play for Poneke about eight or nine years ago? Fronted for my Axemen as well but got a bad injury pre-season that put him out for the whole year. Think he buggered off back to Poneke the next season before disappearing somewhere, at least I don't recall hearing his name mentioned in Wellington club rugby for a fair few years now.
Yeah mate. Was in Hurricanes and NZ 7’s system for a bit there.
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@NateHill74 said in Otago 2024:
Liam Coltman is back, he's been in Dunedin for a while now. Jake Te Hiwi got a wrist injury in the Landers quarter and is still a couple of weeks away from returning. Fingers crossed ready for first week. Also that Levi Harmon is the same. And yeah broken knee 2021 final in Dunedin, was going to make the Otago team if it weren't for that injury. moon boot all of 2022. First season back, scored 2 tries in final, dominated in the midfield for GI this year. So looking forward to seeing him in the provincial stage again
Thanks @NateHill74 your local insights are really good. I'm interested to see what Harmon can do. Must have been very highly rated before he had all his injuries. I wonder how they are planning to use Sanders? Surely he must be behind Haig, Stodart and Lio-Willie. Or will they look to use Stodart or Haig as temp locks. Interested to see Palmer get a run on the wing. Not a young man anymore, but does some great things for Southern though. Interesting all the national schools reps from last year are in the training group, even though some barely got out of Colts in the club season. I really so hope we see a bit of Pledger this season. While he has played a lot of top rugby. He hasn't played a lot of open grade rugby.
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That's alright. I'm in polytech and the team always train outside our classes. Looks like Haig at 6 at the moment. Haven't seen too much else. Finn Hurley, Will Tucker were running up and down the field jogging like a rehab. Maybe just a rest but keeping them moving. Mackenzie is a big surprise considering he's had many options to make the team but has always not been comitted enough to play. Pledg and A-One will most likely have a rest after 20s then come back into things. Train with the otago team. Pledg will then go with 19s for a bit too.
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@NateHill74 said in Otago 2024:
That's alright. I'm in polytech and the team always train outside our classes. Looks like Haig at 6 at the moment. Haven't seen too much else. Finn Hurley, Will Tucker were running up and down the field jogging like a rehab. Maybe just a rest but keeping them moving. Mackenzie is a big surprise considering he's had many options to make the team but has always not been comitted enough to play. Pledg and A-One will most likely have a rest after 20s then come back into things. Train with the otago team. Pledg will then go with 19s for a bit too.
Sounds like Hurley may have got a knock in the final if he is paired up with Tucker. I'm really looking forward to Haig and Holland this NPC. Both have now been in professional environments for a while now. I'm expecting them to dominate now.
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19-14 to Southland at halftime. Southland the much better team in that first half.
Otago playing very 1 dimensional trying to play everything through the forwards(A Tom Donnelly special) while Southland are trying to get it into the wide channels and getting breaks and half breaks from offloads. Very impressive.
Couple stand outs so far. Byron Smith at 10 for Southland looks to be a good athlete and had a good half. For Otago, Ale Aho is a big unit who gets around the park well with a great skill set who I thought looked solid. One to watch.
Wholesale changes in the second half, should be an interesting half.
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@Landers92 said in Otago 2024:
19-14 to Southland at halftime. Southland the much better team in that first half.
Otago playing very 1 dimensional trying to play everything through the forwards(A Tom Donnelly special) while Southland are trying to get it into the wide channels and getting breaks and half breaks from offloads. Very impressive.
Couple stand outs so far. Byron Smith at 10 for Southland looks to be a good athlete and had a good half. For Otago, Ale Aho is a big unit who gets around the park well with a great skill set who I thought looked solid. One to watch.
Wholesale changes in the second half, should be an interesting half.
Very disappointed with the first half. We should run away with this in the second half seeing the team Southland have out there. Backs looking sharp this time around. Kyan Rangitutia doing a couple of good things on both attack and D. Stoked to see Byron Smith look good. I hope there is the potential for him to be a Landers option.
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Mackenzie Palmer is a real rocks and diamonds player. Probably not someone I want to see regularly playing.
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Otago 33 - Southland 24. Much better second half for Otago and as expected much better depth and a class above in the second half.
Otago chancing their arm a bit more in the second half and looked a lot better. Nareki in particular was dangerous, he is an absolute handful when you can get him the ball 1 on 1, 2 try assists in about 10mins for him.
A backline of Arscott at 9, Millar 10, Nareki 11, Falefaga 12, Levi Harmon 13, Rangitutia 14. Palmer 15. I have have missed a sub or 2 in the backs but they were the majority of the minutes. Looked a lot better than the first half backline but that’s pre season footy and what it’s for.
As I said above Aho was impressive at lock and he carried that into the second half getting through 80 minutes. Next Friday against Canterbury I expect a more stable side with some better balance. All in all a successful game and didn’t look like any injuries.
NPC is back!
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Byron Smith looked the best of the 10s on display.
We looked at our best when we had wingers playing on the wing, instead of a fullback and a centre with Palmer and Whaanga.
Lucas Casey looked top draw at seven. Will be interesting to see the battle between him and Taylor for that gig.
Agree with @Landers92 Aho looked great.
Moana Takataka looks an absolute beast of a man. Won a couple of scrum penalties too.
Neither Arscott or Hastie gave me much confidence.
Gilbert continues to just be an ok rugby player. Someone who finishes, but not a lot else.
For Southland. Their lineout was terrible after Taylor went off.
That former Auckland 12 was an absolute powerhouse.
Josh Augistine looked good for an 18-year-old.
Withy, outstanding.
