Northland v Manawatu

[Gunner]

Farking wet, miserable day in Whangarei today, which is a shame because a 2pm kick off is bloody perfect for families, I’m sure if it were a fine day, a big crowd would have turned up.

Instead most, including the young fulla and I, will be watching from the couch.

[Duluth]

Manawatu almost score from a charge down. Trainor just gets there first

Short drop out wasn't a great choice

[Gunner]

That try was a bit too easy… weak defence from Manawatu.

[Gunner]

I know it’s a wet day, but fuck Northland’s ball handling and control is bloody sloppy.

[Gunner]

That’s a great finish by Murray.

[Duluth]

Suddenly there's a lot of room out there for Northland

[Gunner]

Northland try to play out of their own end, concede a penalty, and then a try.

Terrible start to the half

[Duluth]

That should be a penalty for offside. All he was doing is preventing advantage from the knock

[Gunner]

Northland backs taking a leaf out of the All Blacks play book there, deep passes to players standing flat footed, monstered by the defence and ball turned over.

Wakey wakey Northland.

[Gunner]

Tough call there, had a foot on the ground as Latu made the tackle.

[Gunner]

Poor discipline Northland, 3 penalties and a knock on conceded in the last 3 or 4 minutes.

Very very poor opening 15 minutes of the second half by Northland.

[Gunner]

That’s outright dangerous, deserves a yellow card… what the actual fuck ref?

[Machpants]

Great finish for Northland, awesome bonus point win

[Duluth]

Nice try by Salmon to finish things off

Solid effort all game. They had a bit of a wobble just after half time.. but were good considering the conditions

[Gunner]

Good but scrappy win. Kept the scoreboard ticking over when we were given an opportunity.

A few things to work on

[kev]

We lacked a bit of energy today. But nice kicking game from Reihana got us in the right parts to score. Lineout terrible in 2nd half. But good to win a game we needed to win.

[mohikamo]

Great
Was a must win game

[ACT Crusader]

FABRR played well.

[taniwharugby]

@Gunner said in Northland v Manawatu:

Good but scrappy win. Kept the scoreboard ticking over when we were given an opportunity.

A few things to work on

although I was surprised they took a tap with the shot from in front, but vindicated with Parker going over.

Very scrappy game, their handling let us get away in the 1st half, ours kept them in the hunt in the 2nd.

A bit more composure is needed as we were rushing alot of stuff, making errors.

Was disappointed with our restarts and slow clearance, but our first up d-line held well, but once they did get behind us we struggled a bit.

All our props look a bit unfit, which is disappointing given 2 have come straight from MLR finals only a few weeks back and the other 2 played in the club final, and the one who looked in shape last week (Fono) was dropped.

But a BP win is a BP win, lads will need some huge improvement if they want a decent crack at the Shield, assuming Southland dont nab it.

Stoked to see Salmon go over, seen this kid playing since he was 5 years old, a good prospect, has good strength in contact and loved how he moved the ball into his outside hand as he went in for his score.

[Duluth]