Northland team named.

Assume Nock is being rested (well from starting) Hawkins continues his charmed life and Gregory stays in a position he is struggling with.

Couple of other changes and a potential debut for Brady Rush in this pivotal match, both teams will be eager to win to keep touch with HB as they fight for a home semi.

Assume Hyland still injured, I thought he was close to coming back last week.

Hmmmm, they’ve rested the wrong half...

I hope the coaches know what they are doing here.

This is the game we want to nail, as it’s a tough road after this one.

@J77 yeah you gotta hope they know what they are doing, but benching Nock seems a change for changes sake, when you consider the minutes Robinson, Pryor, Olsen & Ranger have played this season too.

I am sure they will know if Nock is a bit fatigued, but he was up there for the Blues as one of the fitter players wasn't he?

Anywho, this is a must win for us, is a slippery slope if we cant get back up for this one...after what felt like an unprecedented 3 wins in a row, if we fall over this week and NH next week, we could well be staring at 3 losses in a row, whereas if we win, I think we have a good chance of rolling NH.

Have heard Li may have withdrawn from game, so Wright back into starting lineup and Kearns to bench.

dont imagine we'll see the Otago team named until late this avo, hoping we dont see much of a change to last week

Otago

15 Michael Collins, 14 Freedom Vahaakolo, 13 Josh Timu, 12 Matt Whaanga, 11 Jona Nareki, 10 Jono Hickey, 9 Kayne Hammington, 8 Sione Misiloi, 7 Dylan Nel, 6 Charles Elton, 5 Josh Dickson, 4 Jack Regan, 3 Josh Hohneck, 2 Liam Coltman, 1 Jamie Mackintosh.

Reserves: 16 Ricky Jackson, 17 Jonah Aoina, 18 Hisa Sasagi, 19 Will Tucker, 20 Nasi Manu, 21 James Arscott, 22 Harrison Boyle, 23 Giovanni Leituala.

One-test All Black Josh Ioane and Highlanders fullback Vilimoni Koroi have been axed from the Otago side to face Northland in Dunedin on Friday for disciplinary reasons.

An Otago spokeswoman confirmed to Stuff on Thursday that Ioane and Koroi had “breached team protocol after the game last weekend and as a consequence they are unavailable for selection this week”, a massive blow to the side as they chase promotion to the Mitre 10 Cup Premiership.

Stuff understands the breach involved alcohol, and that both players turned up to training in an unacceptable state, leaving coach Tom Donnelly no choice but to omit them from the Northland game.

The suspensions have forced Otago into a major backline reshuffle for the crunch game against the Taniwha, because Ioane and Koroi were the first choice No 10 and backup, respectively.

It is not known if Ioane and Koroi will be stood down for more than one game, but Otago have difficult away fixtures against Canterbury and Southland on the horizon.

@Stargazer wow...dumb, especially from Ioane who was likely only an injury away from an AB call up.

Bonus for us. Well done to Otago on their stance. Nothing worse than clownish decisions when it comes to alcohol.

I’d like to think that swings the pendulum in our favour, however we can be the masters of defying expectations sometimes.

@taniwharugby Yep. And remember that incident with Highlanders players in Queenstown. It was never published who the players were, but they definitely have an issue down south.

@Kiwiwomble Or you read the thread before you post. :winking_face:

@Kiwiwomble see above in stargazers post re Ioane and Koroi

@J77 @Stargazer yeah....i was writing that when that got posted...that was a waste of time

@Kiwiwomble Using clips/gifs for team announcements is so annoying. I don't like it at all when teams do that. Just show the list in one post/picture.

@Stargazer yea I saw the post with the video and was looking for a list online to post.

thats really disappointing, kind make it sound like they were just hungover so hopefully just internal

kind of an important game if we want to keep ear the top of the table so would have liked to be full strength, i find it worrying Collins can be playing so well in midfield and still get dropped back to 15 when we need

@Kiwiwomble yea timing couldn't be worse for you guys.

But as @J77 says, we are masters of pulling a turd out of a hat instead of a rabbit...

@taniwharugby said in Otago v Northland:

@Kiwiwomble yea timing couldn't be worse for you guys.

But as @J77 says, we are masters of pulling a turd out of a hat instead of a rabbit...

Otago could roll out the University B team and we’d likely choke. Fingers crossed that’s a thing of the past.

@J77 i see you trying to Jinx us....

@Kiwiwomble not to worry, it never works in our case, we’re usually pretty bang on