Wellington have announced a strong team to defend the Shield against Ta$man tomorrow night:

1. Xavier Numia
2. James O'Reilly
3. Siale Lauaki
4. Caleb Delany
5. Dominic Bird
6. Brad Shields
7. Du Plessis Kirifi (c)
8. Peter Lakai
9. Kemara Hauiti-Parapara
10. Aiden Morgan
11. Pepesani Patafilo
12. Peter Umaga-Jensen
13. Billy Proctor
14. Losi Filipo
15. Ruben Love

Reserves:
16. Josh Southall
17. Cameron Orr
18. PJ Sheck
19. Hugo Plummer
20. Dominic Ropeti
21. Kyle Preston
22. Riley Higgins
23. Tjay Clarke

Unavailable for Selection:

Asafo Aumua, Bradley Crichton, Connor Garden-Bachop, TJ Perenara, Julian Savea.

Good balance in that loose forward trio

@Canes4life Strong squad indeed! The only weakness I see is in the halves.

@Stargazer agreed, I would have preferred Preston and Love.

The reserve prop in Cameron Orr is a weakness aswell, his scrummaging has been poor.

Getting D Bird and B Shields back will provide much needed experience.

Exactly the same matchday 23 for Ta$man that got pumped by Northland but four changes to the starting lineup, loosehead, hooker, openside/no 8 (includes a positional change for A Segner) and first five.

@Duluth Ta$man getting a few players back from injury. Still no Blackadder and Renton.

Don't think this team will beat Wellington.

@Canes4life said in Wellington vs Ta$man (RS):

Wellington have announced a strong team to defend the Shield against Ta$man tomorrow night:

1. Xavier Numia
2. James O'Reilly
3. Siale Lauaki
4. Caleb Delany
5. Dominic Bird
6. Brad Shields
7. Du Plessis Kirifi (c)
8. Peter Lakai
9. Kemara Hauiti-Parapara
10. Aiden Morgan
11. Pepesani Patafilo
12. Peter Umaga-Jensen
13. Billy Proctor
14. Losi Filipo
15. Ruben Love

Reserves:
16. Josh Southall
17. Cameron Orr
18. PJ Sheck
19. Hugo Plummer
20. Dominic Ropeti
21. Kyle Preston
22. Riley Higgins
23. Tjay Clarke

Unavailable for Selection:

Asafo Aumua, Bradley Crichton, Connor Garden-Bachop, TJ Perenara, Julian Savea.

Garden-Bachop is made of glass lol.

@frugby said in Wellington vs Ta$man (RS):

lol

You mean: :disappointed_face: ?

@Stargazer As a Highlanders fan most certainly a lol. Between him, TUJ (who has been very good this year) and Josh Timu, you can guarantee they will not all be fit at the same time.

@frugby I'd expect that the be something to be worried about, not to laugh?

@Stargazer If you don't laugh you'll cry. These guys are permanently injured. I obviously feel sorry for them, but after a while the situation becomes funny.

Otago had three players go off injured in 50 minutes, and the only thing I could think was we haven't even lost TUJ yet!

@Canes4life said in Wellington vs Ta$man (RS):

@Stargazer agreed, I would have preferred Preston and Love.

The reserve prop in Cameron Orr is a weakness aswell, his scrummaging has been poor.

Getting D Bird and B Shields back will provide much needed experience.

Its good to see Bird back. And the other players who were rested at the WE

Orr looks just about useless. Morgan isn't much good but Love really didn't put his hand up to say pick me at first. But I hope Ellison gives Love another game at 1st vs Canterbury. With Preston to start again

@Winger said in Wellington vs Ta$man (RS):

@Canes4life said in Wellington vs Ta$man (RS):

@Stargazer agreed, I would have preferred Preston and Love.

The reserve prop in Cameron Orr is a weakness aswell, his scrummaging has been poor.

Getting D Bird and B Shields back will provide much needed experience.

Its good to see Bird back. And the other players who were rested at the WE

Orr looks just about useless. Morgan isn't much good but Love really didn't put his hand up to say pick me at first. But I hope Ellison gives Love another game at 1st vs Canterbury. With Preston to start again

I must admit to being a bit surprised when Lions oicked uo Orr, and he hasn't done much to chnge my mind as yet.

as much as I dont want Ta$man to win the Shield, pretty sure for us to have any chance at a shot this season, Ta$man must win it, but then also lose it to NH, who in turn lose it to Otago haha

@taniwharugby and then lose it a week later

@bayimports mate, given I was 4 the last time we held it, I'll take that!!

Actually, I can see another path for a challenge, but looks tougher...

@taniwharugby yeah we don't have a great history of winning them either ha ha. Winning lotto probably has better odds than the other way of you getting a challenge!

Scrappy start

Taine Robinson off for an HIA; O'Malley on.

Man we're playing like trash 9 and 10 gna lose us the game ffs

Aidan Morgan is an actual robot ‍️

Kane Hames is awful. The penalty went away because he was playing advantage for the knock on

Good to see the ref notice that type of clean out

How did O'Malley miss that?

Good commitment from O’Reilly

What does NZ rugby think they are achieving by holding NPC matches at stadiums like Sky Stadium or Eden Park. Honestly, it's just ludicrous. There were more people at the Four Square I popped into on my way home from work than are at the stadium watching this game.

@1kiwi Yeah, Wellington should play their home games at Jerry Collins Stadium or the Hutt Rec.

@1kiwi isnt there requirements for the facilities around lighting for sky, and less of an issue at NPC is the ground facilities for players.

@taniwharugby Good point. The lighting requirement might rule out the Hutt Rec (not sure).

This has been a low quality game so far.

@Stargazer yep I was reading somehwere that Hutt lighting isn't up to scratch. Must admit I would prefer they played them in smaller venues.

That was 40 minutes I won’t be getting back .

Orr is on

Poor sub management. Important scrum this

Good scrum .

When are we replacing the two midgets in the halves? They are so damn average.

Get Peter Umaga-Jensen off aswell. He’s been aweful. Absolute clumsy every time he goes near the ball.

Playing like ass rn

Grabs the hb before he touched the ball