Corey Evans is out injured, Lay being rested, Brady Rush to bench.

Hutchings with his 1st Start, Mullan to the bench with Moulds put due to HIA protocols I assume

The Evans injury forces the most changes, with both bench wings from last week, being promoted to start and Alaimalo moving to centre, and Reuben Stewart comes onto the bench for his 2nd time.

Howling sits on the bench for a 3rd time, hoping for his debut, while Zac Shanks suits up to hopefully get his long awaited debut.

Te Whata-Colley brings up his 50th if he gets out there too.

He and Ryan will need to be better than they were when they came on together v Ta$man where we went from a slightly dominant scrum to getting dealt to.

Gonna need to be on our game for longer than the 20 mins we put out v NH.

Been a while since we last beat Canterbury too...

Bell-Latu midfield, Bell a northlander and Latu was here last year

What’s Toby Bells background?

@kev another from Kerikeri, very highly rated when he was bought into the Crusaders age system a couple of years back.

Probably played at same time as Lucas Casey up there.

@taniwharugby if we could get a few more of these players back from Auckland, Canterbury, Otago we would be well set. Be interesting to know whether we had opportunities to grab them or they have left for school etc. We haven’t promoted the young players we have in the squad whether that be because they are not quite at the level required but it’s been a consistent pattern for years.

@kev I dont believe we had a chance with Bell, although they were looking at loaning him one year, i believe Casey we absolutely had a chance to sign, but didn't, same with Beehre, but I also think these guys would probably fall away in our dev system.

@taniwharugby our development system seems to be they warm the bench for 2 seasons, and leave. Needs to improve.

Northland should win this, as Canterbury's lineup is particularly weak.

@cgrant said in Northland v Canterbury:

Northland should win

Said no one who's followed us closely for far, far too long :crying_face:

Big difference between hope and reality

In the game at half time. Wind in 2nd half. Fitness and bench may be factors. Another penalty on the line and Canterbury will get a yellow card so territory will work for us.

Come on Northland, do Otago a massive favor.

Ever since yesterday I have loved the Taniwha. Have high hopes for them for the rest of this game

Northland 8 goes well

@SouthernMann said in Northland v Canterbury:

Ever since yesterday I have loved the Taniwha. Have high hopes for them for the rest of this game

We tend to struggle against Northland for whatever reason

Great white hype Gardiner binned and Canterbury playing league. I thought Christie was going to get binned actually.

@Grooter said in Northland v Canterbury:

Northland 8 goes well

Player scores a try and gets immediately subbed.

12-12

Good on ya Rush come on the Taniwha

Poor option. Keep going in the tight or just go the droppy

Stubby with a shank off the tee.

Ends in a draw.

It's very probable these two teams will meet again in two weeks lol

Yay...fuck...wait.

Well, that was um, yeah.

Both sides blew some chances out there, both have rights to feel both relief and gutted at the end result.

For me the lack of punch in the backs is an issue, also some of the decision making...I mean going for that lineout when we had thier scrum under the pump 5 out.

While Lay and Renata might be better scrummagers than Apoua and Fono, the latter are more destructive when attacking.

Reihanas boot and hands running hot and cold, again.

Alaimalo is not a centre, was poor on both sides of the ball today, also think he bombed that breakout going left to no one when he had 2.outside to the right.

I like Renton, is a chirpy 9, always trying it on and chatting, can tell he spent time behind Smith, hope he's OK.

Congrats to Howling and Shanks on thier debuts, solid outing for both, also CTC on 50, for me a player that could have played higher levels, but even when offered a chance, didnt grasp it.

I really struggle to see why we persist with Balekana, he has shown zero impact or ability, so taking up space that a dev side player could have had, coach subs Salmon before him.

Brady Rush is far and away our 'most improved' this year, gives it everything, chases and works hard off the ball.

Anywhoo, I mean if someone had said at the start of the season we'd beat Southland, Auckland, Wellington, HB, NH and draw with Canterbury this season, id have taken it, and yet...

Thought we should have put that one away but given the injuries going into the game and we were playing Canterbury a draw is very respectable.

A season where we beat Auckland, Wellington and draw with Canterbury.

It sounds strange, but I thought they would win that game.
Didn't actually watch it live, went to another game.
They seem to do ok when I don't watch the game, so i'll keep that up.

Martin seems to have got them respecting the basics a bit more than we in the past.
Always keeps you in the game when you do that.
Be nice if we could get our attack going tho, will have to from here on.
Incredibly; with 5½ wins we still haven't clinched playoffs.

Balekana is taking a dev spot.
I mean, he is only a winger.
If you bring players in, first you want gain-line ball carriers.

I said it looked like a 50/50 team at the start of the season!
Still didn't expect them to go 50/50 tho . . .

The final 15-20 minutes (including the golden point time) was decent quality from both sides.

Taniwha were putting pressure on at the defensive breakdowns but I though the Cantab forwards stepped up a notch with securing the ball.

We were hammering away at the line and probably should’ve kept going to score a game winning try but got a rush of blood to go wide and fluffed it.

Like I said, we seem to have close tough matches of recent years against Northland

Saw some of the tackler stats for this game, several of our forwards put in a shift.
Attempted/made
Rob Rush 31/29
Jake Heenan 20/19
Allen Craig 28 /25
Lachie Hooper 17/16
Terrell Peita 14/13
Ollie Ryan 13/13
Jordon Hutchings 9/8

In contrast, our midfield missed 19 of 26, which is over half what the team missed.
All up - 263/227 91.6% tackle success

Heard Christie made over 30 tackles too.

@taniwharugby said in Northland v Canterbury:

tackler stats

Nice, thats what keeps you in the game.
Nearly knocked off the team top of the table.
Have to think the forwards will be stoked by those numbers.
More of that this weekend.