Ha, well looks like some of those injuries were not as bad as initially thought, although LHE & Mullan both out on HIA I guess?

Coach back to his 2 wing bench, he loves him some Balekana!!

Heating Reihana and Caird out.

Pasitoa to 10, Evans to 12, Alaimalo to 13 and Balekana to wing...Mau'u comes to bench for Caird, although Rush covering lock, Jade Stewart to the bench for possible debut.

still nothing official yet, but some of those under injury clouds at start of week are falling over...Evans and Renton both with niggles, so yeah, that will make it much more interesting if they fall over too.

Pasitoa likely out, Jade Stewart promoted to get his debut, Rueben Stewart to bench.

Updated:
1 Jordan Lay, 2 Matt Moulds, 3 Chris Apoua, 4 Allan Craig, 5 Lachlan Hooper, 6 Rob Rush, 7 Jake Heenan, 8 Terrell Peita, 9 Josh Renton, 10 Rivez Reihana Jade Stewart, 11 Brady Rush, 12 Reesjan PasitoaCorey Evans, 13 Corey EvansSolomon Alaimalo, 14 Solomon Alaimalo Paula Balekana, 15 Jordan Trainor

Reserves: 16 Jordan Hutchings, 17 Esile Fono, 18 Coree Te Whata-Colley, 19 Sam Caird Jonah Mau'u, 20 Zac Shanks, 21 Marley Murphy, 22 Paula Balekana Reuben Stewart, 23 Nathan Salmon

The Waikato team. 50th game for George Dyer. I doubt Waikato has started the same XV in consecutive games all season.

Confirmed that Reihana and Pasitoa out, although graphic shows the Stewart brothers playing at 10 and 12 (and Reuben is wearing the 10 in the image) so assume Evans staying at 13 and back 3 unchanged.

Both teams will be Ta$man supporters for the weekend.

Surprised that was awarded so quickly...

Man that was dumb.

Nice try though

@taniwharugby said in Waikato v Northland:

Man that was dumb.

Nice try though

By Waikato 6?

Yeah the YC

Well taken by Waikato, looked a small knock on way back but too far to review

Replay going on on the Stan stream.

First knocked on by Northland into Waikato who knocked it on back into him.

Too many phases to call back I think.

Somenaverage defence by us to trail at the break.

14-12 to Waikato at half time.

Entertaining game.

Yet to see why coach keeps giving minutes to Balekana, Alaimalo has been poor again, not a centre.

Disappointed with the mascot race. They should have let the kid/calf win.

Great width there, shame about the nfl pass to finish...

Aside from the card, Malachi Wrampling has been strong

shes a cripple fight

@ploughboy said in Waikato v Northland:

shes a cripple fight

Thwre have been a few of these this season.

Southland v North Harbour last night was an absolute classic

25-19 70 mins

@SouthernMann said in Waikato v Northland:

@ploughboy said in Waikato v Northland:

shes a cripple fight

Thwre have been a few of these this season.

Southland v North Harbour last night was an absolute classic

luckly i didnt have skin in that one

Cruden still has some nice skills

Man we have been rubbish in the 2nd half

We are spent...

Waikato seal it 25-19, we made.far too many errors in that 2nd half and several at important moments.

@taniwharugby said in Waikato v Northland:

Waikato seal it 25-19, we made.far too many errors in that 2nd half and several at important moments.

We looked exhausted at the end. Lineout fell apart. Started with too many banged up bodies and missing players. Our tight 5 wasn’t as effective as usual. Alaimalo looked out of sorts. Salmon made a couple of mistakes with his hands.

But if our season ends here you would be happy. 5.wins 1 draw. Close games, stayed in the fight which is what they haven’t done in the past.

Salmons hands have been poor all season, shelled plenty this year, then there is balekana...so issues on 1 wing.

Alaimalo has been poor in.the games he played at centre, they needed to give Reuben Stewart more time, especially when Alaimalo looked gassed about 65 mins.

Both Stewart brothers looked handy in thier time, Trainor has been very good for us.

I think we missed our locks with Hooper at lock, depowered our scrum.

Hutchings got the yips, while Moulds seems to struggle past 55 mins these.days.

I really like Renton though, brings alot more energy and consistency at 9.

If we do get through, we will need LHE, Caird, Reihana and Pasitoa to have any shot.

@taniwharugby Salmon has a habit of getting ahead of himself - looking at the options and not executing what he is doing. But I think he has a lot of upside. A bit more game time and he will be great.

@kev yeah, getting consistent game time when stuck behind Balekana...had chances today but hands let him down, and probably costly drops too.

Anywhoo, go Ta$man!

A fairly even game from my view at the stadium. Waikato's poor starts continue. Happy to make the QFs but I don't expect us to advance any further. When I saw all of the missing Waikato players exit their room as I was leaving, there are a lot of players missing before I even count the ABs.