Otago
1 Craig Millar
2 Sam Anderson-Heather
3 Hisa Sasagi
4 Josh Furno
5 Josh Dickson
6 Dillon Hunt
7 James Lentjes
8 Adam Knight
9 Josh Renton
10 Josh Ioane
11 Jona Nareki
12 Teihorangi Walden
13 Sio Tomkinson
14 Leroy van Dam
15 Vilimoni Koroi
Reserves:
16 Sekonaia Pole
17 Aki Seiuli
18 Donald Brighouse
19 Blair Tweed
20 Sione Teu
21 Jono Ruru
22 Fletcher Smith
23 Latu Vaeno
Magpies
1 Jason Long (vc)
2 Jorian Tangaere
3 Pouri Rakete-Stones
4 Nick Palmer
5 Josh Eden-Whaitiri
6 Lucas Goodin
7 Hugh Renton
8 Marino Mikaele-Tu'u
9 Brad Weber (c)
10 Tiaan Falcon
11 Sam McNicol
12 Cardiff Vaega
13 Hayden Hann
14 Jonah Lowe
15 Richard Buckman
Reserves:
16 Jacob Devery
17 Mark Braidwood
18 Jarvy Aoake
19 Ben Parsons
20 Fa'alemiga Selesele
21 Ellery Wilson
22 Dan Snee
23 TJ Vaega
Just got back to Wgtn from the Schools Finals in Palmy and discover HB down 24 - 00 after 22 minutes. Sheesus we must be shittier than shite. No wonder it is so quiet in here.
Quick call the ambulance I think the scoreboard attendant is in danger of having a heart attack resulting from the unimaginable happening of HB scoring a converted try. It is something that you could put in the miraculous category if the play I have seen had mirrored the 20 minutes I had missed.
HB 07 - 31 Otago after 33 minutes
I predict the next eight minutes or so chould well be the best the Magpies have. Sadly those eight minutes are the half time break.
Man, this is so depressing. Shit game, shit season. And we all knew it in advance. But what can you expect with an 11 men injury list and shit recruiting.
The early replacement of Falcon and Rakete-Stones didn't look to be caused by injury. Is this Philpott's way of punishing his players? Then why is Vaega still on the field?
I know how you guys are feeling..this was Northland in 2015/2016,we had a lot of young guys,with not a hell of lot of experience,and when you consider the super rugby personal you have unavailable ..!,5 in the pack that I can think of.
You have got 3 or 4 under 20 boys,it would have been a hell of a lot better,to have introduced them with some experienced guys around them..
Look at Canterbury,similar number of under 20 guys,but if you can slip into an environment with guys Bird,Hodgeman,Jager,Princeep,Whitelock in the pack,Drummond,Mounga,Bateman and Bridge to name a few,all with super rugby experience,
As a Northlander,I have soft spot for Hawkes Bay,as when teams were looking to be culled many seasons ago,Hawkes Bay were one of the few Unions that supported the Taniwha..
So hang in there..!
I don't know where we go from here. The usual comfortable four or five pointers you could rely on from Northland and North Harbour are now no longer realistic probabilities and not having Auckland on the fixture list is also a blow. Is there any possibility we might scavenge a bonus point or two somewhere along the line?
@Higgins To be honest,unless you can get some more experienced heads back on deck,I don't see a win coming anytime soon.
The problem I can see,some of the heads are are starting to go down,even though the Bay were beaten by Wellington,I thought they showed some ticker,
Set piece is a real issue,and the tackling today has been very poor..What's happened to Mark Abbott...?
@Stockcar86 thanks for that,I was looking through your injury list,by my reckoning looks like you have almost a full playing XV,and McNicol looks like he now has rib damaged..probably sums things up..
What was C Vaega thinking then when he twice rushed up out of line and ran past the attacking Otago player without even getting near him, end result yet another try.
OK, I'll administer the final rites
Hawkes Bay 21 - 64 Otago
Highlight of the Day: The referee blowing for full time.
Well that was embarrassing.
Lets just roll out the Hastings Boys 1st XV for the rest of the season - they surely can't do any worse.
Our U20 boys are indeed struggling. I'm not surprised; they have just been thrown in the deep end, esp Pouri and Marino. Devery is also a pup and not up to it yet. I hope this doesn't make them lose their confidence completely, but seeing the look on Falcon's face straight after he was subbed off, I'm worried.
On top of that, we played with 5 players of our development team; Snee was a good replacement at 10, but with all these new additions to the team, we just lack good combinations. Worst thing is that it even affects the experienced players. Bucky had a bad day.
Jonah Lowe gets a passmark for a great try and relentless effort. Weber, too; must have been frustrating to play behind a pack that went backwards in the scrum all the time. Hope Ben May and Ash Dixon are back soon. We need our few big boys.
I also think it needs to be said that we didn't lose because of a lack of effort from the boys. They kept on trying until the final whistle.
And that injury list keeps on growing, despite Wilson now coming back.
Hope the injury to McNicol (rib?) isn't too bad. Braidwood's head knock looked more serious. Not sure what Mikaele-Tu'u's injury was that made Goodin come back on again.
Oh, and I can't believe that high tackle wasn't penalised.
I've never thought and said this before, but I wish the season was already over.
Thankfully, we have Hastings Boys' great season to celebrate.
@Stockcar86 When are they taking it off Canterbury?
