Waikato

1 Mason Tupaea, 2 Manaaki Boyle-Tiatia, 3 George Dyer, 4 Hamilton Burr, 5 Dylan Eti, 6 Xavier Saifoloi, 7 Mitch Jacobson (C), 8 Jahrome Brown, 9 Charlie Marsh, 10 Lima Sopoga, 11 Joshua Moorby, 12 Gideon Wrampling, 13 Bailyn Sullivan, 14 Daniel Sinkinson, 15 Liam Coombes-Fabling

Reserves: 16 Sean Ralph, 17 William Martin, 18 Gabe Robinson, 19 Andrew Smith, 20 Senita Lauaki, 21 Xavier Roe, 22 Tepaea Cook-Savage, 23 Aki Tuivailala

North Harbour

1 Tony Tafa, 2 Bryn Gordon, 3 Sione Mafile'o, 4 Jack Lee, 5 Felix Kalapu, 6 Tristyn Cook, 7 Jed Melvin (C), 8 Cameron Christie, 9 Luke Camp, 10 Cameron Howell, 11 Lotima Fainga'anuku, 12 Ben Brownlee, 13 Thomas Barham, 14 Mark Telea, 15 Hunter Rice

Reserves: 16 Peneia Cakobau, 17 Leka Tu'ungafasi, 18 Sam Davies, 19 Tom Savage, 20 Karl Ruzich, 21 Manusiu Paea, 22 Tony Donnelly, 23 Sofai Notoa-Tipo

Good to see Sullivan back. It would be nice to know the injury status of our two main locks. They've played less than three games combined over Rds 1 and 2.

• Christie makes an early return from his thumb injury
• Sione Mafile’o set to reach 90 caps
• Tony Donelley being called up to make his debut of the bench

I assume Banks is injured, he made his return against BOP only for him to miss last week’s game against Counties, and he’s still not back in the 23 this week.

Starting soon

Poor start by Harbour.

And the AR can't see a clearly forward pass by Coombes-Fabling.

Good multiphase rugby by Harbour and they score just to the right of the posts.

Loads of phases for Harbour

The falloff of Mark Telea should be studied

@Yeetyaah said in Waikato v North Harbour:

The falloff of Mark Telea should be studied

He's over 27 now isn't he?

Intercept by Howell who runs ~75m to score.

14 all as a result.

@antipodean said in Waikato v North Harbour:

@Yeetyaah said in Waikato v North Harbour:

The falloff of Mark Telea should be studied

He's over 27 now isn't he?

Good point

That should be a PT and YC for Roe.

A couple of nice bits of skill there for Waikato to go in front with five minutes to play.

That was close! That turnover from Oli Mathis cost us our first win of the season

Just got back from the game. Waikato is a hard watch at times. NH spent so much more time in the attacking 22.

Filipo needs to use his bench sooner as the subs made an impact. Time to play Mathis at 7 and move on from Mitch Jacobson. Ditto Cook-Savage at 1st 5. The likes of Sopoaga and Cruden can be used to finish games.

A bizarre season where Waikato's four wins have all been by one point.

@UpTheHarbs said in Waikato v North Harbour:

That was close! That turnover from Oli Mathis cost us our first win of the season

And ironically he wasn't in the original 23. I don't know what was said on the Sky commentary but Brown seemed to get a knee problem in the warmups, so Lauaki started at no.8, and Mathis came on to the bench.

Geez all the punch for Waikato came from Cook Savage Mathis and Roe. Weird choice of starting xv