Northland 2025
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@taniwharugby said in Northland 2025:
Matt letoga, made Northland while playing for battling Hikurangi in 2023, playing only 1 game off the bench for the Taniwha vs NH that year, moved to Mid Northern this season and looks to have shed a few kgs in the process, plays mainly 8.
Absolute workhorse
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@Landers92 unfortunately Matt Le Toga sustained a serious injury in the club final on Saturday
Possibly ruled out for the season is what i am hearing
Got to feel for Matt worked bloody hard to get his S & C up to speed
Looked in very good shape and ready to make an impact -
@Steven-Harris yep, was helped from the field and then the cart was used to take him from the side of the field to the medical room.
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Northland squad
Definitely opportunities for some young fellas to step up.
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@taniwharugby I didn't realise Heenan had returned. He'll finally make his NPC debut
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Northland side to face Counties in the pre-season match tomorrow.
Good to see Nichols named, hadn't seem him named in club footy this year.
Good chance for a new newbies to lay a marker.
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@taniwharugby very young side for that game. Hard to get a reading from that. Presume another preseason game?
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Northland side to face Auckland in Mahurangi on Thursday
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Not a good afternoon, going down 52-7...yikes
Side Auckland named looked pretty good, but still
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@taniwharugby said in Northland 2025:
Not a good afternoon, going down 52-7...yikes
Side Auckland named looked pretty good, but still
Shit! Suggests they are focussed on something else….i hope
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Our starting pack should be pretty competitive with most, although not sure who our best props will be, but our backs will be pretty green outside the starting guys, which could be a great thing.
Renata, Apoua & CTC all competing for the TH spot, while have to think Lay has the inside running for LH with Fono backing him up.
Matt Moulds surely has the starting hooker role, although heard he was poor defensively the other night, hopefully Mullen can pressure him and even Hutchings gets a decent shake this year.
Lock, I expect Craig to shoulder most of the starts, probably alongside Caird, with LHE backing up, although I think Lachie Hooper can play lock and has impressed in his pre-season matches.
Loose forward will be interesting, with Parker out, I expect Rush at 8, Peita at 6 and Heenan at 7, with both Peita and Hennan standing out in pre-season, Hooper off the bench.
Nock and Reihana to start, not sure who will back up for Nock, Murphy or Renton, while we are thin for 10 with only Jade Stewart in the squad.
Mid-field, Evans and Nichols would be my thinking, with the other 3 all uncapped, and Pasitoa has not impressed in the pre-season, so I'd be inclined to give the bench spot to Reuben Stewart who can play FB as well.
On the wing, with Salmon injured, I expect one of Trainor or Alaimalo to push from FB to the wing and Brady Rush to get another chance on the other wing.
Inc the bench, the match next week will see at least 8 players get thier 1st cap I reckon.
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@taniwharugby what’s up with Parker? Ankle? That’s a big loss - are they expecting him to play this season…
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I think the NRU has done well to put some half decent looking squads together in the last few seasons
But i'm thinking they've underachieved
That's got to be disappointing to the NRU
What do other Taniwha supporters think?I'm not close to the squad; but i'm thinking the team culture might be "to good"
If you know what i mean . . .Not saying that this squad could win the comp; but if I was in it, I wouldn't be happy if we didn't go at least 50/50
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Our squad is pretty good if they stay healthy. With Nock & Reihana we probably have one of the more experienced halves combos in the comp.
Excited to see how the two Aussies Hooper & Pasitoa go.
Hard to establish a good culture when you have a revolving door at coach unfortunately.
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@hikastags said in Northland 2025:
Excited to see how the two Aussies Hooper & Pasitoa go.
on pre-season matches, one has gone very well, the other, less so....
IMO, we have largely underachieved, sadly there seems to be an acceptance of mediocrity over the years when it seems some are just content with not coming last (I'm talking at Management/Board level)
We are attracting quality players back, with the likes of Parker, Evans, Renata, Heenan et al, and by all accounts almost got Beehre back too, getting players in Super squads, but need to build on this and get some actual success on the park.
A Shield win on Saturday would be a monumental start to the season, but against a quality looking 'naki squad, that is a tall order...
In saying that, we have beaten them in Taranaki 2 of their last 3 meetign in Taranaki, but those 3 games go from 2022 to 2010, and the win/loss pattern says they will win this one, comfortably.
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@taniwharugby which one has gone well? I haven’t been following pre-season. I saw we got pantsed by Auckland.
I’m not very optimistic about our shield chances. Taranaki have had better prep than any team coming into this season. I think the Naki have played 3/4 preseason games compared to everyone else’s 1 or 2.
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@hikastags Hooper went very well.
Yeah I'm not confident either, but if we get off to a flyer, confidence can do funny things for a team!
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Getting the training in....grounds were closed soon after...
