Chiefs 2018
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@hooroo said in Chiefs 2018:
We even made Lavea look good when he played 2nd 5
Bleh.. nothing impressive about that. Lavea didn't deserve his reputation as a poor player. He played some excellent games for Auckland and was ok for the Blues.
Lam knew how to use him at Auckland. Lavea and Nacewa would share the first receiver role (not dissimilar to Cruden/Anscombe but with even more responsibility given to the secondary playmaker) and it worked well. Nucifora played Lavea as a traditional 10 and the results were more mixed. The Chiefs playing him at 12 also suited his skillset.
Most of his poor reputation was because he was always linked to the premature dropping of Spencer
@duluth Exactly right. Didn't help when Tuitupou got shifted to the Chiefs in 06 to accomodate Rua Tipoki. Lavea and Tipoki were always destined to fail together whereas Tuitupou really suited Lavea's style of play.
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I was hoping that a young LH like Ayden Johnstone would have got a callup not Prattley. I blame Nick White!
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That is exactly who I wanted to see the opportunity go to. Presumably he is training with them though, and next cab off the rank?
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Development team off to Hong Kong
The UoW Chiefs Taua Development touring squad to Hong Kong is:
Props
Ayden Johnstone (Waikato)Ollie Norris (Waikato)
Joshua Iosefo-Scott (Waikato)
Takayuki Watanabe (Kobelco Steelers)
George Dyer (Waikato)
Hookers
Donald Maka (Taranaki)Seb Siataga (Bay of Plenty)
Kasuke Nishibayashi (Kobelco Steelers)
Locks
James Tucker (Waikato) (c)Sam Caird (Waikato)
Tupou Vaiāi (Taranaki)
Loose Forwards
Stan van der Hoven (Bay of Plenty)Foot Lokotui (Counties Manukau)
Joe Johnson (Bay of Plenty)
Ajay Lafaele-Mua (Bay of Plenty)
Halfbacks
Luke Campbell (Bay of Plenty)Isaac Te Aute (Bay of Plenty)
First Five-Eighth
Daniel Waite (Taranaki)Akihiro Shimizo (Kobelco Steelers)
Midfield
Matthew Lansdown (Waikato)Quinn Tupaea (Waikato)
Nigel Ah Wong (Counties Manukau)
Sam Furniss (Counties Manukau)
Outside Backs
Isaac Te Tamaki (Waikato)Mosese Dawai (Waikato)
Kini Naholo (Taranaki)
Bailey Simonsson (Bay of Plenty)
The UoW Chiefs Taua Development Squad players not available for the tour are:
Jeff Thwaites (Bay of Plenty), Baden Wardlaw (Bay of Plenty), Jesse Parete (Taranaki), Bailyn Sullivan (Waikato), Declan OāDonnell (Taranaki), Luteru Laulala (Counties Manukau), Reuben OāNeill (Taranaki), Jared Profit (Taranaki), Jacob Skeen (Waikato), Matt Vaiāi (Counties Manukau), Mitchell Jacobson (Waikato), Jahrome Brown (Waikato), Terrence Hepetema (Bay of Plenty), Sheldon Tovio (Waikato), Tyler Campbell (Waikato), Tevita Mafileo (Bay of Plenty), Suetena Asomua (Counties Manukau), Bradley Slater (Taranaki), Laghlan McWhannell (Waikato), Tom Florence (Taranaki), Xavier Roe (Waikato), Ciarahn Matoe (Taranaki), Kaleb Trask (Bay of Plenty).
The 2018 University of Waikato Chiefs Development Squad Management Team for the Hong Kong tour is:
Head Coach Paul Hodder
Assistant Coach Nathan White
Assistant Coach Tim Nanai-Williams
Manager Gareth Duncan
Trainer Brad Mayo
Physio Teresa Te Tamaki
Analyst Jared Christie
Player Development Manager Kent Currie
High Performance Manager Chris Tindall@mikedogz said in Chiefs 2018:
Development team off to Hong Kong
The first game of the tour - against a Hong Kong Select XV squad - is today at 7.50pm NZT.
Haven't seen a Chiefs line-up; don't think there will be a live stream. -
@mikedogz said in Chiefs 2018:
Development team off to Hong Kong
The first game of the tour - against a Hong Kong Select XV squad - is today at 7.50pm NZT.
Haven't seen a Chiefs line-up; don't think there will be a live stream. -
That's the only game they play.
Both Allardice and Kautai were listed to be playing club rugby today. The latter will ease some of the pressure at prop once he is fit.
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The tour includes the UoW Chiefs Taua Development team having training sessions with the Hong Kong national squad and playing a match against a Hong Kong national XV on Saturday 21 April at the Hong Kong Football Club, before returning on Monday 23 April. The UoW Chiefs Taua Development players will also participate in community engagement coaching events during their stay, together with the HKRU for young players from their Youth and Mini Rugby programmes.
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The Chiefs Dev team won 49-27 (HT: 35-15) against Hong Kong.
Full story here
https://www.hkrugby.com/news/hong-kong-take-positives-from-chiefs-development-loss -
Injuries after last Saturday's game:
All Blacks utility McKenzie copped friendly fire to the head from the knee of Angus Ta'avao and was forced from the field in the 20th minute, and because he was dazed he automatically failed the HIA assessment. Cooper said his star playmaker labelled himself fine on Sunday, but that he would have to go through the concussion protocols. Wainui left the park at the hour-mark with a shoulder problem, though there is a ready-made replacement on hand if need be, with Toni Pulu scheduled back from his own shoulder injury. -
What's your first choice XXIII going to be? I'm hesitant to assume that Ngatai will be available for > 50% of games.
- Hames
- Harris
- Laulala
- Retallick
- Bird/Allardice/Brown
- Seu/Brown
- Cane
- Brown/Messam
- TTT/Weber
- McKenzie
- Alaimalo
- Fa'auli
- Lienert-Brown
- Pulu
- Stevenson
- Polwart?
- is Mitchell Graham signed up?
- Moli
- Bird/Allardice/Brown
- Boshier/Karpick/Brown/Messam/Seu
- Weber/TTT
- Tiaan Falcon
- TNW
Due to popular demand (from the Blues thread, where I did this but made no judgement) here is a pre-season first choice guess v the team selected for the last game.
@tim said in Chiefs 2018:
What's your first choice XXIII going to be? I'm hesitant to assume that Ngatai will be available for > 50% of games.
Hames- Harris (OK, only rested)
Laulala- Retallick
Bird/Allardice/BrownSeu/Brown- Cane
Brown/Messam- TTT/Weber
- McKenzie
- Alaimalo
- Fa'auli
- Lienert-Brown
PuluStevenson( although Ngatai could have been picked here)
- Polwart
- is
Mitchell Grahamsigned up? MoliBird/Allardice/Brown- Boshier
/Karpick/Brown/Messam/Seu - Weber/TTT
Tiaan FalconTNW
I think someone mentioned in the Blues thread that a key difference in the injury impact is that the core leadership in the team is still intact. Cane, BBBR, Messam, Ngatai(sometimes) and when you look at that list there is still a spine at 2,4,8,9,10 and centres to keep some shape.
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Another key difference is the quality of coaching. In the first Chiefs/Blues match the the Chiefs were decimated.
If you didnāt know the history, you would have assumed the Blues were the ones with an injury crisis and had a new coach. The team was so disorganised and no one knew their roles. But that was a team prepared by a coach in his third season with the side.The gulf in quality between Cooper and Umaga is enormous.
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Another key difference is the quality of coaching. In the first Chiefs/Blues match the the Chiefs were decimated.
If you didnāt know the history, you would have assumed the Blues were the ones with an injury crisis and had a new coach. The team was so disorganised and no one knew their roles. But that was a team prepared by a coach in his third season with the side.The gulf in quality between Cooper and Umaga is enormous.
