The Silver Fern

And as the graphic showed DMac is up there with winning the most breakdown turnovers. Not a forward to be seen in the top 5. 🙂

Plummer seems a very good captain, talk alot, incluing alot to the ref, probably a bit much at times, but its a fine line.

Thought the starting props and Trainor went well.

Very entertaining game despite the incompetent refereeing. Trainor was the best Aukland player in a team which forgot to get out of its bus during the first 20 minutes, as the Frenchies say. I was impressed by Reihana. He's had his best NPC game ever. Murray is one to watch. He's only 19 and could develop into a very physical wing. He showed an impressive pace for his try. Great game from the Taniwha locks and loose forwards. They were into everything. As a neutral, I think the Taniwhas deserved the victory for the guts and passion they showed. A number of Auckland players looked desinterested at times.

Yes the Funaki - Plummer axis is working well. Good to see both getting consistent minutes.

Backline has a good balance to it - the midfield compliments each other well.

Census Johnston doing well with the scrum.

@KiwiMurph said in Auckland v Otago:

@FakatavaAllBlack was impressed by Withy and Holland for Otago.

Was coming into thread to say exactly that about Holland Kiwi, I have been watching hin for a while liking what he does, and although only saw first half hour of this game yesterday, he impressed the hell out of me. For a 19-20yo kid he even got a great build for a lock to go with his height. But his workrate really impresses me, he works well in mauls as well as lifting, jumping in lineouts . Looks a pretty complete package for a kid! And to top it off he caught AJ Lam from behind after he made a break.

@bayimports

Yeah he played well too. Up until this game I was worried he was a dud signing

@KiwiMurph said in Auckland v BOP:

@TheMojoman said in Auckland v BOP:

Rayasi really needs to break through in 2023. He just looks the goods and pace to burn.

Rayasi is about to turn 26 and had his breakthrough season in the 2018 NPC. For a winger he's running out of time.

That made me think of Shaun Stevenson, to see how old he is now. Lo and behold, they're cousins! Shaun is a year younger.

Good to see Plummer back

Match stats are interesting. Pretty similar in most areas. A 1 point difference seems fair.

5576f8a1-d9a7-4d9e-92f9-ce1234876076-image.png

e08203e7-3d26-460c-853d-fd2babfbbe25-image.png

Rayasi, Tuipulotu and Dalzell.

Other than that first scrum and a little bit of fringe defence, Auckland played very well.

I do like Luke Campbell’s passing. Very swift from the base without any steps. Pretty accurate too.

Sullivan, Vikena and Funaki

Zarn’s try was the highlight of the match (8:24 in this video)

Just remembered about the MOTM polls. Here's the final results

10 AJ Lam
9 Funaki
7 Hodgman
7 Plummer
6 P Tuipulotu
5 RTS
5 Beehre
5 Peita
4 Choat
4 Rayasi
4 Gibson
3 Sullivan
3 H Tuipulotu
3 Trainor
3 Ta'avao
2 A Ioane
2 Ekuasi
2 Dalzell
1 Evans
1 Vikena
1 Pugh

The most consistent 4 players at the top Patrick only played a couple of matches but was in very good form. 1st in the QF and 1st= in the SF 2020 was the only other full season the polls have been run for Auckland. That year 15 players got votes, this year it was 21 2020 the winner (Rayasi) got 20 points

So the votes shared around a lot with no runaway winner when compared to other vote tallies (ABs, Blues, Auckland, Northland)

@bayimports said in Auckland v BOP:

boo, no one wanted covid as the reason..

Gutted

@nzzp said in Auckland MOTM v Ta$man:

Ruru. Then I couldn't figure out anyone else

I think there was some candidates in the pack in particular

The props were on top in the scrum but didn't get much reward from the ref. Scrafton seems to be in good form. The loosies were mostly good until the lack of possession resulted in some missed tackles. Choat in particular got through a lot of work on defence (14 tackles no misses)

@dice said in Ta$man v Auckland:

@gt12 said in Ta$man v Auckland:

@chris-b said in Ta$man v Auckland:

@antipodean said in Ta$man v Auckland:

@number9 said in Ta$man v Auckland:

Tactically fucked after half time. Pathetic passes and poor kicking options, together with Rayasis brain facts.

He's lucky he has athleticism because he has no skill.

He doesn't seem to be a natural footballer.

I said earlier that Foster should pick him as a project, but I'm going to recant on that.

I agree, although I also I think that shows the big difference between being an attacking winger who is serviceable under the high ball, and an outright fullback. He may be the first but he certainly isn’t the second.

He's always been pretty iffy at fullback. Can probably get away with being there against weaker teams, but not against a team like Ta$man.

He has relatively good hands when the ball is coming from above his head, which makes sense given his b-ball history, but yeah Ta$man made him work pretty hard today.

My biggest gripe is that he looks so casual that I cant tell whether that is just what he looks like or that he’s a bit lazy/not really 100% there.

Scrafton was very good.

@kiwimurph said in Auckland v Canterbury:

That must explain why Ardie is the AB number 8 - his renowned towering height.

1.88 according Mr Google (cough, cough bullshit). 2cm below adequate.

@kev no news on Tom, Tamati played about 25 mins even though he wasn't named