The Silver Fern

@Bovidae said in BOP v Auckland:

The thing is that Karpik is a star at this level but has little impact in SR.

just as well this was a Mitre10 cup game then.. let the man have his 5 minutes 🙂 , although a more cohesive performance as a team, his impact at this level is important

@African-Monkey said in Auckland MOTM v Manawatu:

Hickey, Lam and Adams. Funaki unlucky.

Lam, Funaki, Adams

Lam doesn't make many errors and is having lots of positive impact. Adams did his core work and then had two great runs.
Funaki because of how important that performance might be for the overall season (although Ieremia is quite a conservative selector)

Probably unfair on Hickey

This game was at the same time as the shield match. Sky should realise theres people who will watch one game and record the other

The fluffybunnies announced the shield result and score at the end of this match

Choat, Plummer, Tu’ungafasi

@mikey07 said in Auckland v Wellington:

@nzzp I’ll gladly swap you can have our coaches if you want.

it's too late. They've got the board behind them ... this conspiracy goes All.The.Way.

I went with Akira, Plummer and Lam.

All 3 were playing really well whilst the rest of the team was struggling around them in the first half.

Ofa was outstanding too.

Scoreboard looks bad for Harbour, but i don't reckon it reflects the game. I think we all ummed and ahhed before hitting the button

@Tim the headline says it all.

Not sure what he has been working on 😐

Would have been fun to watch that Waikato midfield with both players in their prime.

@Donsteppa said in Ultimate NPC: Round 1 Auckland v Wellington:

I saw Jones missing from the team sheet and for a split second thought everyone must have been drunk in the Auckland selection thread.

Thought I'd have some fun.
Just wait until the injury report after round one

@Bovidae he was part of that Star-studded Marist line-up back in the day. Brooke brothers, T. Wright, J. Kirwan etc...it was 1 too many choirboys in the Auckland team for some.

@Nogusta Very interesting. Thanks for the update!

Tough loss. Watched the game again and the team put in a great effort, especially the starters. It's too bad that our subs came on and added very little. Outside of Adams, most of the subs had a negative impact on the game, especially Abel. If you watch the last 20 minutes, almost all the missed tackles and mistakes during that time were by our bench players. Their bench was much better and made key plays at the end of the game, which was probably the difference.

I think both packs canceled each other out for the most part. I think our pack struggled to get much go forward for most of the game, but despite that, our backs were pretty dangerous throughout the match. We definitely made a mistake not having Sotutu somewhere in the 23 though.

The way we corrected things in the last few weeks, I'm hopeful of next season. We were just a totally different team late in the season.

LOL, Riccitelli got badly palmed off by Trainor.

@SammyC said in Ta$man v Auckland:

Has anyone mentioned how shit Akira Ioane was? 😉

Yes he was very bad. He's put on some weight hasn't he. I couldn;t believe how easily Havili ran around him in that first half. Ha two players share the same non-AB selection disappointment but couldn't be more different in their attitude.

@Stargazer said in Auckland vs Wellington:

Has he been signed by anyone? Also Ben-Nicholas?

I guess we will have to wait for the official squad announcement but surely there must be whispers.

@Dice Yup I know what you mean I've seen the same stuff too. I feel like he's a rough diamond who'll get better in time. His lineout definitely needs working on but he has the physical attributes to go far and is worth perservering with in the long run.

Very late but here are my post match interviews from both the Miter 10 Cup and Farah Palmer Cup games: