The Silver Fern

That was some ugly rugby. Counties couldn't have looked more different to the team that beat Waikato.

@Crucial I was happy Waikato got a BP out of this match because they were outmuscled in the 1st half and made too many mistakes on attack. The Waikato lineout really struggled with 2 undersized locks who probably only met eachother before the game.

Sevu Reece impresses with every match so I hope Rennie is looking closely.

More injuries will mean Canterbury will win in a canter on Wed night.

@hydro11 said in Auckland vs Counties:

@Crucial said in Auckland vs Counties:

I've only seen the highlights but you lot make it sound like Auckland were absolute tripe when according to the scoreboard they must have either done something right or CM were almost absolute tripe too.

Anyway two moments of brilliance (and I'm sure more moments of fail) from Augie to get that deserved win. First time at EP since 1977! Got to love watching a guy willing to try things with the skills to back it up. That try to Fifita was a great chance taken yet the commentary made it sound all like a mistake.

Well done Steelers. Impressed with Suasua's coaching this year.

Auckland have a fair chunk of the best young players in the country. I think they had 3 current All Blacks, Reiko has also been in the environment and many people think Akira won't be far behind. Counties have Pulu who will probably never be at that level. Unless I'm underrating Counties horribly, Auckland should have wiped the floor with them on paper.

I'm not so sure about that. I was very underwhelmed by the AK team sheet and picked CM to win based on form (losses at the death to Naki and Welly that could easily have been wins).
I think you underestimate the Super Rugby experience in the CM team. They are lucky to have a good number of quality players at Super/NPC level that don't get hauled away to AB camps. Taufua and Tupou are no slouches, the Fijian lock is quality, both Pulus are stand outs at this level in the same way that some Super rugby standouts don't translate to Tests. Francis came of age at the Blues and is a quality player at this level as well.
Test type players are not always show outs at this level just as the other way around. Games are scappier and there are more errors that take away momentum.

@Higgins If he doesn't clear the player when jumping and goes cart wheeling over the top he's going to get seriously injured. the crowd then start baying for a red card and the commentators start to say its a dangerous tackle. Either way if its legal or illegal I just think its dump play.

<p>To be honest, I thought it was going to get very ugly at 39-15 - in fact even when we were ahead at half-time we were barely holding on, Counties seem to have so many powerful (and not slow) ball runners. Not sure if Counties turned off the gas in the final 20 but suddenly we had ball going forwards and looked like we would score every time. Worst drop of the weekend has to be the guy who dropped the final Counties kick-off cold when we had 2 minutes to conjure up a miraculous win.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Steelers - bags of potential there but they won't beat the top teams being so careless and disorganised.</p>
<p>Steamers - plenty of spirit which is good to see but we've lost a few to injury and there are lots of kids out there. Will have to beat Northland, Harbour, Southland.</p>

<p>I thought Harbour looked a little bit better than Counties in this one. The stats seem to back that up too.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If August Pulu played this game, I think Counties get the W. Judd was just really bad and held the team back(Vaka didn't help either). I would've brought on Taumateine a lot earlier.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Li is just all comedy these days.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>TJ  was doing his best Nisbo impersonation with how many times he got player names wrong.</p>

@African-Monkey said in Counties Rugby 2016:

Ken Laban is equally, if not more knowledgable about players schools as well so I'm sure he'll look after that department (not that I'm against it).

I'm not against it either.. I'm actually interested lol..
Usually teams show which clubs they come from, but I'm keen to know about the schools