The Silver Fern

Someone once said something about a game of two halves (and then they said it again..).

This was that.

First half, Ta$man seemed a mix of casual, butter-fingered, overly-anxious hunguses determined to keep Southland in the game.

Second half they came out much more focused, accurate and playing for each-other and eventually broke the Southland shackles.

Not sure whether playing with the wind was responsible for some pretty dire catching and passing. Tbh Southland played the first half like there was a heavy mid-afternoon dew , as well.

Anyway, ended up pretty comfortable.

Much better from just about everyone compared to last week's debacle - at least in the 2nd half. David Havili back to being a talisman. Fox-Matamua went well at 8. Ross improved the lineout. Renton probably had his best game of the season.

Once we stopped dropping the ball Big Leicester and Fetu Paea started to look good. Fonotia was decent and Mark Talea had his moments.

Nice cameo from Segner with one blockbusting run and a little catch and pass to set up a try. Worth another run next week, IMO.

Biggest problem was Isaac Salmon at tighthead - we went from having a dominant scrum with Matenga, to getting beaten up. That suggest that Matenga might be worth a look from a Super team.

Pleasing effort in the loose from Sam Moli. I'm not sure whether he threw to the linout, but I'd stick with him for next week as well.

@Duluth Not as bad as it looked...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/provincial/123167928/wanted-for-attempted-murder-jack-whettons-hilarious-shot-at-teammates-over-frightening-lineout-fall

Much better effort from Ta$man this week, with everyone contributing.

Christie especially looked like he'd shaken off some rust and things flowed better from there.

However, as above, the forward packs seemed reasonably evenly matched. The Ta$man backs just had more firepower and played with more adventure.

I think it will be a lot better for TTT to stay in NZ and play some rugby rather than sitting in an Australian grandstand watching the ABs. On that performance, I wouldn't want Otere Black very near an AB jersey either.

@Dice said in North Harbour v Ta$man:

@Chris-B said in North Harbour v Ta$man:

Ta$man's worst half of the season, so far.

They've turned Havili's counter-attack over several times, so far and the handful of promising opportunities have been stymied by clumsy play.

Need to improve markedly in the 2nd 40.

Harbour pack apparently 100kgs heavier than Ta$man's!!!

I was surprised by the numbers, but I think it's wrong. No way are Harbour averaging 121kg per man.

Yeah - that would be a massive test pack. Maybe the Boks have put out a pack that big, but I doubt the ABs ever have.

And, on the other hand, I'm doubtful that Ta$man are only 109kgs per man. Andrew Makalio is billed at 128kgs on his own. Isi Tuungafasi is 120 kgs.

@Yeetyaah said in Ta$man v Waikato:

@Machpants so any player can disrupt the ball in a pass as long as it's flicked back?

Of course. You're not offside and you're not in any way deliberately knocking it forward.

@taniwharugby Fair comment - some times in games that is very much the case. That said, Leilua has impressed me this year with his physicality.

@Bovidae said in Counties v Ta$man:

Read has some conditions from his Japanese club around playing time. He was only allowed to play 40 mins last night and won't be playing against Hawke's next round, along with missing some other away games.

Ah stink, it would have been good to have him start in the kind of form he was in last year. 😉

Although, to be serious, it would have been goof for Flanders to have had a run against him.

@mariner4life said in Ultimate NPC: Round 1 Otaaaaaago v Ta$man:

How did @Chris-B vote twice?

Cash.

I was going to ask you where Kahu Marfell fits into your thinking? As in how many injuries required before he makes the 23?

I'm looking forward to seeing Parata in action. Seems like yonks ago we were discussing the merits of the Crusaders supposedly bringing him back from NSW.

@Bovidae Nice try, Ron.

Probably had Richard Pearse playing first five! 🙂

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.

Haha

600a54a9-ff43-4c65-8fb1-58e47f04911b-image.png

@Chiefy07 said in Ta$man v Northland:

Jack Debreczeni

The irony there is he seemed to be made of glass in Super rugby haha!

Yeah I mentioned the players we are missing above being a factor, and maybe the expectation has been the newbies will be able to execute plans they had when they were anticipating our 'best' players would have been available.

I think the coaches need to take some of the heat, they provide the gameplans, conditioning (coaching group) culture etc...seems there is a bit wrong at present.

@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.

@KiwiMurph I don't think Ta$man were intentionally cheating though - it was pretty clear that their scrum was getting dominated, but trying to hold up - and that Harbour was scrumming for the penalty.

Ta$man wasn't just immediately folding - they were holding initially and plenty of opportunity for Harbour to have cleared the ball if they wanted - they didn't want to.

Oh and I'm also in the camp that doesn't move Goodhue to accommodate Ennor, but should attrition or lack of other options dictate that move - and there's no clear 12 for the Saders at the moment - then so be it.

@Snowy That one is already lined up for an entirely different, though highly unlikely, purpose! 🙂

@shark I reckon you won't get much use out of Will next year - even if you open that massive red and black chequebook!

Who is the Aussie 10?