Blues 2024

Yeetyaah

@george33 maths is hard I guess

george33

@Yeetyaah it's who U no my friend

Daffy Jaffy

The boys suggesting that the All Blacks that are on tour may not actually play this next game, that they are there to train on with the team after just recently returning from their break.

Duluth

I skimmed through that.

Angus talking about his injury was interesting. No feeling from the neck down for ~1 min. Didn’t want to play again initially. His spinal cord was already pinched before the injury that made it more likely. Post operation it’s safer than it was before the injury

Apparently Akira gives Angus shit about being a club ___ ( slut, whore?), says he’s a one club man

SBW1

Tim

Starting locks while Tuipulotu is out? Darry seems locked in, so Beehre, McWhannell, or Suafoa to partner him?

Starting tight five is probably easy to pick aside from that:

1 Tu'ungufasi
2 Riccitelli
3 Ta'avao
4 Darry
5 ?

Duluth

@Tim

Hard to guess with new coaches. So far Suafoa hasn’t been used at lock.. Thompson has been used as a lock and a loosie

I’m guessing Darry won’t play the Chiefs preseason match after having plenty of minutes already

Suafoa probably needs to start at lock in that one to be a chance

African Monkey

@Tim I think Lay will start at LH with Tu'ungafasi off the bench to dtart off with.

Daffy Jaffy

Shades of the Red Conway Story - may explain a few of his ball handling issues over the seasons -

Daffy Jaffy

African Monkey

@george33 Looks like you were bang on, well played sir.

Duluth

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/patrick-tuipulotu-avoids-surgery-on-fractured-jaw-blues-captain-expects-to-miss-up-to-six-weeks-of-season/JJEZHGU6IRHPVFUYD6YLWFCV7Y/

Patrick Tuipulotu has avoided surgery on his fractured jaw, with the Blues captain expecting to be back on the field in April after a period of rest and recovery.

While out of action and limited to light activities for the time being, Tuipulotu said it would be a bit of a struggle to maintain his weight during his time off. He said in the 10 days since he suffered the injury he has already lost 2kg and had been told he could have full-fat milk and a few more protein shakes before bed in a bid to limit the weight he would shed.

Frank

Well done george33, you had the good oil.

Chris

@Frank said in Blues 2024:

Well done george33, you had the good oil.

April after the bye is that not what was first reported 8 weeks

Duluth

Some injury updates:

The Blues are still without a trio of frontliners in Sam Darry (neck), Akira Ioane (calf) and All Black Ofa Tu’ungafasi (knee), with Cotter confirming all are doubtful starters for the season opener against the Drua in Whangarei on February 24.

“Ofa needs to get himself conditioned. At tighthead prop you’ve got to spend more time around your contact at scrum, lineout and combinations, so he’s probably a little longer coming back in. Aki (Ioane) shouldn't be far away – he’s started knocking people around at training – and Sam is just a tweak so we’re being careful with him.”

Tim

Time to guess the 23 for the opening game.

1 Lay
2 Riccitelli
3 Ta'avao
4 Darry
5 Beehre
6 Segner
7 Papalii
8 Sotutu

9 Christie
10 Perofeta
11 Clarke
12 Plummer
13 Ioane
14 Telea
15 Sullivan

16 Eklund
17 Fusitua
18 Renata
19 Suafoa
20 Choat
21 Nock
22 Evans/Heem
23 Lam

Tim

The Blues lost captain Patrick Tuipulotu to a broken jaw in Japan. Akira Ioane’s calf injury is expected to sideline him for the first two regular season games and All Blacks prop Ofa Tu’ungafasi appears set to miss round one, too. Otherwise, though, the Blues squad is in healthy shape.