Blues 2024
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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
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D Duluth forked this topic on
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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 ?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
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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 ?@Tim I think Lay will start at LH with Tu'ungafasi off the bench to dtart off with.
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Shades of the Red Conway Story - may explain a few of his ball handling issues over the seasons -
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3Oy5wjSF_p/ -
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@george33 Looks like you were bang on, well played sir.
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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. -
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.” -
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 Sotutu9 Christie
10 Perofeta
11 Clarke
12 Plummer
13 Ioane
14 Telea
15 Sullivan16 Eklund
17 Fusitua
18 Renata
19 Suafoa
20 Choat
21 Nock
22 Evans/Heem
23 Lam -
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.
Cotter indicated his biggest selection headache is at halfback where Sam Nock and Finlay Christie are competing for the starting role.
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Get well soon. Hope it's not too major.
https://twitter.com/BluesRugbyTeam/status/1758599451793608922?t=ao9zhX4nRvBH-LuloJ-STg&s=19
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@KiwiMurph still probably the best option to get the Blues backline to its potential.
