2017 Super Rugby - Preseason games

[Stargazer]

Hopefully, there's more footage to come from today's games:

Watch: Blues playmaker Ihaia West pounces on Chiefs mistake, blitzing defenders to score

[Stargazer]

Smiley must have been smiling today

[Dice]

@Tim It's our year!

[Duluth]

Someone has been uploading full pre-season matches to youtube.

Chiefs v Bulls

Blues v Hurricanes

Crusaders v Highlanders

[KiwiMurph]

From Stuff - "Blues openside flanker Blake Gibson was the only injury concern from the match but Umaga downplayed a shoulder knock that saw him leave the field."

Interesting that article above says Tamanivalu played right wing due to request of the ABs.

[Tim]

@KiwiMurph Good to hear that it wasn't his thumb(?) again.

[Dice]

Our scrum looks real promising in pre-season. Against the Canes, our scrum was downright dominate, and the only time our scrum got beat was when we brought on our 4th string tighthead(Renata) later in the game. It seems it was the same in the Chiefs game.

That scrum by Mafileo and Manu that drove the Canes' scrum back several metres and then into the sideline made me cry.

If Mafileo and Prattley are considered our third string tighthead and loosehead, then our prop depth isn't looking too shabby.

[Chris B.]

@Dice Have to say - I was pretty surprised to hear that a tight five containing (I think) Hames, Laulala, Retallick and Bird was getting smashed.

First round of Super rugby is going to be pretty interesting.

[Tim]

Laulala is a pretty good player, but I think his scrummaging is rather overrated on this forum.

[African Monkey]

@Dice Mafileo is a fantastic scrummager. He's never gonna be an AB but he could push for a starting spot with Charlie leaving next season.

[cgrant]

Apparently, the Chiefs scrum fared better when Moli and Kautai were on the pitch. Both are THP so one of them had to play on the loosehead side. Who did it ?