The Silver Fern

@African-Monkey
Totally agree! No doubt a funeral to attend this week. The reality will be in the face! So many players at the end of the Jaguars game looked devastated. Far more than usual. Give the lads a break, get it together this week and slam the sunwolves.

@kev haha, well Dan Bowden hasn't been much chop for a while, his poor dad tho.

@Duluth said in Blues v Highlanders:

@KiwiMurph said in Blues v Highlanders:

Some serious question marks have to be asked of Tana's outside back recruitment.

He lost Li and Lam, didn't want Visinia and brought in Collins, O'Donnell and Ambrose Curtis. He also missed out on promising Northlander Solomon Alaimalo. Trainor has yet to be sighted except for the Brisbane 10s where he looked poor.

Yeah the outside back selections have been strange

Also not signing GPT at hooker. He was one of the last signings for the Highlanders. With Parsons having concussion issues, Moulds not good enough at lineout time it seems crazy not to select a good set piece hooker who has been in great form in the last two NPCs.

Last year selecting Matenga ahead of Fatialofa and Seu is unforgivable. That talent from the region is probably lost for good.

Parsons concussion issues only arose part way through npc, so there's no way you could know that was going to happen. GPT and Moulds were both wider training the previous year at the same time. They both got little to no game time. Both had good NPC seasons. They both had serious injury issues last NPC season. So really signing of Q McDondald was out of left field. Blues could have retained both.
Moulds had excellent impact off the bench v Landers and the Blues lineouts were all won from there on in.
Parsons had massive issues at line out time and he's usually bang on, so what's the issue? Probably lots of small things making a big mess.

Stoked that Tana can see the big picture here for these young fullas. I think they need a bloody good rest and some fun times, being under the pump for too long will fry them.
These guys sure as hell don't deserve public dissection at this point in their rugby careers.
Heaps of experts will be quoting how much they're paid to do their job blah blah, but no job is worth it if it's 365 24/7, I hope they get most of June off. Not because they shouldn't make ABs or Maori ABs but because having a mindful rest could be very influential to their form going forward.

@bones said in Blues 2018:

@tim "real professional sport"?

Bidwell, if he was a real sports journalist we might care what he has to say. Bin it with all his other mutterings.

Good to see a couple of new caps with Blundell and Hohaia. Hope Breen isn't out for long, Hawkins had one of his better days so he can keep that up all season.
Moulds nailed the end of game interview and said it all really.

Great game, could have gone either way. Take nothing away from the effort off the bench but it probably wasn't our strongest and certainly less experienced which I think contributed to the loss.
Our set piece was excellent so good to see the line outs running smoothly. Harbour looked a bit disorganised there at times.
Bit concerned about our locking trio and where they sit now as far as injuries go.

Firstly really proud of the Boys for their near brilliant season. Great to see them still taking it to Wellington right to the end. Wellington are the form team this year, pretty sure they take out the premiership if they were up there.
Jackson looked like a one eyed one armed bandit for half the game.

Shame we aren’t seeing much of Scrafton this year. The current locks have been solid but he needs game time and looked ready for more a month ago.

I gave Matiu my first vote because of his enormous work rate, But he got caught so many times with the ball on the ground and penalised, definitely a work on. You could blame the clean outs but he also doesn't release the ball back in a strong position. Pryor and Debreczeni had near their best games.

@steven-harris
Yeah I thought the changes were at least 5 mins early especially considering the Blues bench. Maybe even 10 mins early. The yellow was definitely the costly 10.

@Stargazer
Tamati Tua, Northland, ok!

Toll Northland Mitre 10 Cup Squad for 2017

Toll Northland Mitre 10 Cup Squad for 2017:

Solomona Alaimalo
Fullback | Otamatea | 10 Games

Chris Apoua
Prop | Mid Northern | 1 Game

Tim Bond
Lock | Hikurangi | 0 Games

Peter Breen
First five-eigth | Old Boys Marist | 8 Games

Murray Douglas
Lock | Awanui | 0 Games

Michael Faleafa
Loose Forward | Hikurangi | 7 Games

Troy Gilbert
Midfield | Old Boys Marist | 20 Games

Jack Goodhue
Midfield | United Kawakawa | 0 Games

Joshua Goodhue
Lock | Kamo | 7 Games

Scott Gregory
Midfield | Hikurangi | 0 Games

Dan Hawkins
First five-eigth | Otamatea | 38 Games

Blake Hohaia
Midfield | Kamo | 0 Games

Jordan Hyland
Utility | Wellsford | 19 Games

Phil Kite
Prop | Old Boys Marist | 9 Games

Josh Larsen
Lock | Mid Northern | 8 Games

Jone Macilai
Wing | Awanui | 27 Games

Malcolm MacLeod
Halfback | Mid Northern | 8 Games

Matty Markwick
Halfback | Old Boys Marist | 5 Games

Matt Matich
Loose Forward | Western Sharks | 10 Games

Jaycob Matiu
Loose Forward | Hora Hora | 12 Games

Matt Moulds
Hooker | Otamatea | 34 Games

Samuel Nock
Halfback | Kerikeri | 17 Games

Jordan Olsen
Hooker | Mid Northern | 16 Games

Dan Pryor
Loose Forward | Old Boys Marist | 54 Games

Kara Pryor
Loose Forward | Old Boys Marist | 29 Games

Jack Ram
Loose Forward | Kerikeri | 28 Games

Rene Ranger
Utility | Wellsford | 65 Games

Ropate Rinakama
Prop | Waipu | 0 Games

Tom Robinson
Lock | Western Sharks | 5 Games

Howard Sililoto
Prop | Old Boys Marist | 26 Games

Tamati Tua
Midfield | Hikurangi | 9 Games

Namatahi Waa
Prop | Hikurangi | 27 Games

Matt Wright
Fullback | Wellsford | 34 Games

Ross Wright
Prop | Wellsford | 71 Games

Coach - Derren Witcombe

Assistant Coach - Dale MacLeod

Manager - Brad Te Haara

@Tim said in Highlanders vs. Blues:

@Northlandallday Needs to work on his throwing though.

First throw overthrow not good, the rest were spot on. Did ya see P-T wild throw and Parsons numerous miss throws.

@taniwharugby Goodhue has stitches in that eye split, so I think it's a good move to keep his playing minutes limited for this week.
Looking forward to see this squad perform V Auckland, they have no Ioane's that's got to be a bonus for the Taniwha.

@Steven-Harris
No one would have a real problem with this situation if Parsons was performing but you can’t create real competition for his position if you don’t let anyone else play it. Sad really Parsons deserves a break too, he looked stuffed.

@taniwharugby Markwick went off relatively early in the BOP game so I'd suggest perhaps he's injured?? McLeod play far better than last year, even tho he had a couple of loose kicks, it was a big step up from last year skill wise.

@kev and two great throws in a row!

@kev
Yeah He's out injured, something like a foot ligament? I'd think Neville would have to be next on the bus for locks or loosies maybe?

What a grindie win! Blues haven’t done that for a while. They really played stats rugby for the last 3 minutes.
Can we please have some decent line outs sometime this year. Ours were crap, as crap as last week.