Blues v Highlanders Round 1

[waiopehu oldboy]

Date: Friday, February 26
Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
Kick-off: 19:35 local (06:35 GMT)
Referee: Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant Referees: Paul Williams (New Zealand), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
TMO: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)

Blues: 15 Lolagi Visinia, 14 Melani Nanai, 13 Male Sa’u, 12 George Moala, 11 Tevita Li, 10 Ihaia West, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Steven Luatua, 7 Blake Gibson, 6 Joe Edwards, 5 Josh Bekhuis, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu, 3 Sione Mafileo, 2 James Parsons (c), 1 Ofa Tu’ungafasi Replacements: 16 Quentin MacDonald, 17 Namatahi Waa, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Akira Ioane, 20 Kara Pryor, 21 Billy Guyton, 22 Matt McGahan, 23 Rene Ranger

Highlanders: 15 Ben Smith (c), 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Teihorangi Walden, 11 Patrick Osborne, 10 Lima Sopoaga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Liam Squire, 7 Shane Christie, 6 Elliot Dixon, 5 Joe Wheeler, 4 Tom Franklin, 3 Josh Hohneck, 2 Liam Coltman, 1 Daniel Lienert-Brown Replacements: 16 Ash Dixon, 17 Brendon Edmonds, 18 Ross Geldenhuys, 19 Alex Ainley, 20 Dan Pryor, 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Hayden Parker, 23 Matt Faddes

 

[Bairdy]

Who is this Mafileo fellow to be good enough to relegate an AB prop to the bench?

Should be a cracker. I fancy the Blues to knock off the Clan here.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Missed the first 20 but holy shit the 2nd has been pretty full on from both teams. Naholo picks up #3 for Clan just on HT, Clan 24-20 Bloos who've scored two tries.

 

[Dan54]

The first 20 was pretty bloody good to WOB.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Watching highlights now. Nice bit've Polynesian B-ball/ Paremoremo jailbreak for Nanai's try & how good is Liam Squire, made Bender's try IMO. Also, how good would Naholo be if he weren't five foot three? Mind you, shoulda been in the bin instead of scoring that try...............

EDIT: WTF is "SUPERBANGBANG"??? Thought I was seeing things for a while there......... or that someone had let @Dismal loose with the field marking machine (except it looks waaaaay too neat for a DP original )

 

[Dan54]

Bit of a worry if Squire is concussed again so early in season.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Clan see Joe Edwards off & get Akira Ioane in his place. Oh, joy!

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Bit of a worry if Squire is concussed again so early in season.

They're now saying it was a knock to the throat rather than a possible concussion.

 

[saulityvi]

Osbourne in the bin, P Tuipulotu crashes over with less than 10 minutes left.

 

[saulityvi]

33-24 im not going to announce winners here, but a hell of a match and the Blues deserve this

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Big TMO call here. Try given, Bloos 33-24 Clan with less than 10 to go & Clan a man down. Somewhere @Dismal is penning (crayoning?) his annual Bloos Coronation Procession speech.............

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Pretty sure that'll make the Tries Of The Season reel. Bloos 33-31 Clan, two minutes on the clock plus don't forget there's the lineout option if a penalty is conceded after the siren.........

Bloos win it. Bloos Coronation Procession has commenced

 

[saulityvi]

Fuck that was a good game

 

[saulityvi]

Makes you wonder if its worth it to watch 6N anymore

 

[ACR]

Great first half, pants second half (for Highlanders).

Blues look like being a half decent side this year. Did especially well in the lineouts. Highlanders look to be the same, they still make some retarded (captaincy) decisions at times.

Avalanche of penalties in the second half helped tilt the game, some deserved, some not. Can't stand Jackson. When old mate failed to actually kick the 22, he arrogantly said "yes he did" when he clearly had no clue.

Well done Blues.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Should be a cracker. I fancy the Blues to knock off the Clan here.

Well played, sir.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Makes you wonder if its worth it to watch 6N anymore

If every game were Bloos v Clan, Tribe v CruSadists, Ponies v Rebs then, yeah, maybe but then there's Cheetahs v Kings, Sunwolves v Kings & (?) Force v Kings to restore the balance.............

 

[Dan54]

Great game, really enjoyed it. I suspect that Blake Gibson is going to make an impact in a few games, he looked bloody good as a yound fella laswt year and sure continues to show promise!!

And ACR, c'mon man first game of year, lets pack the "I don't like this ref" on the head huh?? Be nice to actually enjoy the game without losers supporters having a moan about the ref!

 

[saulityvi]

If every game were Bloos v Clan, Tribe v CruSadists, Ponies v Rebs then, yeah, maybe but then there's Cheetahs v Kings, Sunwolves v Kings & (?) Force v Kings to restore the balance.....

Having seen France-Ireland from couple weeks back, i dont think i can be more disappointed ever again.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Someone on here coined the phrase "Loose Forwards Of The Apocolypse" in reference to Kaino, Gibson, Ioane & another who's name I can't recall. Based on tonight Gibson is definately one & we all know how good JK can be but I thought Ioane looked rather ineffectual when he came on, possibly lost too much bulk in transitioning to 7's.