Blues Vs Rebels Round 10 @ Eden Park

[Mr Wobbly]

3:15 pm (AEST) at Eden Park, Auckland.

Referee: Craig Joubert

The Rebels and Blues have played each other four times, each side winning twice at home.

The Rebels are on a hot streak having won one in a row. The Blues are coming off the bye but did beat the Shorkies at home in Round 8.

 

[GoMelbRebels]

I see this as make or break for the Rebs. If there is one Kiwi team we can beat, it's the Blues. Won't be easy, but we came close at Eden Park in 2013.

 

[oztimmay]

It probably is our best chance. They are missing Rene Ranger and we might have Harris and English back.

 

[Tex]

Preseason means little but they handed us an old-fashioned spanking a few months back. Like, double-dacked then paddled in front of the school assembly level spanking.

 

[GoMelbRebels]

Preseason means little but they handed us an old-fashioned spanking a few months back. Like, double-dacked then paddled in front of the school assembly level spanking.

True, but remember much of our team was made up of non-squad players (U20s, Dewar Shield / Rising etc). Still, will be a tough one...

 

[Dismal Pillock]

I know, I know, this is where we're meant to do the pre-match banter thing, my Dad's bigger than your Dad, etc etc.

But come on.

The state of the Australian sides, versus the NZ sides, here in 2016, I don't want to come across as arrogant.



I am not in the habit of popping in to the Crippled Children's Burn Unit to laugh my arse off at the carnage and devastation.

Those days are behind me.

And that's coming from a fan of the cellar-dweller Auckland Blues. Set to play Australia's best performing side, some expansion team that realistically shouldn't even exist. A failing business franchise that gets handed 5 million dollars a year by mummy. Just to give some people something to do. Disguised unemployment.

You know its bad when a fan of a nation's shittiest team feels sorry for fans of an opposing nations best team.

Team News for the good guys:

1 Prattley 2 Parsons 3 Faumuina 4 Tuipulotu/Matenga 5 Beckhuis 6 Kaino 7 Latimer 8 Luatua 9 Hall 10 West 11 Li 12 Francis 13 Moala 14 Rieko Ioane 15 Visnia

Bench 16 Macdonald 17 Mayhew/Waa 18 Ofa T 19 Akira Ioane 20 Pryor 21 Guyton 22 McGahan 23 Duffie/Nanai

Tevita Li must have pics of Tana and Cully with that welly prossie from back in the day, fuck knows how else he's keeping Nanai on the bench.

 

[Highlander35]

6 Uncontracted Players were in the 24 man squad to play the Blues, 7 if you include Moloney. 3 Rising Boys (Sione Taufa, Pom Simona and Murray Douglas) and 3 U20s boys (Jordan Uelese, Ta Hosea and Angus Fowler), none of whom got selected in the Aus U20s squads.

We also played with 2 of the only 4 of the full timers yet to play a game this season, Ryan Cocker and Paul Asquith.

I think, regardless of our injuries, this will be a much better side.

 

[GoMelbRebels]

I know, I know, this is where we're meant to do the pre-match banter thing, my Dad's bigger than your Dad, etc etc.

But come on.

The state of the Australian sides, versus the NZ sides, here in 2016, I don't want to come across as arrogant.



I am not in the habit of popping in to the Crippled Children's Burn Unit to laugh my arse off at the carnage and devastation.

Those days are behind me.

And that's coming from a fan of the cellar-dweller Auckland Blues. Set to play Australia's best performing side, some expansion team that realistically shouldn't even exist. A failing business franchise that gets handed 5 million dollars a year by mummy. Just to give some people something to do. Disguised unemployment.

You know its bad when a fan of a nation's shittiest team feels sorry for fans of an opposing nations best team.

Team News for the good guys:



Tevita Li must have pics of Tana and Cully with that welly prossie from back in the day, fuck knows how else he's keeping Nanai on the bench.

Yeah? Takes one to know one!

(Ha, I showed him!).

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Melbourne, I get confused between them and the Perth expansion side. They both started last year? The Melbourne Kings? That's the one that Bieber & Beale & Pocock fled in terror from?

Realistically though, this is a no-lose proposition for the Blues.

A nation's worst side should succumb to another nation's best.

The Re-bills will plug away in their disenfranchised expansion lottery way. Go thru the patterns in their tedious, unwatchable what's-this-shit-maybe-there's-something-on-the-movie-channel manner. The Blues, from rugby country, from Onehunga to Otahuhu, natural talent all over the park, only need Rieko Ioane, or Melanie Nanai, or anyone really, to catch jailbreak fever for 30 seconds and that'll get them over the hump

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Melbourne, is that the one whose best player is Adam Thomson, the ex-Highlander in semi-retirement who probably thought he was going to the Gold Coast?

Rugby in Melbourne, that's like setting up an ice fishing & snowmobile racing biathlon league in fuckin' Bhopal.

And then handing the pricks 5 million dollars a year just to keep it going.

 

[GoMelbRebels]

Melbourne, is that the one whose best player is Adam Thomson, the ex-Highlander in semi-retirement who probably thought he was going to the Gold Coast?

Rugby in Melbourne, that's like setting up an ice fishing & snowmobile racing biathlon league in fuckin' Bhopal.

And then handing the pricks 5 million dollars a year just to keep it going.

Auckland (AKA Little Sydney). That's the village Aussies think is the NZ capital. Anyhoo, something, something about your Mother.

 

[Highlander35]

Anyone who willingly associates with Aukland doesn't have the right to piss on any other city in the world.

Perhaps Dundee.

 

[oztimmay]

Auckland - all the shithole charm of Broadmeadows, Campbeltown and Logan combined, with a slightly better harbour view.

 

[oztimmay]

Fuck. Lorenzo out for 4 weeks.

http://www.rugby.com.au/news/2016/04/28/02/17/weeks-out-until-june

 

[Highlander35]

Bastard. Hagan will probably get the start, but is it Metcher, Cocker or Moloney (with Cruze going to tighthead) who comes in.

 

[oztimmay]

Not sure if Metcher has had the game time under his belt, but I like his set piece work. Cocker has had a bit of game time this year, but can't recall how he went. Flip a coin I guess.

Also remember that Tobes can play at THP, but not ideal.

 

[GoMelbRebels]

Fuck. Lorenzo out for 4 weeks.

http://www.rugby.com.au/news/2016/04/28/02/17/weeks-out-until-june

That we didn't need.

 

[GoMelbRebels]

Auckland - all the shithole charm of Broadmeadows, Campbeltown and Logan combined, with a slightly better harbour view.

Mt. Druitt by the sea.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Don't get me wrong.

Melbourne is a very nice city to live in.

As is Bangkok.

And Berlin.

It's just that none of them are known for their rugby.

That's all.

 

[oztimmay]

Hagan starts. From FoxSports..

The 30-year-old is set to be absent from the Rebels line-up until at least June’s international break after breaking down at training on Tuesday afternoon. As a result, Irishman Jamie Hagan comes in to the side to play the Auckland Blues on Saturday, the only change to the starting 15 that defeated the Cheetahs last week.