Semi final 2 - Auckland v Waikato

[Darwin]

Teams announced: (http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/itm-cup-heartland-championship/4281746/Auckland-make-changes-for-semifinal-against-Waikato) (http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/itm-cup-heartland-championship/4281198/Sivivatu-back-to-bolster-Waikato-for-semifinal)

AUCKLAND: Brent Ward, Chay Raui, Ben Atiga, Benson Stanley, Atieli Pakalani, Gareth Anscombe, Toby Morland, Peter Saili, Sean Polwart, Chris Lowrey, Liaki Moli, Kurtis Haiu, Charlie Faumuina, Tom McCartney, Tevita Mailau. Reserves: Ash Dixon, Angus Ta'avao, Steven Luatua, Onosa'i Auva'a, Auvasa Faleali'i, Matt Berquist, Winston Stanley.

WAIKATO: 15 Sosene Anesi, 14 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 13 Save Tokula, 12 Jackson Willison, 11 Dwayne Sweeney, 10 Trent Renata, 9 Tawera Kerr-Barlow; 8 Alex Bradley, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Dominiko Waqaniburotu, 5 Romana Graham, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Nathan White (capt), 2 Aled de Malmanche, 1 Toby Smith. Reserves: Hikairo Forbes, 17 Ben May, 18 Kent Fife, 19 Zak Hohneck, 20 Malcolm Barnes, 21 Christian Lealiifano, 22 Henry Speight.

I'm really looking forward to the game, as these are probably the two form teams in ITM Cup. I see Waikato having a slight advantage up front, with Smith and de Malmanche in great form. The locks are reasonably evenly matched, though I really do rate young Moli from Auckland. The loose-forward trio's look evenly matched - I'm looking forward to seeing how young Polwart goes for Auckland, as he's been in great form in recent weeks, and may be pushing for a Blues contract.

Waikato will benefit in having Kerr-Barlow back in the starting lineup, and I can see them having a slight advantage in the halves (though Anscombe does look very promising). I see the midfield as relatively evenly matches, but think Waikato has a noticeable advantage out wide - even with a slightly overweight and unfit Sivivatu.

Overall I'm picking Waikato to win by 10 points.

 

[Sam Owen]

Go Auckland!!!

We've been boring this year and we'd have to be the underdogs in this game but we do have another gear and we're about to stick the clutch and go into overdrive on these mooloo girls lol.

 

[Shaggy]

Go Auckland!!!

We've been boring this year and we'd have to be the underdogs in this game but we do have another gear and we're about to stick the clutch and go into overdrive on these mooloo girls lol.

Nope, I think the Mooloo Men will take this one

 

[Muzzy]

oh thank god Thomas isn't playing for Auckland, these teams are very evenly matched, GO AUCKLAND!!!!

WAIKATO: 15 Sosene Anesi, 14 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 13 Save Tokula, 12 Jackson Willison, 11 Dwayne Sweeney, 10 Trent Renata, 9 Tawera Kerr-Barlow; 8 Alex Bradley, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Dominiko Waqaniburotu, 5 Romana Graham, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Nathan White (capt), 2 Aled de Malmanche, 1 Toby Smith. Reserves: Hikairo Forbes, 17 Ben May, 18 Kent Fife, 19 Zak Hohneck, 20 Malcolm Barnes, 21 Christian Lealiifano, 22 Henry Speight.

WTF???? they said Waqaniburotu was injured and couldn't play for Fiji for the end of year tour, now here he is only two weeks later in the starting line up? >( i knew Waikato wouldn't release Waqaniburotu for Fiji

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

oh thank god Thomas isn't playing for Auckland, these teams are very evenly matched, GO AUCKLAND!!!!



WTF???? those lying ******** they said Waqaniburotu was injured and couldn't play for Fiji for the end of year tour, now here he is only two weeks later in the starting line up? >( i knew Waikato wouldn't release Waqaniburotu for Fiji those assholes

I think the situation is he needs the surgery before the WC sometime, and if he waits for the End of Years it'll be too late, but there's just enough time for him to get some more games so he's doing so.

 

[Amobokoboko]

Waikato for the win.

 

[Larksea]

yeah pretty much agree with darwin

If the Waikato forwards show up I cant see auckland having much of a chance.

The front row in particular - Toby Smith IMO is the next big thing in NZ rugby. Ever since he came into the chiefs last year as injury cover to be he's got future all black written all over him. And as the season has gone on I think I may even rank him higher than jamie MacIntosh now. He makes Ben May look like a total loser.

Aled is a fricken monster, well ahead of all hookers in NZ in all but his lineout throw. He played 80min last week and was in very impressive form. And Nathan White has been in great form too.

Toby Lynn has been a mixed bag, at times he's missed some really bad tackles other times he's been awesome in the lineout. Romana's a bit the same but was in good form last week.

jack Lam's gone under the radar a bit but he's improved a lot this season.

if the forwards do the business the backs have the tallent to make good use of it. Though I hope Sivi has improved since last week he wasn't very impressive - to me he looked 3-5 weeks away maybe more from being ok for test rugby that's for sure.

Auckland wont be a push over though, I like that Moli guy too he has a lot of potential.

Anscombe & Stanley look in good nick

Polwart is one to watch, been wispers going around for a while that he could be the Air to McCaw's thrown in the AB's 7 jersey in a couple of years.

 

[Darwin]

yeah pretty much agree with darwin

If the Waikato forwards show up I cant see auckland having much of a chance.

The front row in particular - Toby Smith IMO is the next big thing in NZ rugby. Ever since he came into the chiefs last year as injury cover to be he's got future all black written all over him. And as the season has gone on I think I may even rank him higher than jamie MacIntosh now. He makes Ben May look like a total loser.

Aled is a fricken monster, well ahead of all hookers in NZ in all but his lineout throw. He played 80min last week and was in very impressive form. And Nathan White has been in great form too.

Toby Lynn has been a mixed bag, at times he's missed some really bad tackles other times he's been awesome in the lineout. Romana's a bit the same but was in good form last week.

jack Lam's gone under the radar a bit but he's improved a lot this season.

if the forwards do the business the backs have the tallent to make good use of it. Though I hope Sivi has improved since last week he wasn't very impressive - to me he looked 3-5 weeks away maybe more from being ok for test rugby that's for sure.

Auckland wont be a push over though, I like that Moli guy too he has a lot of potential.

Anscombe & Stanley look in good nick

Polwart is one to watch, been wispers going around for a while that he could be the Air to McCaw's thrown in the AB's 7 jersey in a couple of years.

Yeah I've been quite impressed with Lam in the games I've seen this season - he will be close to getting a Super rugby contract with the Chiefs. He's apparently been among the top tacklers during the season, and I've impressed with his strong running game. It will depend on how many opensides the Chiefs think they need in the squad, but the fact Lam is capable in all three loose-forward positions may give him the edge over other contenders.

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

Chiefs have a lot of loosies with Messam, Bourke, Latimer, Waldrom and Lee. They'll be taking one more maybe, and I'd rather we had someone like Bradley who's more able to gain some go forward.

I do however think Lam has stepped up a notch this season, I'd be surprised if another team doesn't pick him up.

 

[Darwin]

Chiefs have a lot of loosies with Messam, Bourke, Latimer, Waldrom and Lee. They'll be taking one more maybe, and I'd rather we had someone like Bradley who's more able to gain some go forward.

I do however think Lam has stepped up a notch this season, I'd be surprised if another team doesn't pick him up.

I agree, Bradley has played well this season - it could be directly between him and Lam or the sixth loose-forward spot in the Chiefs (assuming they stick with players within the region). The only NZ team that I could see potentially picking him up is the Canes, as they haven't signed an open-side to backup Lowe (as far as I'm aware). I'm not sure what's happening with Serge Lilo (currently injured, and apparently has declared his allegiance to Samoa which may complicate things), while I'm not convinced either Fuglistaller or Chris Walker are up to Super 14 rugby (though, to be fair, I haven't seem much of Taranaki this season). To be honest, if Lam is not signed by a NZ team I wouldn't be surprised to see him head over the Tasman to play for an Australian franchise, as that seems to be the thing to do these days (and he is eligible to play for Australia)....

 

[Sam Owen]

Very good game.

A lil bit dissapointing for our guys to lose that game but in terms of the way our guys played, it was a real step up.

Waikato were expected to win and they showed why.

It'll be a good final next week, look forward to it.

 

[Muzzy]

heart breaking to lose a game like this

a silver lining for me though is that waikato have 3 fijians in their starting line up so i'll be supporting them next week

can't wait to see what the future holds for gareth anscombe, its great auckland finally have a good first five again, i hope this guy gets a call up to the ab's sometime soon coz he looks like the next dan carter

 

[Sam Owen]

heart breaking to lose a game like this

a silver lining for me though is that waikato have 3 fijians in their starting line up so i'll be supporting them next week

can't wait to see what the future holds for gareth anscombe, its great auckland finally have a good first five again, i hope this guy gets a call up to the ab's sometime soon coz he looks like the next dan carter

They're good too.

Save and Robbie would be a good clash next week.

 

[ranger]

I agree, Bradley has played well this season - it could be directly between him and Lam or the sixth loose-forward spot in the Chiefs (assuming they stick with players within the region). The only NZ team that I could see potentially picking him up is the Canes, as they haven't signed an open-side to backup Lowe (as far as I'm aware). I'm not sure what's happening with Serge Lilo (currently injured, and apparently has declared his allegiance to Samoa which may complicate things), while I'm not convinced either Fuglistaller or Chris Walker are up to Super 14 rugby (though, to be fair, I haven't seem much of Taranaki this season). To be honest, if Lam is not signed by a NZ team I wouldn't be surprised to see him head over the Tasman to play for an Australian franchise, as that seems to be the thing to do these days (and he is eligible to play for Australia)....

I think the Hurricanes might try to use Souness as the 7 backup if they stay within the region. He has been much better performed than Fuglistaller or Walker and has the advantage of playing all loose forward positions

 

[Amobokoboko]

Really happy Waikato won this one. Hopefully they can repeat themselves next week against Canterbury like they did last week.

 

[BjR]

Yeah!

Looking forward to the Tokula v Fruen clash.

 

[nickdnz]

I think the Hurricanes might try to use Souness as the 7 backup if they stay within the region. He has been much better performed than Fuglistaller or Walker and has the advantage of playing all loose forward positions

I'd have thought they'd be better off trying to get another specialist 7. I can presume Karl Lowe will be guarenteed the 7 spot, as he has had a great season, and there seem to be very few other options, but I'd have though we have enough versatile loose forwards, to select a specialist openside (though with no Croswell, I have no idea who it would be. Also, I wonder what role, if any, So'oialo will play in the Hurricanes. He's not in great form, but it'd be adding insult to injury if he wasn't even given a spot in the S14, and with Vito and possibly even Lowe being in a position for the RWC, you'd think the Canes would love some experience.

 

[ranger]

I'd have thought they'd be better off trying to get another specialist 7. I can presume Karl Lowe will be guarenteed the 7 spot, as he has had a great season, and there seem to be very few other options, but I'd have though we have enough versatile loose forwards, to select a specialist openside (though with no Croswell, I have no idea who it would be. Also, I wonder what role, if any, So'oialo will play in the Hurricanes. He's not in great form, but it'd be adding insult to injury if he wasn't even given a spot in the S14, and with Vito and possibly even Lowe being in a position for the RWC, you'd think the Canes would love some experience.

Souness is a specialist seven though, he has just been pushed to 8 for Taranaki due to a lack of other options in that position in the region. Hes a victim of his own talent in that respect.

 

[Darwin]

I think the Hurricanes might try to use Souness as the 7 backup if they stay within the region. He has been much better performed than Fuglistaller or Walker and has the advantage of playing all loose forward positions

Yeah I agree Souness could be a good option at 7 - I should have mentioned that I was assuming he would be in the squad as a utility loose-forward. I have Levave, So'ioalo, Lowe, Souness & Vito as the likely loose-forwards thus far, and was thinking that the sixth loose-forward should possibly an openside. Anyways, I think the squads are due to be officially announced within the next few days...