[2016 Super Rugby] Highlanders vs. Force (Round 6) 01/04/2016

[TRF_heineken]

Venue: Forsyth Barr Stadium
Time: 08:35 CAT (SA, GMT+2)​

 

[0tago]

We're the only NZ team the Western Force has a winning record against, but not much chance of them winning this weekend, expecting us to get an BP, if we don't I'll be very disappointed. A chance for Fekitoa to do what Ngatai did to them as well.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

dude! ever hear of jinxing?!?!?!

 

[0tago]

dude! ever hear of jinxing?!?!?!

If the Landers lose you and all of Dunedin can personally blame me

 

[0tago]

God I love our depth in the loose forwards...

Teams:

Highlanders

15 Ben Smith (co-captain), 14 Matt Faddes, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Rob Thompson, 11 Patrick Osborne, 10 Lima Sopoaga, 9 Aaron Smith, 8 Liam Squire, 7 Dan Pryor, 6 Elliot Dixon, 5 Tom Franklin, 4 Alex Ainley, 3 Siosiua Halanukonuka, 2 Liam Coltman, 1 Brendon Edmonds

Substitutes: 16 Ash Dixon, 17 Daniel Lienert-Brown, 18 Josh Hohneck, 19 Joe Wheeler, 20 Shane Christie (co-captain), 21 Fumiaki Tanaka, 22 Hayden Parker, 23 Jason Emery


Force

15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Luke Morahan, 13 Ben Worship, 12 Solomoni (Junior) Rasolea, 11 Semisi Masirewa, 10 Peter Grant, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Matt Hodgson (captain), 6 Angus Cottrell, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Ross Haylett-Petty, 3 Tetera Faulkner, 2 Heath Tessmann, 1 Pekahou Cowan

Substitutes: 16 Nathan Charles, 17 Chris Heiberg, 18 Jermaine Ainsley, 19 Sitiveni (Steve) Memphis, 20 Richard Hardwick, 21 Ryan Lourens, 22 Ian Prior, 23 Albert Nikoro

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Highlanders by 30+. The Farce don't have a snowball's chance in hell...

 

[0tago]

Potential All Blacks watch;

B.Edmonds. the LH RES. spot for the AB's is definitely up for contest, Edmonds has really impressed me since last season
E.Dixon. 6 for the AB's will be hotly contested with no doubt a replacement for Kaino being searched for, Dixon likely leading the chase
Liam Squire. Probably an outside chance for an All Black shot, but he's been some what groomed in the past and could make another impression.

No Christie in the starting side probably means a rest for him and we're going for a more attacking approach, Christie is one of the best defenders in the competition, I think only his opposite Matt Hodgson has made more tackles this season.

Also stoked to see wee Tanaka back in action, Renton is good value, but still pretty raw from ITM.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

"The Force, like all teams in this competition, are tough and wont go down without a fight, we're not going to take anything for granted" - Jabby, to the jinx Gods

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Potential All Blacks watch;
E.Dixon. 6 for the AB's will be hotly contested with no doubt a replacement for Kaino being searched for, Dixon likely leading the chase

I thought Matt Todd was your pick for future no. 6 for ABs.

 

[austingtir]

Force are taking to the HL so far actually doing it easy atm two tries. A little lucky on the first one but you make your own luck I guess.

HL are being exposed a bit they are just getting to carried away with this run it from everywhere stuff.

- - - Updated - - -

Jesus if they score again here I reckon the HL are done for this match. Got lucky that was on for the force.

- - - Updated - - -

HL clearly have the second best scrum in NZ. Crusaders match could be interesting.

 

[smartcooky]

Jeez, this referee needs to watch the ruck offsides a lot more closely. The Force's first "rush defender" is definitely getting a head start and not being penalised for it.

 

[austingtir]

This Faddes guy has got skills just watching the game highlights of him he's been playing awesome for the HL so far this year. Not even really missing Naholo as much as I thought they would.... Of course he's no Naholo but hes not a bad replacement at all. I see he's at fullback now.

- - - Updated - - -

I was dreading that tip tackle decision by A smith. The ref handled it o.k considering the ridiculous rules they are working with!

Theres no way thats a yellow when he's no more than a foot off the ground the whole time.

Whats a half back meant to do when tackling an 8!? I thought it was a bloody good solid tackle in all honesty tipping laws be damned.

 

[TRF_heineken]

This Faddes guy has got skills just watching the game highlights of him he's been playing awesome for the HL so far this year. Not even really missing Naholo as much as I thought they would.... Of course he's no Naholo but hes not a bad replacement at all. I see he's at fullback now.

- - - Updated - - -

I was dreading that tip tackle decision by A smith. The ref handled it o.k considering the ridiculous rules they are working with!

Theres no way thats a yellow when he's no more than a foot off the ground the whole time.

Whats a half back meant to do when tackling an 8!? I thought it was a bloody good solid tackle in all honesty tipping laws be damned.

The same as every other player on the field...

 

[smartcooky]

I was dreading that tip tackle decision by A smith. The ref handled it o.k considering the ridiculous rules they are working with!

Theres no way thats a yellow when he's no more than a foot off the ground the whole time.

Whats a half back meant to do when tackling an 8!? I thought it was a bloody good solid tackle in all honesty tipping laws be damned.

Unfortunately I was only watching on SkyGo (small screen), but I got the impression that the Force player rolled over top of another player on the ground, and it was that more than Aaron Smith which caused him to be up-ended.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Spent the first 20min brain stone Bing how to find "Otago"...

In hind site, they scored 6 points in 75 mins where we kept the score board ticking over

Wasn't long ago we wouldn't have had the bottle to come back from that start, pretty proud

 

[0tago]

Spent the first 20min brain stone Bing how to find "Otago"...

In hind site, they scored 6 points in 75 mins where we kept the score board ticking over

Wasn't long ago we wouldn't have had the bottle to come back from that start, pretty proud

Yeah I spent for first 15 minutes cursing at our misfortune at Sopoaga's injury and Osbournes absolute brain fart on that first try, thankfully he redeemed himself playing well for the rest of the match and I knew we had too many world class players to lose this, we definitely missed Sopoaga and would have given them a royal thrashing if he was playing.

I'm pleased we kept them tryless for the rest of the match, but letting in soft tries to miss out on a bonus points absolutely sucks. We have the Reds next week in Brisbane, so one game at a time, they've just had a bye and looked much better vs the Blues and Tahs, it will be a tough game.

 

[0tago]

By the way, who reckons Edmonds will get an AB call up?

 

[TRF Mr Fish]

By the way, who reckons Edmonds will get an AB call up?

Looks like he could be out for a while with his injury. Wouldn't have had him next in line regardless, but still a blow to his chances.

 

[austingtir]

The same as every other player on the field...

Its just common sense that an 8 tacking a 9 and doing a spear tackle is always going to be more dangerous than a 9 tackling an 8 and doing a spear tackle. Its even more exacerbated by Aarons Smiths size he's never going to do damage to a big forward unless he pokes them in the eye.

It was a nothing imo and didnt even deserve the penalty but the rules they use these days are so PC it has to be this way so again I didnt think it was a terrible decision.

And actually I think thats one of the things thats wrong with the game now. The rules are generally the same across the board for every player and I think it is a crock of **** tbh.

The scrums were another side of the coin on this. They had a replacement prop but not that specific side!? WTF is this game coming to?? Uncontested scrums because they dont have a specific prop to prop one side of a scrum is the biggest peckerwood rule this game has going atm.

 

[Kiwiwomble]

Don't know how Pryor got man of the match, he dropped like four or five balls

Even with his brain fart Osbourne had a better game, I would have picked between him, faddes and squire