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Injury robs Northland of All Blacks midfield as battle with defending champions arrives

Jack Goodhue. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Northland Taniwha’s clash with reigning Premiership champions, the Tasman Mako, in Blenheim tonight will be the ideal springboard to test the true state of their readiness to go deep in this year’s Mitre 10 Cup competition.

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The loss of All Blacks midfielder Jack Goodhue and first five Dan Hawkins to injury is a huge blow for a side looking to overpower a team boasting a ridiculous amount of creative talent.

A 43-26 win for Northland over Manawatu in the opening round in Whang?rei last weekend was pleasing but a herculean effort is required for Northland to topple the Mako who can sniff weakness like their namesake shark.

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The Cambridge Blue cannot give them even a hint they are playing for time – passively, rather than actively, managing their strategy — otherwise it will be all over by halftime.

Northland head coach George Konia is acutely aware of the challenge facing his side in Blenheim tonight.

“We just wanna focus on ourselves. It’s going to be a tough ask, no matter who you play with a five-day turnaround. Tasman showed in their win over Counties Manukau that they can be flustered and pressured.

“For us, the key is to play in the right parts of the field which is a big work-on for us, and to exert enough pressure,” Konia said.

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He knows Northland cannot afford the sort of stuttering start they showed last weekend which he attributed to a lack of pre-season games and insufficient time for new combinations to gel.

However, the pleasing part from a coaching perspective was that the lack of cohesion became less obvious as the game wore on and it looked as if they were better able to pick when and where the ball should be going.

“We stayed in the fight, fought back and changed the momentum of the game. The emphasis on competing at set-piece paid off and our lineout was very good, and just nailing our core roles,” he said.

Tamati Tua will pair with Rene Ranger in midfield and the latter will have to lift his game big time after a relatively quiet game last weekend.

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The duo will face off with Mako skipper David Havili, who returns from an extended injury absence, with Fetuli Paea wearing the No 13 jersey.

All Blacks Tyrel Lomax, Shannon Frizell, Sevu Reece and Will Jordan will provide the extra firepower against Northland.

Johnny Cooper and Ben Tou are on the bench for Northland and could make their debut while Fijian lock Temo Mayanavanua will play his blazer match.

Wiseguy Faiane will slot in at first five, Sam Nock has been retained as halfback, Pisi Leilua and Jordan Hyland are the wingers and Scott Gregory is back at fullback.

In the forwards, skipper Jordan Olsen, Luatangi Li and Tyler Kearns make up the front row, Sam Caird and Josh Goodhue form the second row, and Tom Robinson and Kara Pryor are the sorts of loosies required to attack the breakdown.

Sam MacNamara provides an option at lineout from No 8.

Hawkins, Jack Goodhue, Aorangi Stokes, Saimoni Uluinakauvadra, Ross Wright, Kane Jacobson, Rob Rush, and Kalolo Tuiloma are all in the casualty ward.

The match kicks off at 7pm.

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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