Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Niko Jones named for first Auckland appearance while Blues star Taniela Tele'a set for first game back from injury

Tanielu Tele'a. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

Auckland travel to Inglewood for their Round 5 clash with Championship team Taranaki this Saturday afternoon.

ADVERTISEMENT

Head Coach, Alama Ieremia has made various changes to the 23 travelling to New Plymouth. The Blue and White Hoops will be on the road for the second week in a row after their 20-16 victory over Bay of Plenty in Rotorua. Ieremia has taken some lessons from his team’s implementation on the field last Friday.

“This week we have another away fixture that will test us. At times last week we played some good rugby, but we know we could’ve executed a lot better in other areas” said Ieremia.

Video Spacer

The Aotearoa Rugby Pod with Blues hooker James Parsons and Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall discuss everything All Blacks as they head into the first Bledisloe Cup test against the Wallabies.

Video Spacer

The Aotearoa Rugby Pod with Blues hooker James Parsons and Crusaders halfback Bryn Hall discuss everything All Blacks as they head into the first Bledisloe Cup test against the Wallabies.

Two Auckland Rugby Academy graduates will be given their chance off the bench this Saturday in Taranaki. Ponsonby Hooker, Soane Vikena and Waitemata Loose Forward, Niko Jones will be in line for their Auckland debut for Saturday’s fixture.

Harry Plumer will move into the first-five position while Simon Hickey will be hoping to inject some energy from the bench later in the game.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGD0qnABuEe/

Marist Utility Back, Taniela Tele’a will make his first appearance of the season for the Blue and White’s in the 23 jersey. Salesi Rayasi has been named on the left wing after scoring both of Auckland’s trys in their victory over The Steamers.

Head Coach, Alama Ieremia will be looking for a full 80-minute performance and is aware of what Taranaki can bring to the table.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We are facing an injured Bulls team who will be hurting from last week and we all know what happens when you deal with an angry Bull. The team is excited about the challenge and it’s an opportunity for some players to express their skills – we need to be better than last week.”

Kickoff is at 2:05pm on Saturday from TET Stadium, Taranaki.

Auckland: Jordan Traino, AJ Lam, Tumua Manu, TJ Faiane (c), Salesi Rayasi, Harry Plummer, Taufa Funaki, Waimana Riedlinger-Kapa, Blake Gibson, Adrian Choat, Jack Whetton, Scott Scrafton, Marcel Renata, Leni Apisai, James Lay. Reserves: Soane Vikena, Jarred Adams, Marco Fepulea’i, Hamish Dalzell, Niko Jones, Jonathan Ruru, Simon Hickey, Tanielu Tele’a.

– Auckland Rugby

ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 2 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.

286 Go to comments
TRENDING
TRENDING Tyrone Green decision has huge bearing on his international future Tyrone Green decision has huge bearing on his international future
Search