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North Island prop returns for Wellington for Canterbury grudge match

Karl Tu'inukuafe and Alex Fidow. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The Wellington Lions will be hoping to secure a third consecutive win this weekend, taking on Canterbury at Orangetheory Stadium.

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Following their 32 – 10 victory over Bay of Plenty, Lions head coach, Leo Crowley, has made just three changes to the starting XV.

Among those changes, Julian Savea makes his return from injury whilst Alex Fidow comes back from a concussion sustained playing Auckland.

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The panel from Sky Sports NZ’s The Breakdown talk all things rugby down under as the New Zealand provincial competition continues and we draw one week closer to the Bledisloe Cup test matches.

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The panel from Sky Sports NZ’s The Breakdown talk all things rugby down under as the New Zealand provincial competition continues and we draw one week closer to the Bledisloe Cup test matches.

James O’Reilly also gets a run for the first time this Mitre 10 Cup campaign and Crowley’s looking forward to seeing the hooker back in action.

“He’s been working hard behind the scenes to get ready for this opportunity. All considered, we probably couldn’t have named a more experienced team.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFxhWXwhJ4h/

The Premiership match will be the first time Wellington has faced Canterbury since the 2019 semi-final at Sky Stadium.

Coming off a loss to Hawke’s Bay on Saturday, Crowley says the Mainlanders will be looking to get their season back on track.

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“We realise what is ahead for us in Canterbury. They are always tough to play, but our concentration is on our own environment and players as we try to improve across all areas of our game.”

He says the whole squad had a performance review of their efforts against Bay of Plenty.

“We felt a bit patchy in our performance and that can happen in a shorter week. There was plenty of good play mixed in with the average stuff.

Kick-off for this Saturday is 7:05pm.

Wellington: Billy Proctor, Wes Goosen, Peter Umaga-Jensen, Vince Aso, Julian Savea, Jackson Garden-Bachop, Kemara Hauiti-Parapara, Teariki Ben-Nicholas, Du’Plessis Kirifi (c), Vaea Fifita, Naitoa Ah Kuoi, James Blackwell, Alex Fidow, James O’Reilly, Xavier Numia. Reserves: Tyrone Thompson, Ben Aumua-Peseta, Josiah Tavita-Metcalfe, Caleb Delany, Mateaki Kafatolu, Connor Collins, Trent Renata, Pepesana Patafilo.

– Wellington Rugby

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AM 41 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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