Horror-canes - The Fever Union thread

Phoenix > B.O.P

Northland just scored a try off a blatant forward pass, but not even the commentators mentioned it! Ranger passed the ball from behind the 22m, but it was infront of it when Payne caught the ball.

went to a bar with both showing, great win by the bay, phoenix, not so much

I think watching BOP would have been more entertaining then the nix

Asking this as an outsider, is there a reason there isn't any promotion/relegation in NZ rugby anymore?

 
im not entirely sure but may be that the gulf of class between itm and heartland is too large and growing even more so?

Its a massive gulf between comps now, the likes of Wanganui and North Otago wouldnt have a chance. This gap was bad even before this current format.

The last placed team from the top divison never lost the playoff against the winner of the 2nd Divison when that was in place. And when their was auto promotion before that, I can only think of 2 teams that stayed up after being promoted, Southland at the expense of King Country, and BoP with Counties going down.

There's a huge gulf between ITM Cup, and Heartland Championship. One is semi professional, with a lot of professional players, the other is the best of club rugby players in smallish towns. I'd back a club side from Auckland to beat any Heartland Championship side. They need to create a year round professional competition with less teams. The players who aren't good enough to be playing full time professional rugby should then play in a second division, for example, a squad player from the Tasman Makos or Manawatu can't justify earning a professional salary, but they could justify a half yearly wage of about $15,000-$20,000 (what they're currently on) on top of another income. That way you could have an automatic promotion relegation, but of the top two and bottom two teams, so it's not the same side going up and down every year. As poor as Otago have been, the top competition must include teams from the bigger cities to begin with.Luis Garcia2010-09-20 15:55:02

It's more to do with the money side of things

Well because ones amateur and ones professional, the relegated players would just flee the club and join the promoted one. The relegated club would lose all their money and the promoted one may not have the funds required in a top division. But it needs to happen.Luis Garcia2010-09-20 20:26:51

I didn't think about it that way, it does kind of make sense.

I would have preferred that they play each team once for 14 games, instead of the format they're doing for 16, though.

Anyone else looking forward to tonight's egg chasing between Southland and Auckland?

yea im hoping for snow.

more importantly though, The Bay take on Otago friday at 730pm in New Zealands most beautiful city, Rotorua.

same time as the nix game for the second week in a row, bloody pain.

Ouch.

If it's any consolation I've hardly been able to watch Auckland this year because they seem to love playing Saturday/Sunday 2:35pm. I'm 5 hours ahead over here (well, 19 hours behind actually) so that becomes 7:35 Friday/Saturday evening, which would be ideal for most people but... d'oh, I'm a uni student who has to work evening weekends. I've gotten to watch us crumble against Canterbury and show up for the second half last weekend against Manawatu, that's all though.

Should be a good game tonight, Southland coming into a tough run of games which will really test their credentials. They have Canterbury, Auckland and Wellington all as Shield Challenges in the 5-weeks of the comp. If they end up at home for a SF/F then I think most teams will struggle to beat them.

 
yea last week was outstanding. have you seen that spot on total rugby (or some other rugby show) about The Bay? called 'baywatch'. has them running on the beach and what not. very humerous.

delaneys place kicking needs a bit of fine tuning but im sure they will take him on the tour.

not sold on Moa just yet. his decision making is sometimes a bit worrying.

It's been pissing me off all season, every year since moving to Wellington I've tried to get back to the Bay to watch a match with my dad, but this season has not been very conducive for that. Mostly because I put the Nix first. On the bright side, get to cheer them on here this year!

Very close to scoring on a couple occasions but came away with nothing. Oh well, I'll take a 3-3 half time score... hopefully we can come out better in the second half.

That one hurts.

That was an outstanding game last night, really good quality and exciting. Shield Rugby this year has just been outstanding!

Was very exciting, but makes it all the more heartbreaking to end up on the wrong side of it.

Just a shame Southland wouldn't have anywhere near the same success had each side had their full compliment of All Blacks.

great win by The Bay last night. 3 in a row now

Isaac Ross to Chiefs

Matt Berquist to Crusaders.

Nasi Manu to Highlanders, again.

Shame the Highlanders couldnt have got Berquist back, I have rated him since his debut for Otago. He was meant to be going overseas after this yrs Super 14, guess that fell thru.

Could have done better than Manu I think.

I have never rated Berquist. He's not a flashy player, doesn't offer much on attack and is prone to making stupid mistakes. In saying that, he is much better than any first five in the current Otago ITM Cup squad, but not good enough for the Highlanders. Nasi Manu is a good pick up, still very very young and except for Matt Luamanu (sp) from Harbour, most of the good numbers eights have been picked up already.

Bit off topic, But today I watched the New Zealand 7's team play a training game against harbour 7's team. They didn't look to flash

He has a good kicking game, and is solid around the park. The past few weeks for Auckland he has had a few shockers with his hands. Just look how poor Hawkes Bay have been this year without him.

Is there any list with who has signed for each team so far?

I can't find one, but these are what I remember. Some played last year, but were draft players, now have full contracts. There's plenty of obvious ones, like the All Blacks, but have left them out, other than ones who were linked away.

Blues
Stephen Brett - Canterbury now Auckland
Alby Mathewson - Wellington now Auckland
Jared Payne - Northland
Luke Braid
Daniel Braid
Brad Mika
Sherwin Stowers

Chiefs
Isaac Ross
Scott Waldrom
Hayden Triggs
Fritz Lee
Tim Nainai-Williams
Hurricanes


Crusaders
Khan Fotualii - Hawkes Bay
Matt Berquist - Auckland
Israel Dagg - Hawkes Bay
Zac Guildford - Hawkes Bay
Tyler Bleyendaal - Canterbury Metro U20
Joe Wheeler - Tasman
Kade Poki - Tasman
Quentin Macdonald - Tasman
Sonny Bill Williams - Canterbury
Nic Barrett - Southland

Highlanders
Adam Thomson - Otago
Shaun Treeby - Wellington
Nick Crosswell - Manawatu
Aaron Smith - Manawatu
Jarrod Hoeata - Taranaki
Nasi Manu - Canterbury
Colin Slade - CanterburyLuis Garcia2010-10-17 10:13:35

huge win for The Bay away in wellington. fantastic!

There was a game in Wellington?

was a crowd too rival Gold Coast by the sounds of it, but least the weather can be blamed in this case

It was a good game. The kicking by both teams was fantastic, no way would it be remotely easy in those windy, rainy conditions.

2500 there, and I am pretty sure at least a quarter of those were up in the lounges and boxes. Was atrocious conditions, some pretty good trys considering the weather.

would have said 2500 in the ground tops!

2500 sounds about right. Incredibly sparse crowd. But the right team won so I'm happy

The thing with the Highlanders, is that they make players into potential All Blacks then they leave for other provinces or over-seas because of our poor results. For example, Israel Dagg. We made this guy quality, he is now a wonderful player who could be in line for the World Cup, but sadly is now playing for the Crusaders. Nick Evans is another example. Plays with us for 3 seasons, suddenly finds himself 2nd best in the country, so he leaves to the Blues. Its pretty dissapointing when one of the stars leaves the club. Although its good to see Ben Smith, Jimmy Cowan, Tom Donnely and Adam Thompson staying with the franchise. Its also good to see Colin Slade coming in. OOOOTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOO!!!!!tomrewi2010-10-01 17:56:19

Ahem. Mr I Dagg is from Hawkes Bay.
(no relation to F Dagg from Taihape)

Auckland vs. Hawke's Bay tonight. We should win it, and we have Joe Rokocoko back from his international duties. Would be pretty disappointing if we didn't win.

Edit: Rokocoko starting from the bench.Tricia McMillan2010-10-01 19:37:27

Yes, your right. But as I understand he wasn't that good(correct me if im wrong)and he discovered his full potential here.. Im pretty sure the same for Nick Evans coming down from Harbour..(Not too sure so please correct me)