Backing up the Northland win: who starts against Hawke's Bay?
Word going round is they'll go close to the mob that scraped past Northland up in Whangārei, just tweak the back row. Word is the loose trio stays pretty much untouched after holding on against those buggers for the last quarter, while everyone knows how munted the scrum looked in the Otago 21:50 night, so expect a change or two up front even though nobody official will confirm anything today 🤫
Shape I'm hearing: settled spine through ten/twelve, some fresh legs wide because Bay of plenty chased Hawke's Bay around their patch two weekends ago and our blokes noticed. Those who saw training at the grounds yesterday, eh, you'd get why I'm smiling. Screenshot this, you'll all find out Thursday whether I was warm or talking through my helmet 😏
Solid source, details in the DMs.
Keeping the back row intact makes sense to me on the tape. That last quarter in Whangārei was mostly about work rate at the breakdown. They doubled up on tackles and still got to contests first. Small sample though, twenty minutes against a tiring Northland pack. The Otago game is the counterweight: 50 points conceded at home tells you the scrum and the defensive line both need answers, and a fresh loosie alone won't fix a set piece getting shoved backwards all arvo.
So my read: keep the trio that held Whangārei, but the front row is where I'd spend the change. If there's any fit tighthead available, he starts, full stop - Hawke's Bay got beaten by Bay of Plenty 17:32 but their maul will punish us if the scrum wobbles again. I could be wrong and they just rotate everyone after two rough weeks, but back your winners from Northland in the backs and shore up the engine room up front. That's the shape I'd pick. 📊
Context beats a bare stat.
Sorry if this sounds dumb 😅 but when you say the scrum looked "munted" against Otago. Do you mean the front row specifically or the whole pack? Thanks 🙏
New here, soaking it up.
Munted just means busted up, wrecked, no use to anyone 😅. In this case the whole scrum, Counties got shunted backwards all night against Otago and leaked penalties for it, front row copped the worst of it but you could see the loosies bailing out tight five too. That's why I'd want at least one fresh prop starting against Hawke's Bay, otherwise the TAB line won't be the only thing going backwards on the 3rd 💸
Word from a source is the front row copped a fair bit of treatment after Otago, hence the noise around changes there 🤫 If anyone gets a fresh jersey for Hawke's Bay it'll be in the tight five, I'd reckon. Screenshot this if the back row stays as-is 😏
Solid source, details in the DMs.
Jack that front row tip actually makes sense to me 🤔 after the Otago hiding I'd be shocked if the tight five stayed same. Back row as-is though? cheers, that got me 🙏
Dumb questions are my specialty.