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Ranfurly Shield, ITM Cup & Heartland Championship: NZ domestic comps 2015

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waiopehu oldboy

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Absolutely. The salary cap & stopping the big-5 stockpiling players is really working. It's probably hurting club footy in the main centres but on the whole I'd rather have a strong ITM Cup & Heartland Championship than ITM-quality players running around for Petone or Ponsonby then being drafted into a "Development XV" with no real prospect of playing for the "A" team. Used to happen a lot & 'nua for one suffered for it.
 
waiopehu oldboy

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Taniwha haven't had the Shield since 1978 & that's unlikely to change, Magpies up 22-3 after 30. HT stats will probably suggest Taniwha don't deserve to be that far behind (& the no-try call against them looked plain wrong) but they're just not accurate enough.
 
Dan54

Dan54

Tim Horan (67)
See the Turbos have picked up Mark Atkins WOB, not sure if you remember his dad Dale, Maori and Canterbury No 8 from Levin.
 
waiopehu oldboy

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Oh I remember Dale alright, shoulda been an AB but was considered "too predictable" as in: 5m scrum, Atkins picks the ball up & fucking scores. Mind you I also remember John Workman making him look pretty average in a coupla 1st XV matches :) back when Waiopehu had a 1st XV.

FT Magpies 39-10 Taniwha. Shield safe for the time being, North Harbour aka Little Sethfricka have the next challenge.

First time in several years I've watched an entire Round, pretty happy with the overall standard. Already looking forward to Heartland starting next week.
 
Dan54

Dan54

Tim Horan (67)
yep gotta say I enjoyed the first round WOB, mind you I tend to find the old ITM cup my fav comp!! just think most of thee teams look like they a little further on than usual at this stage.
 
waiopehu oldboy

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
Round 2 kicks off tonight, Harbour v Wellington. I'm on lates plus working Saturday so will mostly see 2nd halves except for Auks v 'naki & Cantabs v Steelers on Sunday.

Heartland kicks off this week, feature match is obviously 'nua v Wanganui in Levin on Saturday, 12:35 AEST :)
 
D

daveypnz

Frank Row (1)
Can you guys post your analysis of all the Heartland teams this year? I'm trying to learn a bit about it. If you could give me your rankings of the teams with a side note about them perhaps!

That would be awesome :D
 
Dan54

Dan54

Tim Horan (67)
Like the idea of that Barbarians series (and not just because one game is in Levin), but because it another vehicle for players out super rugby to get a bit of recognition, and a bit of higher standard of rugby.
Well done ARU!!
Oh and NZRU
 
waiopehu oldboy

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
daveypnz said:
Can you guys post your analysis of all the Heartland teams this year? I'm trying to learn a bit about it. If you could give me your rankings of the teams with a side note about them perhaps!

That would be awesome :D
Click to expand...

I'll start by trying to explain the format, which is pretty convoluted but more or less works most of the time:

In Round 1 the 12 teams are split into pools based on last year's standings, odds & evens. Everyone plays the other five teams in their pool, the top-ranked three in each pool get three home games, the others two.

At the end of round 1 the comp splits into Meads (top six) & Lochore (others) Cup divisions, three from each pool in each division. In round two everyone plays the three teams they didn't play in round 1 (round 1 points are carried forward).

At the end of round 2 the top four in each division play SF, 1 v 4 & 2 v 3. Kinda sucks to finish 5th or 6th in the Meads Cup as in theory you're better than anyone in the Lochore Cup yet have no chance of winning anything other than bragging rights.

Note that this is "community" i.e. amateur rugby, a throwback to the days where NZ rugby was said to be the other place where doctors, lawyers & police officers interacted with their patients, clients & clientele, but on an equal footing............
 
zer0

zer0

Jim Lenehan (48)
How long until Harbour is put out of their misery and re-integrated back into Auckland?
 
2bluesfan

2bluesfan

Nev Cottrell (35)
Makos won't be all that excited with that win over the BOP but the BOP certainly made it extremely difficult for the Makos. Ex-Randwick player Peter Samu went well for the victors, bagging a nice try at the end to secure a bonus point.
 
waiopehu oldboy

waiopehu oldboy

Stirling Mortlock (74)
FT Makos 34-13 Steamers.

Bonus point win & Marty Banks brought up 500 career points, 100+ of which were for Buller in Heartland comp.
 
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