New Zealand v Australia - Auckland - 23 August 2014

[waiopehu oldboy]

Danny, as a former waiopehu 1st xv man, I find it hard to believe they do not field a side any more. We had 7-8 teams in my day. I believe it has something to do with the current headmaster and has a poor attitude to sport/rugby. I heard this in the lead up to the reunion this year.

A school that produces Carlos spencer and plenty of good players can't field a team 20 years later? Very sad.

How tricks mate? How's Mike settling in, working yet?

He could have been the answer for the eyeties at halfback mate or at 1st drop for the cricket team!!

Cheers
G

Jack Porter will be rolling in his grave.........

 

[Athilnaur]

On the high tackle at a key time, now that we can discuss it without it sounding like sour grapes, I believe it will prove to be a key learning moment. The team was exposed as mentally fragile by the end of that play, as if the whole team had been kicked in the guts and didn't know when they'd be able to breathe. Leaves a sour note in my mouth, but at least it has been exposed for what it is. If they want to be contenders not pretenders they will need to be a lot harder. I also believe there was a leadership gap, from the team not just Hooper.

 

[Scrubber2050]

In respect of the "leadership gap" I think Hooper is very young, and whilst a terrific player his inexperience has been shown. That was foreseeable and he will only get better over time. The leaders of the group, being probabbly Hooper, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Slipper definitely are players that "lead" by example. Others such as Simmo, Kepu and Palu probably haven't performed as well as they should have.

Players are playing for Australia, they should be 120% motivated and ready to go. It shouldn't necessarily be up to Hooper and Co. to motivate the blokes, only to make the important decisions during the match (and off field as well). Those decisions must be the right ones....

 

[Dan54]

Danny, as a former waiopehu 1st xv man, I find it hard to believe they do not field a side any more. We had 7-8 teams in my day. I believe it has something to do with the current headmaster and has a poor attitude to sport/rugby. I heard this in the lead up to the reunion this year.

A school that produces Carlos spencer and plenty of good players can't field a team 20 years later? Very sad.

How tricks mate? How's Mike settling in, working yet?

He could have been the answer for the eyeties at halfback mate or at 1st drop for the cricket team!!

Cheers
G

Yep it's true they don't actually play in the 1st 15 comp Grubs,although they still field a few other teams, according to my scources ie; grankids, a hell of a lot of kids play league, and Palmy colleges have picked th eyes out of the rest. As I said with nephew a good Levin boy, never did any secondary school in Levin was at Fielding, scolarship thing(with the Whitelock boys) etc, players are getting poached big time. Mike seems to be enjoying life at moment, mind you he not working still. And yep I would of been intersted to see if he gave rugby and cricket a crack in Italy, hell as you say he may of been in Italian team with the other Levin boy that played in World cup here in 2003!!