Sat 21st Oct: International: New Zealand v Toa Samoa (at Eden Park, Auckland) 6am KO

[Sports Prophet]

Match thread for anyone up early enough

Edited October 20, 2023 by Sports Prophet

[Sports Prophet]

Reckon the Kiwis will be too strong for Samoa. I hope we see a sell out.

[NRLandSL]

Keano Kini looks special, one of the best young players in the world right now. I could see him becoming a world class player in a few years.

[Bamboozle]

1 hour ago, NRLandSL said:

Keano Kini looks special, one of the best young players in the world right now. I could see him becoming a world class player in a few years.

Smart move bringing him into the kiwi squad and nailing him down early on.

[UTK]

Couple of late changes for Samoa: 

• Brian To'o is out, replaced by Greg Marzhew
• Izack Tago is out, replaced by Tommy Talau
• Justin Matamua is out, replaced by Ronald Volkman
• Connelly Lemuelu is out, replaced by Royce Hunt on the bench with Heilum Luki starting on an edge.

[UTK]

That was the best Siva Tau vs Haka i've ever seen. 

Samoans making a point of going straight to all of the Kiwis with Samoan heritage, massive staredown between Leniu and Asofa-Solomona.

Crazy stuff.

[Jack GB]

crowd and atmosphere seem very lively!!! 

[Odsal Outlaw]

Nice first try for NZ. Send e Samoa fans in the ground. Do Kiwi fans not really get out and back their team as often feels more PI fans when they play those teams?

[UTK]

Samoa have frontloaded their energy heavily, NZ weathered the storm and are now dominating.

[MZH]

It's looking disappointingly one sided. Hopefully Samoa can dig their heels in and show a bit as they did against the Aussies.

[Archie Gordon]

It's one-sided. The stats are also one-sided, including completion rates of 60% vs 81%. And yet players, coaches and commentators are fixated by it.

[Odsal Outlaw]

Feels like Samoan withdrawals are costing them, missing much beyond taking the ball one up. 

[Odsal Outlaw]

Just now, Archie Gordon said:

It's one-sided. The stats are also one-sided, including completion rates of 60% vs 81%. And yet players, coaches and commentators are fixated by it.

It has been engrossing in some respects. An enjoyable game still. Just a shame about the HT score.

[StandOffHalf]

This NZ outfit looks pretty formidable. Big north-to-south runners like Fisher-Harris, Leota and Leo Thompson, with physicality and offloads. Tapine in particular has been fantastic with his go-forward and offloads.

Samoa struggling to put stuff together after a promising opening quarter. They really need to put a 6 in to control ends to sets and put Crichton back to the centres IMO.

I like the mix of power and strike in the Kiwis.

Edited October 21, 2023 by StandOffHalf

[Jack GB]

11 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

It's one-sided. The stats are also one-sided, including completion rates of 60% vs 81%. And yet players, coaches and commentators are fixated by it.

 

But isn't that a good thing? i think one thing we tend to get wrong in the UK is how dreary eveything seems to be: we need the commentators and media talking the game up 

[Archie Gordon]

3 minutes ago, Jack GB said:

 

But isn't that a good thing? i think one thing we tend to get wrong in the UK is how dreary eveything seems to be: we need the commentators and media talking the game up 

I can see I wasn't very clear. I meant fixated by the completion rates. 

[Winstonswhite]

The energy of these players after a solid 9 month NRL season is phenomenal 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

Come on Samoa ...at least post some points 

 

[Jack GB]

I'm feeling abit for Crighton - he's clearly not a 6 and really struggling to show any quality 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

I'd be taking Solomona off now .....save him some energy for bashing the chain rattlers up

[NRLandSL]

Timoko is a superb player

[Eddie]

How on Earth didn’t England win the semi final against Samoa last year, another missed opportunity. 

[Archie Gordon]

Sutton and the bunker ought to be stood down after that 'try'. Really poor.

[UTK]

1 minute ago, Eddie said:

How on Earth didn’t England win the semi final against Samoa last year, another missed opportunity. 

Very different spine in this Samoa side. 

In saying that, Samoa should never have made the semis. Woolf bottled Tonga's chances by bringing an injured Hopoate back for his first game of the tournament in the QF, and even then Samoa only scraped past them.

[Eddie]

1 minute ago, UTK said:

Very different spine in this Samoa side. 

In saying that, Samoa should never have made the semis. Woolf bottled Tonga's chances by bringing an injured Hopoate back for his first game of the tournament in the QF, and even then Samoa only scraped past them.

It is, but still, we’d destroyed them in Newcastle four weeks before. It was quite frankly a balls up of massive proportions, and I’m still annoyed about it because an England v Australia final at a packed Old Trafford would have been one of the sporting highlights of my life.