Well, that was interesting. Overall impressions? The Warriors development side showed they are just that, individuals with talent who were in a team that needs to develop. The North Harbour selection looked similar except they knew where to be in relation to each other. Those combinations resulted in a thrashing. Well played.
Now the main event.
Very Good.
Martin. Very sound, scored a good try and kicking was OK. He is accurate, but doesn't get a lot of distance. Boys need to ensure they score a couple of metres in on the RHS of field as he is less confident there. Most importantly, NOT INJURED!
Vuna. Sensational solo effort. Good wheels backing up in general play. Nice in-goal clean up from a Raiders kick-through. Needs to be on the bench.
Luck. Sowed up a bench spot. Tidied up others errors. Good in defence, especially a 5th tackle ball-in-all followed by a one-on-one strip.
Good
Lance Hohaia. Looked confident, and starting the trek back to last years form.
Toopi. Came in on defence causing a hole once that I noticed, but aside from that his acceleration seemed sharp, and his head was up. A confident Toopi is needed this year.
Impact defence. As opposed to organisational D, there were some big hits again. Good to see some sting. Villasanti especially.
Rapira and Tuakura. Solid start to their careers. Rapira (I'm presuming he was number 23) looked especially keen.
Needs work.
Organisational Defence. Inability to deal with someone cutting back on the angle when drifting wide, as highlighted by Schifcofske carving us up or react quick enough generally. This improved as the game went on, however.
Execution. This will come with more play, of course, but last pass/kick options were poor. Koopus' slack pass to his outside man after making a good break an example of that.
Ball security It's early on, so no real issue but the ball is number one priority. Losing too much of means days, like today - a mediocre team winning.
Faumuina. Obviously needs more time in the position. Looked like he was struggling to figure out where he should be on the field.
Ummm...probably not good.
Lauaki Couple of hit and spins. Glory dive to attempt to score after a good break when he lacked the wheels and so made himself an easy target. Offload in traffic to a Raiders player. Knocked on in a sloppy play the ball and blamed anyone else. Standard day at the office for the Lauaki family.
Tuimavave. Lost two balls when hitting up. Adequate otherwise, which pretty much sums it up. Prospects given there being better bench players around are slim.
A pass mark for everyone else, although a few needed to look for more work. Vatuvei was one of them but he didn't look right to me. Rovelli, looked keen but needs lots more time to gel with the other players.
Vuna put his hand up and a bench spot may be on the cards. He could then come into fullback as cover for Webb when Hohaia comes off, maiking Webb the dummy half option. If Luck plays like that again he'll nail a bench spot too.
Only the first trial so I'm not overly concerned, but I noticed the crowd lapsing into typical NZ self-depreciation mode. To paraphrase, "Looks like the same old Warriors." "Is the psychological distress from watching them covered by ACC." You've all heard it. Success is the only way to defeat that sort of talk so that is what is needed.
The Raiders, much maligned but fielding their second string outfit were better than us for sure. Given, as I state, their 2nd stringers ARE mediocre there is much work to do. No doubt it will get done, but it will have to.
I look forward to the next trial and the improvement it must bring.
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