seven stars for counties, All Blacks for otago in ITM championship final,,,

The Counties Manukau Steelers have announced their team to play Otago in the ITM Cup Championship Final on Friday, 7.35pm at ECOLight Stadium, Pukekohe.
  The Steelers will have Sevens stars DJ Forbes and Sherwin Stowers in action, while Otago have named their two All Blacks straight into their starting team.

The side remains largely unchanged for the match sponsored by Bayer. Mark Selwyn comes back in at flanker with Maama Vaipulu moving to the bench.

Steelers coach Tana Umaga said "This is a big occasion for our Counties Manukau Rugby family. We really appreciate the support we've had this season and want to repay it, by putting in our best performance on Friday night in front of our enthusiastic home crowd"

Season member's passes will gain pass holders entry into the match. Tickets are available from the Union office all week during business hours or the gate on game day from 9am.

Meanwhile Otago coach Tony Brown has brought two All Blacks into his starting team, with Ben Smith replacing Tony Ensor to start at fullback, while Tamati Ellison takes over from Jayden Spence to the bench for the match which could earn them promotion to the Premiership for next season, a remarkable turnaround after their difficulties earlier in the season.

Grandstand ticket prices are $20 for adults and $15 for students. South Auckland Motors Embankment tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students. In a new initiative supported by Pak n Save Pukekohe and Anchor, all kids 13 years and under will be FREE to all Steelers' 2012 home games. Gates open at 1pm.

Counties Manukau:

1. Simon Lemalu
2. Mahonri Schwalger
3. Matt Talaese
4. Ronald Raaymakers
5. Daniel Adongo
6. Mark Selwyn
7. DJ Forbes
8. Jimmy Tupou
9. August Pulu
10. Baden Kerr
11. Sherwin Stowers
12. Bundee Aki
13. Rey Lee-Lo
14. Tony Pulu
15. Tim Nanai-Williams

Reserves

16. Suliasi Taufalele
17. Maka Tatafu
18. Sikeli Nabou
19. Maama Vaipulu
20. David Bason
21. Kane Hancy
22. Tyrone Lefau

Otago:

15-Ben Smith, 14-Marshall Suckling, 13-Tamati Ellison, 12-Glenn Dickson, 11-Buxton Popoali'i, 10-Hayden Parker, 9-Fumiaki Tanaka; 8-Gareth Evans, 7-Lee Allan, 6-Adam Thomson, 5-Rob Verbakel, 4-Jackson Hemopo, 3-Tama Tuirirangi, 2-Liam Coltman, 1-Aki Seiuli.

Reserves: Shota Horie, Jacob Ellison, Adam Hill, TJ Ioane, Peter Breen, Jayden Spence, Tony Enso

counties looking the goods, but will be cheering hard for my southland brothers otago.

should be a fantastic match,,,:o)
 

enjoy it saSUE - may the best side win and the game be played in a sporting way, in fine weather and with a decent SA ref officiating -  while the rest of the rugby world focusses on the third tier Currie Cup final. Such is the attention SA rugby commands!

Sasue

Thanks for the information - I am looking forward very much to the ITM final matches this weekend.  

I have a problem though that is still nagging in the back of my mind.   7's players are sklled in ball - handling and dangerous in attack - but the deficiency I still see remains the development of forwards that can handle the encessary pressure up front.   That will not add value to the game as a whole - it may actually indicate too much of a focus on backline play - which could cost teams as a whole dearly in the final matches.

Cheers for the offer Beano but we won’t be needing those refs! Why her majesty’s Sir Lawerence is training a few up as we speak!

thats a bit harsh beeno......i for one like watching the ITM cup. its always as rugby is meant to be with the ball in the hand. some decent skill on display. i pick the boys from otago to take it. they have more big game players in my view as well i like there mix in the team. at least we know it will be some form of entertainment. good luck to your boys sasue

great observation mike....but that tends to happen. some countries focus more on one area than others. i feel NZ got the mix right a couple of years back they were very backline intensive and the fowards were lacking in that department. that is not the case anymore offcourse

All Blacknblue

Any referees trained by Lawrence will never make the IRB panel - in his case we have an incompetent trying to teach other referees.   Result extension of incomeptence.    By the way - is he using the 2011 Wallaby- Springbok test as a training mechanism to show trainees how not to ref matches?

please do tell those refs not to visit the republic soon.....i reckon some of brycies wannabee refs might be in for a rude welcome party

It was just a joke mikey, i don't know if he's training anyone already or how they will fair. Ok muncher noted. Tbh i'm not really bothered about the ref thing.

Until you guys can take more points from having the lions share of all possession stats you will always risk running into probs in tight games, you would do alright as you are in the north. But in the south you need to sort your backline out and score more trys because obviously this combined with the strangle hold your forwards can already put on a game you would never find the ref to be an issue again.

This is my opinion, mikey don't waste your time writing me an essay please! Keep it short lol.

All Blacknblue

Short and to the point - I agree 100% with you.   Is that short enough???????? LOL

Oh mikey i love it! Maybe it's just old age but i cringe when i have to scroll down half a thread just to read one of your or beano's post!

@clevermike,

im not really to worried about the forwards at all for the immediate and short term future, plenty of talent coming through and the NZ spXV is where they will be forced to preform in order to compete for higher honours.

i do think that some of the AB forwards will not be there come the RWC, but IMO its wrong to focus on something so far away and IMO onlyy, something so pointless, but thats just me, i rate every All Black test as important and dont ever want to see the All Blacks compromise a test for the benefit of a future test.

in saying that, we got plenty of talent coming through the systems and if the spXV format was fair, u would really see just how dominant NZ teams are, its a myth to think that its only because of our classy backs, cos the forwards always set up the platform and if they didnt give the backs good clean ball or even parity, then the backs would be winning games on the backfoot, something ive never seen a team do in spXV, CC or ITM.

i can argue the merits of how healthy the NZ forwards are, but time will be the only judge of that, and in saying that, i am worried about our depth in the hookers department, i see only soloutions for the present, but nothing for the future, something that the All Blacks need to get on top of next year.
 

@clevermike,

im not really to worried about the forwards at all for the immediate and short term future, plenty of talent coming through and the NZ spXV is where they will be forced to preform in order to compete for higher honours.

i do think that some of the AB forwards will not be there come the RWC, but IMO its wrong to focus on something so far away and IMO onlyy, something so pointless, but thats just me, i rate every All Black test as important and dont ever want to see the All Blacks compromise a test for the benefit of a future test.

in saying that, we got plenty of talent coming through the systems and if the spXV format was fair, u would really see just how dominant NZ teams are, its a myth to think that its only because of our classy backs, cos the forwards always set up the platform and if they didnt give the backs good clean ball or even parity, then the backs would be winning games on the backfoot, something ive never seen a team do in spXV, CC or ITM.

i can argue the merits of how healthy the NZ forwards are, but time will be the only judge of that, and in saying that, i am worried about our depth in the hookers department, i see only soloutions for the present, but nothing for the future, something that the All Blacks need to get on top of next year.