Nah. They underperformed for sure, but them and Northland lost some games by really quite narrow margins and as I recall Hawke's Bay even drew 2 matches. Either them or Northland (or even Counties; who were typically erratic) could have scraped into the Top 7.Yikes, were the Magpies that bad last year
They actually drew three matches, all to teams that made the semi finals, so were very unlucky not to finish in the top seven; only missing out by a point. I think they're a good chance of promotion to the championship for next year, providing they don't get too badly affected by RWC call-ups to a number of key Samoan and Tongan players in their squad.
I think this season will be particularly difficult to tip; not only are most sides going to be without ABs for the whole season, but Island players are going to leave further gaps. Midweek matches will mean that squad depth is going to be the key, not just a good XV. Plus the Super Rugby season's only just finished so those involved in the later stages of that competition will surely need some rest.
This season's a little different, and there aren't actually any "playoffs" as such (i.e. Super Rugby style), just a final for the championship and premiership following the round robin matches.Given they have inter-league, should have allowed the winner of Division Two to join the 3 top Division One sides in the play-offs.
Good choice IMO, I'm tipping Auckland to win the title this year.
Surprised you went with Tasman to beat Northland since I felt Northland were a much better side (half of the Blues backline for starters), but the rest were pretty close calls IMO. I also imagine you tipped before most of the sides were announced; I waited until the last minute before going with Waikato and Wellington since I knew they'd have a few extra ABs for the round.
I thought Northland would lack a lot of power up front. They lost a number of key forwards, and their pack was pretty **** last season. Plus, no David Holwell...
Guess you could say the same for Stephen Donald from Chiefs/Waikato to international level...
Even with a weakened squad to pick from (no Fotuali'i, Guildford, Dagg, Perenise, etc.) they should've had enough to win - with due respect to Manawatu, they're by far the weakest team in the competition (even with Cruden). I guess it didn't help that in the build-up to one of Manawatu's tries, the player who threw the pass was already in touch; I realise they won by more than seven points but that would've changed the outlook of the game had that been called back.
