This weekend will provide a much tougher challenge for the Sharks coming off a decent away win against the gritty Sunwolves. This Blues team has the personnel to punish any Sharks mistake – even from their own 22. The Sharks forward pack will have to continue and improve on the great work from the previous game and shut the Blues out of the game.
Blues:
15 Melani Nanai, 14 Caleb Clarke, 13 TJ Faiane, 12 Sonny Bill Williams, 11 Rieko Ioane, 10 Otere Black, 9 Jonathan Ruru, 8 Akira Ioane, 7 Dalton Papalii, 6 Tom Robinson, 5 Josh Goodhue, 4 Patrick Tuipulotu (captain), 3 Ofa Tu’ungafasi, 2 James Parsons, 1 Karl Tu’inukuafe
Substitutes: 16 Matt Moulds, 17 Alex Hodgman, 18 Sione Mafileo, 19 Gerard Cowley-Tuioti, 20 Matt Matich, 21 Augustine Pulu, 22 Harry Plummer, 23 Tanielu Tele’a
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That’s a very dangerous team even without Nonu there. Great test for our midfield and back 3. Think Robert jr will have the upperhand over Otere though.
@Quintin (Comment 1) : Otere Black is a very decent player, lots of hype about him when he was an u20 All Black, isnt small either. They have a good starting side especially backline and front row. Their bench is fairly average though
Think Andre can handle Sonny bill. He struggles more against faster more illusive centers. Some big hits stop him getting his famous offloads away.
Will the Blues also struggle with the humidity?
@Bokhoring (Comment 4) : Reckon i can make a good guess which team makes more handling errors….
Sharks team has been announced.
@SheldonK (Comment 2) : I read a couple articles hyping the guy , just think Rob likes to play the Kiwi sides a lot, especially the Blues 😆
@Quintin (Comment 6) : Yeh dont get me wrong i think Rob is the better player, just Otere is fairly decent too