1. Boyd
2. Oates
3. Moga
4. Roberts
5. Kahu - opacic if kahu injured
6. Milford
7. Nikorima
8. McGuire
9. Hunt (he can have a break mid game, play about 60 mins)
10. Ese ese
11. Glenn
12. Gillett
13. Arrow
14. TPJ
15. Ofa
16. Blair
17. Thaiday
18. Marshall
19. Funaki
Kahu (defensively and enthusiasm), tpj (enthusiasm, size, metres and impact), and ofa (size, metres & enthusiasm) will bring a lot back. What Blair provides is better provided off the bench these days, his offloads and mongrel are outweighed by his lack of metres and mistakes if he starts because the other team have energy to monster him. This all said, with McGuire at prop and arrow starting, Blair can solely focus on hard running-this is when he plays his best games- because the defensive load and ball playing forward roles will be taken care of, so I wouldn't mind as much if he started if that other change happened (arrow on and McGuire to prop)
I was very close to putting Marshall in, and I think once/if the forwards get some energy back in and Bennett is confident they can cope with less forward rotations, he should. He provides calmness in the team and steadies the ship, as well as a good kicking game-he could even rotate with hunt at hooker. He obviously wouldn't have had much impact last night though, our forward pack and no mead are our main issues to fix.
Sims injury appears to be a blessing. Great defensive and mongrel prop, but you can't have 2 starting props making 50 metres a game. People can justify it all they want with the big outside backs making metres but most of moga and Oates' metres are running out at the outside backs-not tiring out the middle men of the opposition.
