2025 Pacific Championships

Well, I guess the coin toss came up heads.
 
Double movement surely. Elbow hits the line, that's tackled. Not sure about the big arsed pad on the goalpost though. Is it a try because it touched the pad?
 
Samoa won't have anyone left soon... including next week's game
 
Double movement surely. Elbow hits the line that's tackled. Not sure about the big arsed pad on the goalpost though.
I'm ok with it ... the elbow hit the ground, but he didn't promote the ball, he just put it down from where it was.

Double movement doesn't mean you can't move the ball, it just means you can't promote it.

I did only see it once though.
 
Now Mariner with a horrible pass... **** me dead they're bombing some tries
 
Mariner needs to go to right wing, not having him there cost tries today.
He definitely finishes off some of those Tago breaks.

I don't think he was horrible at left centre, but Taylan May at left centre brings far more value than Taulagi on the right wing... and Mariner has shown that he's pretty ****ing good on the wing, especially when it comes to finishing off chances.

Mariner needed to take that last catch from Talagi... his confidence would've been sky high if he did.
 
I'm ok with it ... the elbow hit the ground, but he didn't promote the ball, he just put it down from where it was.

Double movement doesn't mean you can't move the ball, it just means you can't promote it.

I did only see it once though.
Yeah it does. His elbow hits the ground the ball isn't over the line that's tackled. Not that I give a **** I needed Brown in my SGM.
 
A lot of injuries to Samoa out of that game... I think Tonga can get them next week.

All the Samoan injuries in the forward pack losing Terrell May, Jazz (no massive loss, but he can do a job at 13 better than 9), Mariota and possibly Sua... so they look really short there now... can they call up some other players that haven't already gone off on holidays?

Talagi was Samoa's best spine player, but Katoa will run rings around Luai who was just nowhere near good enough.

Tonga look short at 6 (no idea who's playing there... guessing Koula or Lehi as a makeshift), but Havili and Soni Luke can do a job at 9, and they'll have Iongi who has more ball playing than RTS, so I've got their spine as being ahead of Samoa's.

Tonga's pack should be strong enough against Samoa's now with all the injuries as well... with AFB, Eli Katoa, Lolo, Stefano, Leka, Wong, etc. I think they would've been around even before the injuries anyway... noting that Tonga are missing Haumole due to injury as well.
 
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He'll always churn out meters and tackles if you leave him on the field for the whole game, but the reduced tackle breaks and offloads is where you miss what impact he can bring in two shorter stints... 4 breaks and 2 offloads today.

Same thing happened in the 80mins prelim game... 4 tackle breaks and 1 offload vs panthers... but the other 3 games around it (storm rd 27, canberra wk 1 and the GF) the tackle breaks and offloads were generally better (especially the offloads), which means he's causing more damage in the middle.

Rd 27 vs storm = 64mins > 5 tackle breaks and 6 offloads
Wk 1 = 74mins (extra time w/ a ****ed ankle) > 4 tackle breaks and 5 offloads
GF = 53mins > 5 tackle breaks, no offloads (not his best game, but coming off an 80min game in 30 degree heat 7 days earlier)

Samoa looked like they had him doing a bit of ballplaying to get him through the 80mins, but they might've missed a trick if their only thought is keeping him on the field = better... maybe they were worried about that Kiwi pack, because it was huge and they were going to keep coming all 80mins, so Gardiner was probably worried about taking Payne off... but you just have to find a 10-15min period where you can get him off and let him reload for that second stint.
 
Can’t understand the hype around Samoa. No spine of any sorts. No spine means no team. NZ and Tonga I have had winning comfortably against them for weeks.
Dunno about the comfort factor Fitzy . I watched the highlights . Seemed Samoa made them fight for it .
 
Can’t understand the hype around Samoa. No spine of any sorts. No spine means no team. NZ and Tonga I have had winning comfortably against them for weeks.
Outside their 9, their spine is comparable to the others tbh.
 
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