Rugby Union

• Taranaki 31 v 15 Counties-Manukau
• Auckland 21 v 29 Wellington
• Canterbury 34 v 21 Northland
• Southland 22 v 13 Otago
• Waikato 21 v 36 Bay of Plenty

Ive only watched a bit of games 1 & 3 and all of game 2 so far. There's just so much Rugby and i'm trying to get some work done on my dinghy in the shed.

• Counties-Manukau almost looked like they might have been able to rein in that lead in the last 15-20 minutes of their game, but were unlucky the referee was very lenient on repeat infringments on linebreaks / goalline D by the 'naki. Of course if they'd done better to start with it wouldn't have been so tough.
• Game 2 was a great watch, a real ding-dong battle with the Auckland NPC team playing a lot like the Blues. The Lions had to put in a massive defensive shift and weirdly similar to the Argentina-ABs game were able to capitalise on a couple of mistakes to get their foot through the door. Auckland started with a very journeyman 10 with Plummer called up to train with the ABs, and looked a lot better when Zarn Sullivan returned form injury to take up the playmaker spot; with Perofeta, Barrett & Plummer ahead of him at the Blues NZR should really be trying to get him to move to another Super club so he can try to get more game time - whether that be at 10 (my preference) or 15 (where the Blues have played him).
• Northland were surprisingly competitive against the Rams for the bit I watched near the end; especially given the huge number of Canterbury players with SR experience.
• Wish I'd watched that Southland victory; they're perennial wooden-spooners but the match against Otago is their big derby so no surprise they were competitive at home. Rugby Park in Invercargill is NZs 2nd worst NPC ground (after Tasman's alternate home in Blenheim) - I wonder if there was an Antarctic southerly sweeping the ground.