Date: 19th April 2019

Kickoff: 7 pm Local Time
10pm NZ Time

Venue: Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo



Teams:


1.Pauliasi MANU
2.Nathan VELLA
3.Hiroshi YAMASHITA
4.Mark ABBOTT
5.Luke THOMPSON
6.Hendrik TUI
7.Dan PRYOR
8.Hendrik TUI
9.Jamie BOOTH
10.Hayden PARKER
11.Semisi MASIREWA
12.Rahboni WARREN VOSAYACO
13.Josh TIMU
14.Gerhard van den HEEVER
15.Ryohei YAMANAKA

Bench
16.Atsushi SAKATE
17.Masataka MIKAMI
18.Takuma ASAHARA
19.Tom ROWE
20.Shuhei Matsuhashi
21.Fumiaki TANAKA
22.Jason EMERY
23. Jamie HENRY



Chase Tiatia,
Wes Goosen,
Matt Proctor,
Ngani Laumape,
Ben Lam,
Fletcher Smith,
TJ Perenara (c),
Reed Prinsep,
Du'Plessis Kirifi,
Vaea Fifita,
Liam Mitchell,
James Blackwell,
Ben May,
Ricky Riccitelli,
Fraser Armstrong.

Reserves: Asafo Aumua,
Xavier Numia,
Jeff To'omaga-Allen,
Isaia Walker-Leawere,
Sam Henwood,
Richard Judd,
James Marshall,
Billy Proctor.

Officials

Referee: Angus Gardner (Australia)
Assistant referees: Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Shuhei Kubo (Japan)
TMO: Minoru Fuji (Japan)

The Sunwolves are not to be underestimated. They are a solid team who have taken some big scalps this year,
and may have a point to prove as they have been essentially taken to the pound and are about to be "sent to a farm".

Word is the Barretts are to be rested. Potential Banana Skin game here.

Chase Tiatia, Wes Goosen, Matt Proctor, Ngani Laumape, Ben Lam, Fletcher Smith, TJ Perenara (c), Reed Prinsep, Du'Plessis Kirifi, Vaea Fifita, Liam Mitchell, James Blackwell, Ben May, Ricky Riccitelli, Fraser Armstrong. Reserves: Asafo Aumua, Xavier Numia, Jeff To'omaga-Allen, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Sam Henwood, Richard Judd, James Marshall, Billy Proctor.

Hurricanes named.

No Barretts, Savea or Coles.

Still a handy side though.

Should be a cracker of a game with a lot of running rugby considering how these two teams like to play the game.

Sunwolves team announced

1.Pauliasi MANU
2.Nathan VELLA
3.Hiroshi YAMASHITA
4.Mark ABBOTT
5.Luke THOMPSON
6.Hendrik TUI
7.Dan PRYOR
8.Hendrik TUI
9.Jamie BOOTH
10.Hayden PARKER
11.Semisi MASIREWA
12.Rahboni WARREN VOSAYACO
13.Josh TIMU
14.Gerhard van den HEEVER
15.Ryohei YAMANAKA

Bench
16.Atsushi SAKATE
17.Masataka MIKAMI
18.Takuma ASAHARA
19.Tom ROWE
20.Shuhei Matsuhashi
21.Fumiaki TANAKA
22.Jason EMERY
23. Jamie HENRY

Nobody seems to know why a flanker has been named at 12.

Interesting choice at 12 for the Sunwolves.

Hendrik Tui must be really good. Or is one of them Ben Gunter in disguise.

Canes paying $1.14 at TAB
Wolves at $5.50

We look weak. There is a distinct whiff of banana skin about this game.

I see former Munster player Gerhard van den HEEVER playing 14 for the Sunwolves. Wondered where he went. Granted he barely got a game for Munster so good luck to him. As some might say, not good enough for our Pro14 domestic league but meeting the standard for Super Rugby.

20C, little wind, cloudy. The weather looks ok.

All respects to the sunwolves but look at who he is playing for its not like hes forced his way as a starting wing for the crusaders or the hurricanes or something. A lot of the sunwolves team is made up of a lot journeymen and guys who could not get into the squads of the other super rugby franchises. Which is one of the reasons why I like to support them, except when they are playing my team, which they gave a bit of a hiding to lol.

seems worth a punt on the sun wolves at those odds.

That was a fishy forehand return to the easy rugby brigade.

To give the guy some credit he was considered a talent but I think injuries didn’t help him.

I do not consider it easy rugby but there seems to be an imbalance of SH players in NH competitions but I think a lot of that has to do with economics and markets, plus low population density and great distances in the SH between rugby playing nations.

He's having a good season, definitely a difficult player to bring down once he gets moving, possibly one of the form South African wingers. The Sunwolves are playing some pretty decent expansive rugby, in saying that they really do resemble a Highlanders B team these days with all the cast offs they've got.

Fletcher Smith could be the worst pick up of any team.

Yeah.

He’s been a bit disappointing.

I thought he showed a bit of promise last year at the Highlanders.

Flanker playing at 12 cuts the Canes up...

Woooweeee we got a game.

Canes rattled big time early.

Canes are gonna get a hiding if they keep this up.

TJP waltzes through and strikes back.

Fletcher Smith with a great kick return in the lead-up. It wasn't Goosen!

Get f**king James Blackwell out of the backline. Plus Parker was a mile offside.

Yeah we actually needed a try to the sunwolves there for them to actually look at it, sh-t for both the AR and Ref to miss that.

Canes must have the highest unforced error stat in the comp easily they lose possession of the ball every single time how do they even manage to win.

Kirifi has atrocious hands/ball security.

Every farking game he coughs it up time and time again.

Canes are a mess.

Wtf is going on

Some Indian bookmakers going to make a fortune on this one...

Smith lost 30 metres on a useless hoof down the middle. More if the same from him. Then another forward cluttering the backline.

Forwards need to front up in their proper positions or fudge off.

that howling's quite eerie...

Idiot.

That was never remotely a legal turnover. It's slaughter at the breakdown. Poor reffing

That grubber...

We look over coached and forwards under strength

Our forwards natural instinct is to setup pods, but we don't protect our possession at ruck time leading to turnovers.

Crusaders exposed us in that area twice

f**king useless. Get Blackwell, May, Riccitelli, Smith and Lam off. Is anyone left?

Our forward pack really need to tighten up at ruck time stay the fudge out of the pods and get in the rucks!

We are becoming more predictable every game.

I thought this game might be a banana skin but it’s a Banana plantation at the moment.

Get the smelling salts out at halftime.

Time to wake up.

As an aside, are there any more inept commentators anywhere in the world of sport? Utterly appalling ID of players, a rank, steaming stream of useless misinformation.

Isn't it Cullen doing comments? The bloke on the pitchside knows the Sunwolves pretty well.

Willie Loser, the man Dunning Kruger based their thesis on, some bleary pom who was once an understudy in dumb and dumber film, and some other dude.

I will say, for all the shit BB cops, he's very important to the Canes prospects.

WTF, no changes to the Canes' run on side!