Waikato — Tasman — Community Consensus & Technical Dossier

Josh, your Manawatu point has a nuance: 27 points against is ugly, but Waikato also hung 36 on them, so the scoreboard says both defences were leaky that night, and Tasman conceded 26 to Bay of Plenty right after losing 22:24 to Auckland. Two games is a small sample though, which is exactly why I'd want to see Waikato at Wellington this weekend before touching -8.5 📊

BenBlues, I could be wrong, but the Wellington trip on 27 September matters more than the Tasman date for lineup purposes, away game, travel week, that's where a knock or two creeps in before the home clash. If the same core that put 36 on Manawatu fronts up, Waikato's shape holds: same combinations in the midfield and at set piece, which is exactly what you want against a Tasm

Coached a couple of the Tasman boys coming through and I'm buzzing at that 45 on the Bay 🔥 reckon our backline's got more All Blacks potential than people give credit for, and Waikato putting 36 on Manawatu same week makes the 3 Oct clash at Hamilton a proper trial for Razor... backing both lots to push hard 💪

Watching those last two rounds side by side, the gap is smaller than it looks: Waikato's 36:27 over Manawatu at home on 19 September reads steady rather than dominant, while Tasman's 45:26 against Bay of Plenty on the 24th came three days after they coughed up a 22:24 loss to Auckland at home. I could be wrong, but a side that swings that much in a week is harder to price than