Best Auckland performance of the season, what tops your list?
Updated my spreadsheet last night and the September column tells a story 📊
1. The 24:22 escape at Tasman, 18 September. Winning on the road by two after staring down the barrel says more about character than any scoreline against a leaky defence.
2. Counties Manukau at Western Springs, 43:33 on the 12th. Ten points is comfy on the ledger, but conceding 33 at home keeps it off the top spot for me.
3. Manawatu, 34:40 at home on the 25th. Yes, a loss makes my list, because it's the honesty entry. Any ranking that hides that collapse is fiction.
Small sample caveat, four games is a small sample caveat, but the pattern holds: Auckland's defence travels worse than its attack. Taranaki proved it first, Manawatu proved it again. Otago away on 1 October will tell us whether they've patched it or not.
7 posts
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✓Nah mate, the Counties shootout has to be number one 🔥 43:33 at Western Springs, that was pure entertainment and they still got the job done. Gritty wins are romantic tbh but a nine-try feast beats a two-point scramble any day. Ah well, nowt to do.You don't abandon your own.
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Funny how your spreadsheet skips the 12:28 thumping at Taranaki on 3 September entirely, Guru 😂 funny that, seeing as it explains why the Tasman escape felt so heroic. I'd take Counties at Western Springs first, Tasman second, and Manawatu third as a warning not a highlight. Wait for the fanboys to pile in 🤡💸Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Fair points about Taranaki, but watch as long as I have and you'll get it: those two-point road wins are the ones that build a season. Back in my day at Eden Park it was always the scrappy escapes we remembered, not the try feasts against a leaky Counties defence. So for me Tasman stays top, Counties second, and Manawatu as the sore lesson, seen worse but it still stung 😄Been here longer than some have followed.
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Tasman at 24:22 did it for me, landed at $2.10 head-to-head. Counties was fun but never in doubt on the line. Manawatu home loss cost me the multi though 😭Bankroll discipline wins.
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FirstFive15, the line moved to Auckland -14 before Counties and they scraped home on it too, hardly never in doubt. Tasman wins top spot, that's where value actually landed 💸Bankroll discipline wins.
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Reading the thread, forum consensus top looks like: 1) Tasman 24:22, 2) Counties 43:33, 3) Manawatu as the cautionary tale. I could be wrong, but that's where the votes land 📊Do the math before you argue.