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Manu Tuilagi smashes Tom Williams


Top14 player imposter!


JDV smashed by Benoit August


The Northampton Saints 30m scrum!


Bastareaud huge hit on Rory Lamont


All Blacks skills - Pt 2 In the backyard


Trinh-Duc sets up Harinordoquy try


Wales vs England 1999


Greg Holmes great hit on Francois Louw



Sunday, October 31, 2010

Canterbury into ITM Cup final after action packed semi with Wellington

Canterbury are on track to pick up their third consecutive National Provincial Championship after they beat Wellington 57-41 in a frenetic ITM Cup semi final in Christchurch on Friday. They will face Waikato in the final, who edged Auckland.

In a see-saw battle that had 60 points scored in the first half alone, Canterbury managed to hang in and come out on top to achieve the home final next week. Ten tries were scored in total in a thoroughly entertaining game that was unfortunately watched by less than 7000 people at the ground.

Colin Slade showed his quality yet again as he kicked 11 from 11 at goal, but it was Robbie Fruean who reiterated the feeling that he should be on the end of year All Blacks tour as he scored a try and set up two others. The 22 year old former Wellington player caused havoc all night long, prompting coach Rob Penney to state he’s ready for Test rugby.

"If they could find room for him, he's ready to go," Penney said. "He's got some areas of his game that he's developing but look at the form he's in. There's been worse players wearing the All Black jersey than him. He'd be a fantastic addition to their group."

He may still get the call up if they decide to replace injured wing Sitiveni Sivivatu. Fruean played wing for Wellington last season, so is no stranger to the position. He said Friday was one of his best games, but he remained humble, saying he could play better.

"We wanted to create the opportunity out wide, but we had to make sure we set it up inside first. The guys running the decoy behind me created the opportunity for me, massively. Tu Umaga-Marshall ran a nice decoy line and drew the 12 out wide and left the 10 by himself," he said about the try he scored.

Penney said they’re hoping for a better turnout for the final after the disappointing number of fans there, but he believes the economy, rather than disinterest, is the reason for it. “Sky has all the games on television and a large percentage of the population have access to Sky," he said.

"It's Cup and Show Week next week and people are still recovering from the earthquake. They just don't have the dollars to throw around since the recession.

"The guys love playing in front of big crowds. When we played Wellington on the afternoon of the quake game, it just added so much. It was a great game and people really enjoyed it.

"These guys are playing a really exciting brand; there's a bit of edge-of-your-seat stuff at times and Waikato have got firepower right across the park. I expect it will be a cracker,” he added.


Time: 05:35


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35 Comments:

  • first

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at October 31, 2010 9:14 pm  

  • Such a great game. Was pulling for Welly but still a phenomenal spectacle.

    By Anonymous Max, at October 31, 2010 9:24 pm  

  • Defense is boring?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at October 31, 2010 9:27 pm  

  • Good one anon. Watching Toby Flood be easily contained time and again must be sooo much more entertaining than watching Robbie Fruean bust his way up the field.

    By Anonymous Bazz, at October 31, 2010 9:45 pm  

  • 500 people at this game, 20,000 at the Bledisloe Cup.

    Good figures for the Kiwi national sport.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at October 31, 2010 10:10 pm  

  • Bledisloe Cup was in Honk Kong you muppet

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at October 31, 2010 10:13 pm  

  • 'Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Bledisloe Cup was in Honk Kong you muppet'

    That was part of my point, selling out to try and market the game and failing massively with a half empty stadium small stadium.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at October 31, 2010 10:26 pm  

  • how was fruen not picked for the EOYT, that guy is a monster. And f**k me maitland has got some gas.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at October 31, 2010 10:36 pm  

  • anonymous said:500 people at this game

    i wouldnt know myself,butdid the intro not say 7000?

    By Anonymous MikeB, at October 31, 2010 11:27 pm  

  • NH Rugby fan: Brilliant tries!

    NH Rugby fan: (Oh wait,....its a SH competition)

    NH Rugby fan: I mean poor defense!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 1:33 am  

  • Hey trolling Anon why don't you worry about the state of the game in your own country rather than bitching about kiwi footy. Lets face it, this is our 3rd tier of competition yet many of these players would stroll into your national team. Need we cite cases like Riki Flutey and Sonny Parker?

    Kind of embarassing for you when we bite back isn't it. By the way; you try filling a 40K stadium, in a country of only 4 million, in a city recovering from a 7.1 earthquake, for a 3rd tier competition, on a test match weekend, when no All Blacks are available.

    By Anonymous Sam, at November 01, 2010 4:00 am  

  • who needs SBW when you've got Robbie Fruean!?

    By Anonymous Will, at November 01, 2010 6:14 am  

  • Well said Sam, and the Anon just above him.

    Fruan is a beast. He reminds me of Pierre Spies in some ways, with his incredible build and inherent health problems..
    The difference is he's playing to his potential at the moment.

    Looks like Canterbury will walk another final.

    By Anonymous Laz, at November 01, 2010 8:05 am  

  • After watching both this game and the Aus-NZ game, I can only wonder at the AB selectors.

    Why was Robbie Freuan not picked for the All Blacks? Clearly players like Toeava and Donald are not up to international standard.

    I don't want to turn this into another round of Donald-bashing, I've no doubt the guy work as hard as possible. But taking a guy like Freuan or maybe Maitland on tour, to see how they develop, would be a far better investment.

    Considering there's only the summer internationals before the RWC, what are these guys' chances to play in that tournament?

    By Anonymous Sander, at November 01, 2010 8:44 am  

  • Was that rotter McCaw playing in this match? I'm sure I saw him cheating and stomping and niggling all round the field. Longer highlights please RD, I need to see more of his disgraceful behaviour so I can get more outraged. How many yellow cards did he get? None probably. It's a disgrace.

    By Anonymous Nigel, at November 01, 2010 8:51 am  

  • Sander, just a couple of things. Firstly Donald is a #10 so comparing him to Fruean in terms of selection doesn't really make sense.

    Secondly there is still the Tri Nations next year. It finishes just before the WC.

    I agree that he should be on tour though

    By Anonymous Flinto, at November 01, 2010 8:54 am  

  • "By the way; you try filling a 40K stadium, in a country of only 4 million"

    Rangers and Celtic average 60,000 fans a week with a lower population with out national sport.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 9:59 am  

  • Er I'm fairly sure Rangers ground does't hold much over 50,000 lol

    By Blogger PineTree, at November 01, 2010 10:39 am  

  • Christchurch is only 300,000, just had a massive quake. Glasgow 1 mill+ buddy

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 10:43 am  

  • ^^@Nigel above^^
    Are you mentally deficient or something.

    McCaw plays for the ABs. So when their playing he doesnt play for Canterbury. why bring up shit like that after watching a video like this, there's plenty more to comment on.

    And by the way im not some biased kiwi who just blindly stands up for McCaw, im Irish

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 11:22 am  

  • No Irish, I think you're wrong. I'm sure I can see him out there cheating and niggling. How does he get away with it? I'm still outraged.

    By Anonymous Nigel, at November 01, 2010 11:49 am  

  • WHERE THE F*** DID SONNY BILL GO?

    By Anonymous USA7, at November 01, 2010 2:23 pm  

  • Nz has the exciting good quality games but maybe they need to take some tips from stade de france in terms of crowd numbers

    By Anonymous zacaria, at November 01, 2010 2:43 pm  

  • What has Christchurch's population got to do with a game between Wellington and Canterbury?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 4:01 pm  

  • Some amazing tries there but admittedly it was shoddy defence by both sides. really don't see how some of the players managed to get through. Bet it was a great game to go see!

    By Blogger Tom, at November 01, 2010 4:04 pm  

  • What has Christchurch's population got to do with a game between Wellington and Canterbury?

    Look at a map rocket scientist

    By Anonymous Scotsdale, at November 01, 2010 4:09 pm  

  • What has rocket science got to do with geography? (I was referring to the region of Cantebury not just the CITY of Christchurch anyway).

    Wellington population: 400,000
    Cantebury population: 570,000
    Glasgow: 580,000

    When was the last time you saw 7000 fans at a Celtic semi final game?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 5:46 pm  

  • Who cares how many fans are in the stadium.

    Do you go to rugby games to watch the fans or the rugby?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 10:17 pm  

  • Hey, lets completely ignore the excellent quality of rugby in NZ and criticize them about everything else.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at November 01, 2010 10:21 pm  

  • How are Celtic and Rangers equivalent with Canterbury? For starters they play at a higher standard than your national team (due to foreigners) while the ITM cup is 3rd tier footy. And 2nd you're comparing a fully professional competition with semi-pro rugby on the less populated island of a tiny country. Get a grip, it's not our fault we play better rugby with less people to watch it.

    By Anonymous Max, at November 02, 2010 12:15 am  

  • USA7 said...
    WHERE THE F*** DID SONNY BILL GO?

    He went to Honk Kong and then to England.

    By Anonymous Dan, at November 02, 2010 12:23 am  

  • gotta say. As a Brit without sky i get to see very little southern hemisphere rugby, (currie cup, ITM and Super14) but watching it on RD is brilliant. just love the constant pace and desire to attack from everywhere on the park. if you want a tactical game you have to watch the premiership in england which can produce some quite sparkling rugby. if you want pure flair and constant attack it has to be anyhwere in the southern hemisphere really. pure rugby and i love it

    By Blogger Unknown, at November 02, 2010 11:21 pm  

  • Great rugby! That Robbie Freuan looks like a gorilla (no racial stuff involved), but, still, it's a shame to see so many empty stands... I hope this isn't the case in the World Cup!

    By Anonymous Juggernauter, at November 03, 2010 3:07 am  

  • I love a good game of touch rugby! Just kidding, loved the tries, I'm all for it.

    By Anonymous Gman, at November 03, 2010 6:36 am  

  • I love a good game of touch rugby! Just kidding, loved the tries, I'm all for it.

    By Anonymous Gman, at November 03, 2010 6:36 am  

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