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Maori All Blacks team named for Canada match

Maori All Blacks Head Coach Jamie Joseph has named his team for the final match of the Aotearoa Fisheries Maori All Blacks Tour against Canada early on Saturday (NZ Time).

With players Ross Filipo, Kade Poki and Karl Lowe ruled out by injury, all remaining players have been named in the match-day 23.


The Maori All Blacks team to play Canada is:

Starting XV:

1 Bronson Murray
2 Quentin Macdonald
3 Ben May
4 Jason Eaton
5 Romana Graham
6 Shane Christie
7 Tanerau Latimer (Captain)
8 Elliot Dixon
9 Frae Wilson
10 Willie Ripia
11 Andre Taylor
12 Tim Bateman
13 Charlie Ngatai
14 Kurt Baker
15 Trent Renata

Reserves:

16 Hika Elliot
17 Jacob Ellison
18 Ben Afeaki
19 Jarrad Hoeata
20 Nick Crosswell
21 Jamieson Gibson-Park
22 Jackson Willison
23 Declan O'Donnell

good luck to the boys, the mach against the canucks aint gonna be easy, but there are enough stars all over the place to get the party started on a favourable note.

great to see willie ripia starting at flyhalf, hes had some issues to deal with the last 24 months, but he has had plenty of rugby talent, so its good to see that not get wasted. a big thumbs up to jamie jospeh for selecting him in the first place, there were many many folks out there who would not have done so.

it also seems that hika elliot has lost his starting berth to quentin mcdonald, he was a shoe in for the All Blacks back up hooker after kev and hore, a shoe in as the chiefs No1 hooker and it seems all that has now fallen down big time.

he needs a big 2013 to get back into contention, cos i still consider him the 3rd best hooker in the country, but he needs to pull his finger out his ass and start earning the right and that starts at the chiefs by dethroning marhoni schwalger and becoming the chiefs incumbent hooker, no mean feat considering schwalger was one of the top 3 hookers in the spXV.

I'm still wondering why we didn't choose one of our biggest, and best forwards, Jamie Cudmore, for these test matches. Playing Samoa, and the Maori's is always physical up front.....but oh well...

Players to watch are Taylor Paris, Jeff Hassler, Connor Braid, and Phil Mackenzie. Taylor Paris is 21 years old and is playing for the Glasgow warriors. Very good young talent. A little small, but has the skill. Jeff Hassler scored 3 tries against Russia Last week. Connor Braid was our best player on the Field against Samoa, and Phil Mackenzie can be a threat. He plays for the London Welsh in the Premiership league. James Pritchard is an accurate kicker as well. Doesn't have great distance though.

Jebb Sinclair will have some big boys to deal with. As I said above, would have been nice to have Jamie Cudmore in the line up to help out.

Also, Nathan Hirayama is the son of my High School coach, Gary Hirayama!! Or as I know him, Mr. Hirayama.

1 Hubert Buydens

2 Ryan Hamilton

3 Jason Marshall

4 Jebb Sinclair

5 Tyler Hotson

6 Tyler Ardron

7 Chauncey O'Toole

8 Aaron Carpenter (c)

9 Phil Mack

10 Connor Braid

11 Taylor Paris

12 Phil Mackenzie

13 Ciaran Hearn

14 Jeff Hassler

15 James Pritchard

16 Andrew Tiedemann

17 Ray Barkwill

18 Doug Wooldridge

19 Brett Beukeboom

20 John Moonlight

21 Eric Wilson

22 Nathan Hirayama

23 Sean Duke

WOW, Sasuke! Had a little trouble with the canadian lot did ya?

I don't think I've ever said this before, but the Canadians dominated a New Zealand side. LOL..... By the way, Kurt Baker is a prick......He should have gotten a yellow card for that punch to the face on the sideline.

Anyway, Very proud of my boys. Stood up to a supposedly scary, big, haka dancing side in the Maoris. Canadians looked really good and threatened more then the Maoris did. Ball handling errors, and discipline cost us the game. But to type that we could have beat the Maori All Blacks is pretty damn impressive!! :D There is no arguing that Canada could have won that game.  To play like that, and only lose 32-19 is a moral victory for us. Very Impressed by Canada's play!