Anyone seen Ripia in NPC??

[The InnFORCEr]

Can anyone give us an update on the recent form of our new recuit??

[James]

Just took a look at one of those New Zealand rugby sites (I feel dirty all over). Taranaki (Ripia's current team) beat Waikato at Waikato stadium on the weekend. Ripia kicked 3 from 3 conversions + 3 penalties which is a pretty good effort.

Taranaki sitting in equal 3rd with 2 wins from 3.

Not a whole lot of info but at least he isn't missing all of his kicks or playing on the bench or has lost the last three games.

[zimeric]

according to the latest RugbyWA article he's got 38 points in 3 games.. thats a good slab right there.. will be interesting to see if any are from tries..

[James]

No, I'm pretty sure they are all from conversions/penalties. 15 against Waikato, a fair few (about 15 I think) against Tasman and I can't remember who the other team was.

[terrycobner]

Saw a taranaki game on fox about a week ago. Generally ripia looked good, I think he ll be s good acquisition from what I saw.
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[shasta]

Saw him the week before and he looked ordinary. Given a rugby lesson by some 36yo named David Holwell.

[tdevil]

will be interesting to see if any are from tries..

I got it as follows:
3 games 35 points
7 pen 7 con

[brokendown gunfighter]

Taranaki V bay of plenty,live fox sports 3:30pm friday

[James]

I might pop down to Moondyne Joe's to see how he goes. If I do I'll let you know how he goes.

[jombi]

twitter.com/blueberryzombi - tell me you're from TWF for the pass during the THING!

[James]

Billy the Ripper (?) played for Taranaki against Bay of Plenty this arvo. Taranaki ended up winning 24-15 (with 3 conversions and 1 penalty to Ripia with one penalty miss I think). This is how he played:

The Positives:
Good kicking. Both for goal and in play. Is a left-footer; does anyone know if O'Connor is a right-footer? Two kicks that went straight to the opposition that I wasn't too pleased with but otherwise no mistakes there. One of those two was a cheeky banana kick that didn't quite come off but interesting to see him try.

Good tackling. Only missed one that I saw and that was a grab for the legs in broken play after a kick-chase. In the line he was as reliable as they come. His cover play wasn't needed much but he put in a lot of work off the ball. He got in the way of a pass and stole the ball which would almost definitely have been an opposition try in the last couple of minutes.

Reasonable passing. Nothing brilliant and one or two of his long passes were questionable (slow loopy style) but otherwise passed pretty well and did a good job feeding the backs.

The Negatives:

Non-existent ball-running. He only ran the ball once. Admittedly he made good meters off the ball run but at Super 15 level he'll need to keep the opposition on their toes with a bit more variety. To his credit he had some pretty good backs outside him like David Smith. There weren't a lot of set-play moves either since Taranaki were under the pump in the scrum and the line-out. He how he goes in the next game before a proper decision is made about the running.

Overall:

Decent performance. Few mistakes. Few moments of brilliance. Did what was required of him and helped keep the pressure off a forward pack that was soundly beaten in the set pieces with his kicking. Rating: 7/10

[brokendown gunfighter]

yeah,he only had one dab,but was getting the ball under pressure at times.With better service at super 15 level he'll have time to spy a gap or two
looks promising

[jombi]

I'd agree with 7/10 too, but he couldn't do more with BoP dominating posession and territory.

The steamers need Delany back ASAP!