The Counter Press
White Ferns intrigue, All Whites x World Cup hypotheticals, Kiwi-NRL junior recruitment, Blackcaps home ODI form & Women's National League Team of the Week
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Reading Menu
The Kiwi-NRL Juniors Who Helped Australian Teams Make Finals In 2022 (Rugby League)
2022 Men’s National League – Week 9 Review (Football)
Kiwi Steve in the NBA #2: Candied Yams (Basketball)
Blackcaps vs India ODI Series Debrief (Tom Latham, Adam Milne & Bowling Options) (Cricket)
White Ferns vs Bangladesh Series Preview (Cricket)
Scotty’s Word
White Ferns play Bangladesh tonight and here's a preview. On top of that preview, here are some notes about three players who are especially intriguing…
Brooke Halliday has a highest T20I score of 25* across 13 innings and a highest T20 score of 45. Halliday has averaged 20+ in just one summer of Super Smash. Halliday's best T20I mahi comes when batting #5 for Aotearoa and her average of 24.75 when batting first drops down to 2.8 when chasing. I covered Halliday's role-playing battle in the series preview and while she has flashed her talent in this format, Halliday is yet to genuinely command consistent selection.
Hannah Rowe leads Central for HBJ Shield runs with 68 runs @ 97.14sr. Rowe took 2w in the one-day fixture against Bangladesh this week and then hit 33* @ 150sr in the T20 game. Rowe is yet to be dismissed in three T20I innings this year (41 runs @ 97.61sr) and she has a T20I batting strike-rate of 102.29 which is perfectly aligned with her role: scoring runs quickly down the order.
Rowe isn't in the T20I squad to face Bangladesh though, only the ODIs. Rowe is offering low key batting oomph that could fit snug with Lea Tahuhu and Jess Kerr. Especially as Fran Jonas and Eden Carson are 1st 11 bowlers who don't have the same batting prowess. I reckon Rowe is a 1st 11 T20I cricketer and with Super Smash coming up, she will have a chance to showcase her talents.
Tahuhu averaged below 20 and conceded less than 6rpo in five of her six years between 2012-17. That has flipped to averaging 20+ and conceding more than 6rpo in each of her last four years of T20I cricket. Tahuhu's 4w @ 39.5avg/7.18rpo this year is the highest T20I bowling average of her career and second highest economy rate.
Tahuhu also averages below 25 in T20I cricket with Suzie Bates, Amy Satterthwaite or Aimee Watkins as captain. Tahuhu averages 31.91 with Sophie Devine as skipper. Tahuhu just finished her worst Women's Big Bash League campaign as well (4w @ 38.5avg). Tahuhu should be effective against Bangladesh in Aotearoa as swing and seam works well against touring Asian teams, but this is something to track.
Blackcaps one-day 2nd 11 from the opening stanza of Ford Trophy...
Martin Guptill, Tom Blundell (wk), Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Mark Chapman, Dane Cleaver, Michael Rippon, Doug Bracewell, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Jacob Duffy
Emerging/Youngins 1st 11 from the opening stanza of Ford Trophy...
Katene Clarke, Llew Johnson, William O'Donnell, Dale Phillips (wk), Dean Foxcroft, Henry Shipley, Kristian Clarke, Brett Randell, Adithya Ashok, Ben Lockrose, Tim Pringle
News came through this week that Dickie Terepo (Otara) has signed with Melbourne Storm and this rejuvenates the Storm Kiwi-NRL pipeline. Storm grabbed Matt Duffie and Suliasi Vunivalu from St Kents rugby, now they add Terepo who has impressed in rugby league and union … like most of these youngsters.
Terepo was named in the NZRU Schools team this year, as well as making league rep teams such as the 2020 NZRL Under 16 Residents team. Duffie is now working in the Storm's junior pipeline and Terepo joins K-Ci Newton-Whare (Riccarton) as notable Kiwi-NRL juniors to watch out for ahead of next season. Neither has been named in Storm’s Jersey Flegg squad, so they will probably start in Under 19 SG Ball.
Terepo played in the midfield for St Kents this season. Here are some notable Kiwi-NRL juniors who played 1st 15 midfield in Auckland's 1A and 1B competitions this season...
Francis Manueleua: Kings College/Panthers
Presley Seumanu-Tigafua: St Peter's/Warriors
Shaye Faa'aoga: Kelston Boys/Bulldogs
Jeriko Filipi-Talisau: St Paul's/Warriors
Selu Halasima: Southern Cross/Warriors
Elijah Salesa Leaumoana: Southern Cross/Knights
Musical jam…
Wildcard’s Notebook
The World Cup group that the All Whites could/would/should have been a part of concluded this morning in bafflingly entertaining circumstances. Spain had smoked Costa Rica 7-0 in the first game while Germany were shocked 2-1 by Japan, blowing a half-time lead. That had Germany on the brink but they were able to fight back and draw 1-1 with Spain to stay alive with Costa Rica rallying back to upset Japan 1-0. That’s where things were at prior to this morning.
Skip forward to half-time in the simultaneous third-round matches and Germany were up 1-0 dominating Costa Rica and Spain were up 1-0 dominating Japan. Germany dominating through the bulk of their chances while Spain were dominating via excessive possession. At that stage the expected pair were heading through, Spain in first and Germany in second.
But then Japan scored. Not once but twice. For the second time against a former World Cup champion they changed their fate drastically in the minutes immediately after half-time as their brilliantly energetic press gave them a 2-1 lead. That left Germany needing to win by seven goals to draw level with Spain... not very likely. However a Spanish equaliser would mean that Germany only needed to win by 2+ to overtake Japan on goal difference.
That formula changed when Germany conceded against Costa Rica. Completely against the run of play but occasional defensive mistakes had left them vulnerable throughout. They were then soft once more in allowing Costa Rica to take the lead with twenty mins to go – at which stage both Spain and Germany were losing and therefore both going out of the tournament. The 2010 and 2014 winners on the brink.
Costa Rica only led for three minutes before Kai Havertz scored and Germany added a couple more in the last ten... but it was too late to do anything more. Germany rallied back to win 4-2 yet were left begging for a Spanish equaliser, which almost arrived on a couple occasions except for some mint goalkeeping by Japan’s Shūichi Gonda. Japan held on to win 2-1. Japan went through atop Group E with Spain in second and Germany eliminated alongside Costa Rica.
I dunno how the All Whites would have fared against that lot. The overriding feeling these days is that this one arrived a bit too soon for a young squad most of whom had never played in an international game anywhere near the level of that intercontinental qualifier against Costa Rica. Although there is a funky comparison given that many of them went to the Olympics last year, where they were eliminated on penalties against hosts Japan after a 0-0 draw across 120 minutes.
Here were the respective line-ups that day…
Only three players started that game and also the match against Spain this morning: Maya Yoshida (who captained both), Takefusa Kubo, and Ao Tanaka. However there are 12 blokes who’ve been selected for both those squads which made for a good chunk of the Japanese bench, hence Wataru Endo, Ritsu Doan, Kaoru Mitoma, and Takehiro Tomiyasu all featured as subs in the win over Spain. Yoshida, Endo, and Hiroki Sakai (unused sub vs Spain) were the three overage players at the Olympics.
The All Whites had Chris Wood and Winston Reid as their overagers but nobody else because they never replaced the injured Michael Boxall amidst some shenanigans from his club. Boxall got injured and Minnesota Utd changed their mind about releasing him… though based on when he returned to his MLS team he wasn’t going to be fit in time so the A-Dubs really ought to have swapped him out when they had the chance – Tim Payne was on call as a replacement. Instead they were one overage player down.
The All Whites game against Costa Rica had seven recurring starters from the Japan U23s quarter-final (IN: Greive, Tuiloma, Kirwan, Sail / OUT: Waine, Elliot, Stensness, Woud). Japan’s reinforcements were more substantial but that hypothetical rematch would still have been a funky game, especially since it was when Japan had more of the ball against Costa Rica that they had trouble.
Japan vs Germany: 26 % possession | 12 shots (4 on target) | 2-1 win
Japan vs Costa Rica: 57% possession | 13 shots (3 on target) | 1-0 loss
Japan vs Spain: 17% possession | 6 shots (3 on target) | 2-1 win
The All Whites love to try more of a passing game these days but realistically they weren’t going to be able to against Germany, Spain, or Japan. The counter-pressing they’d have been up against would have been elite. Still, it’s a bloody shame we have to miss out on all the fun... even if it probably would’ve spoiled the drama having us there in that group instead.
The Blackcaps should have won the third ODI against India. They were way ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis-Steve (podcast reference, links above) target at the point of the game when the rain set in for good but were two overs short of hitting the minimum 20 required for a completed game. So it goes, a three-game ODI series ended up as a 1-0 win with two no results. Similar to the T20 series which ended 1-0 to India with a no result and a DLS tie. A couple rough breaks with the rain for the Blackcaps.
The third ODI no result costs the Blackcaps some Super League points which is a bummer but it also continued a pretty outstanding home record in One Day Internationals. Since getting dumped 4-1 by India in a home series in January/February 2019, the fellas have done this in Aotearoa...
W W W (vs Bangladesh in Feb 2019)
W W W (vs India in Feb 2020)
W W W (vs Bangladesh Mar 2021)
W W W (vs Netherlands in Mar-Apr 2022)
W NR NR (vs India in Nov 2022)
That’s a 13-0 streak with two no results. 15 games undefeated in home ODIs. Admittedly it’s really only this India series which you’d expect anything less than recurring victories but still that’s pretty handy.
Stretch it out further back and there were also sweeps against West Indies, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan as well as a 3-2 defeat to England. That takes us exactly five years back into the past. Across that time span they’ve gone 27-7 with 2 NR, a win/loss ratio of 3.857 in home ODIs. Only Pakistan are better in that span having gone 9-1 (with a tie) over 11 matches. Not a lot of home games for Pakistan for obvious reasons... though the Blackcaps play 8 ODIs in Pakistan over the coming months so that’s about to change.
Across the same time, the Blackcaps have only played 13 away ODIs. This doesn’t include neutral venues such as the 2019 World Cup (6-3 with a tie) or the 2018 tour to UAE to face Pakistan (1-1 with a no result). Actually it does include two games of the World Cup: the two games against England. Lost heavily in the group stage then tied the final. But yeah chuck those two into the mix and this what they’ve done in away ODIs over the last five years...
L T (vs England in Jul 2019)
L (vs Australia in Mar 2020)
W W W (vs Ireland in Jul 2022)
W (vs Scotland in Jul 2022)
L W W (vs West Indies in Aug 2022)
L L L (vs Australia in Sep 2022)
6-6 with a tie. Four of those defeats coming against Australia. Which, to be fair, is a useful ratio. The only Test playing nations with better ODI away records in the past five years are India (1.470), England (1.384), and Afghanistan (1.285). But the limited numbers of games kinda makes this too small of a sample size to matter, at least from the Blackcaps perspective.
Women’s National League – Team of the Week #11
GK – Ellen Blount (Northern Rovers) – In a round full of upsets, this was not one of them. Rovers going down 4-2 to Eastern Subs. But Blount’s performance (and two outrageous goals) ensured the score was a lot closer than it might have been, especially in the first half as Rovers seemed to be getting clobbered yet somehow made it to the sheds tied at 2-2. Bonus nod to the tag team of Annie Foote and Sophie Campbell for Central too.
RB – Nicola Ross (Capital) – With a run of starts, Ross is beginning to look pretty comfortable. That’s been reflected by her role in a couple superb team defensive performances over the past fortnight, then against Western Springs we also saw Ross deliver her most impactful attacking display... including a great run to earn the penalty for the winning goal.
CB – Jana Niedermayr (Central) – There are inspiring centre-back efforts and then there’s this. JN was on a plane of existence known only to herself as Southern Utd utterly battered a deep-lying Central defence for pretty much the whole ninety and somehow Central emerged with the win. Niedermayr just always seemed to be in the right place, winning headers and tackles and blocks... and eventually the game.
CB – Rebecca Lake (Canterbury Utd) – The Pride are arguably the form team in the competition right now and Rebecca Lake has made four of the last five team of the weeks. What do ya know? This week was a bit different as she supplied a pair of pinpoint assists to go with the usual defensive prowess.
LB – Suya Haering (Northern Rovers) – Given more licence to get forward, the NZ U17s fullback got stuck in and scored a magnificent goal (and got the assist for the second goal). Good with both feet, doesn’t take a backwards step, very handy in attack... hell of a prospect over here.
CM – Tessa Hyland (Central) – Another Central hero. Scorer of a remarkable winning goal from a deep deep deep free kick that sailed into the top corner and also a tough worker at the base of midfield within a game spent largely on defence. Tireless and aggressive. Then that touch of class (accidental or not) for the goal. Gotta love it.
CM – Lena De Ronde (Capital) – Capital have had some strong defensive efforts and have some very dangerous attacking players. Linking that together in the midfield has been an issue though... until this week. De Ronde was on top form in the upset win over Western Springs including a proper banger of a goal.
CM – Tayla O’Brien (Eastern Suburbs) – Yeah, yeah... her again. Eastern Suburbs had been bossing the show against Northern Rovers with O’Brien involved in heaps of their best work. But it was still 2-2 with about quarter of an hour to go. Cometh the moment, cometh the league’s MVP. She does these things every single week.
FW – Renee Bacon (Capital) – A couple of goals in an unexpected victory, Capital handling the heavy breeze better than their opponents and Bacon’s direct threat proving essential within that. She scored the very early goal to put her team up. Then she buried the winner from the penalty spot.
FW – Deven Jackson (Eastern Suburbs) – At her enthralling best. Deven Jackson scored a belter of a goal that almost ripped straight through the net and was generally unstoppable with her movement both on and off the ball. It was the two big stars doing the business for Suburbs this week. Getting ready for that grand final in a fortnight.
FW – Charlotte Roche (Canterbury Utd) – It’s pretty crazy but the Pride’s season drastically changed for the better when they elevated their youth team’s top scorer to the seniors. Roche has made four starts and scored seven goals. This weekend she scored a hat-trick with all three goals showing a sharp eye for goal and a direct presence up top.