Northland vs Manawatu Predictions: Home side to down the Turbos

This Round 2 clash sees the Manawatu Turbos travel up to Whangarei to take on Northland, in the early hours of Saturday morning (03:05). Both sides lost their Round 1 matches and therefore come into this clash looking for their first win of the season.

Read on for my Northland vs Manawatu prediction as the home side looks to overcome the challenging forecasted conditions and dispatch the visitors.

Northland faced a strong Canterbury side in Christchurch and despite a 34-21 loss, impressed me in a number of areas of the game. One area that was an issue though was their lineout defence as they conceded 5 tries from mauls. Although this will need to be addressed moving forward, Manawatu do not have a strong pack so it’s not something that will cause Northland as many problems this week.

On the flip side, their attacking patterns caused Canterbury problems, with the back-line making a number of line breaks. Although they only managed 3 tries, they had an additional 2 tries ruled out so this game could have easily been a lot closer.

Manawatu were put to the sword by Tasman last week, conceding 54 points at home. They put up more of a fight in the second half but went into the sheds at half-time 35-7 down, with Tasman cutting them open time and again. Their attacking patterns failed to return much in regards to line breaks and they looked frail and disorganized in defence.

Team News:

Northland

Northland have made a few changes to last week but name a strong side. Cobb will be alongside skipper Moulds and Apoua in the front-row, with Hallam-Eames and Caird in behind them. Promising flanker Woods gets a start on the flank with Uluinakauvadra joining him on the side of the scrum, with Chiefs star Parker at no.8.

Only one change to the back-line, with seasoned pro Nock getting the start at scrum-half this week, leaving Milo-Harris to make an impact off the bench. Reihana continues at fly-half and the well-balanced duo of Latu and Evans remain in the midfield.

I was impressed with the hard lines that Latu offered last week, which was complimentary to the subtlety Evans offered in his ball distribution. The back-three are dangerous and made a number of line breaks last week – Murray, Nichols and Trainor.

Manawatu

Only a few changes to the Turbos this week but one significant one with no.8 Iose out injured. That injury marks the only pack change though meaning it will be Gavigan, Tuputupu and Epenisa in the front-row. Van den Hoven and Shaw are in the second-row, with Howden and Momsen on the flanks. The no.8 will be youngster Goerke who will be making his starting Professional debut, after he made 3 sub appearances for Manawatu last year.

No change in the half-backs meaning it’s the Hurricane pairing of Viljoen and Cameron once again. Emery is absent this week meaning Tofa will start in the centres alongside Wild, who has been playing out of position so far and struggled defensively last week.

Brown and Moeakiola remain on the wings but there is a debutant at full-back with Australian MacDonald getting the nod. MacDonald has been playing in the American MLR league and is an impressive with ball in hand but could find the step up challenging.

Northland vs Manawatu Odds

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Northland -13.5 Handicap @ 5/6

The H2H between these sides fluctuates depending who’s at home. Although the Turbos won by a point in this fixture last year, it was Manawatu that was the home side. The last 2 fixtures when Northland were at home saw two Northland wins each by 17 points. I think this Northland side is stronger than the last few seasons so I think the gap between the two sides is bigger than this cap suggests.

Despite the weather forecast of rain and wind, I think Northland will be too strong and win this game by closer to 20 points.

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