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Tributes flow after the passing of former Tongan international Taniela Moa
By Sam Smith
Former Auckland, Blues and Tonga player Taniela Moa has passed away at age 36 leading to tributes from his former teams.
Moa played for Auckland 58 times in the NPC from 2005-09 before moving to the Bay of Plenty. He made 27 appearances for the Blues between 2007-10 before one more Super Rugby season with the Chiefs in 2011.
The halfback was capped by Tonga against Fiji in 2011 and he played 20 times for his country until 2015.
Auckland Rugby put out a statement wishing the Moa family support at this time.
"Auckland Rugby would like to acknowledge the sad passing of of Taniela Moa," a statement read.
"Taniela had 58 appearances for the blue and white hoops winning two NPC titles with the Union.
"Our thoughts and condolences go out to the Moa family at this time."
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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