Just updated my records for active NZ teams. There are now just 5!

These two teams will be likely be the source of most of NZ's future NT players

Yellow Flag
Blood Army

Yellow Flag will be joining PR in the Top Division in the new season.

projectrracing wrote: Yeah the last big NZ team to go went bot due to finances, and he was selling all his players to try to stay afloat. But you know what rookie teams do when the see a 18 skill player for $1K do dont you? Bid and win. Then go bot 3 weeks later also. If you are tempted, have a look back through the Oceania TD for teams like Dunedin Huskies, Auckland Raiders and Shaky Islanders. All prime examples of big NZ powerhouses. Just haven't had anything similar from NZ in 5-7 seasons.

Yeah when I was doing the scouting I was tracking back through all of Oceania's history to find players from these type of teams and which teams they were sold to. Some did get stuck on bot teams but a few have survived and flourished.

Yellow Flag seems the most likely candidate to be the next big NZ team, but they have a max stadium capacity which must be a massive drain on their finances.

1st game in World Cup XI resulted in a 24-59 loss to Poland.

The NZ offense was pretty poor with Mike Leota only having a 42% completion rate and throwing 1 INT. 24 pts just isn't going to get the job done.

NZ D also had a poor game giving up 8 TDs, Fisher & Kemp (CBs) and Hogg & Jefferies (SFs) seemed to be absent for most of the game.

Game Scoring breakdown

1st Quarter 7-14
Poland TD 84 yrd by WR/L Bogumił Lutyński - missed tackles by Cameron Wilson (MLB) & George Elliott (OLB/R)
NZ TD 68 yrd by Aaron OLD (TE)
Poland TD 7 yrd by WR/R Sylwek Kraśnicki

2nd Quarter 10-24
Poland FG 40yrd FG
NZ FG 37yrd FG
Poland TD 7 yrd by WR/R Sylwek Kraśnicki

3rd Quarter 17-45
Poland TD 73 yrd by WR/L Bogumił Lutyński - missed tackles by Cameron Wilson (MLB) & Cole Kemp(CB/R)
Poland INT
Poland TD 25 yrd by WR/L Bogumił Lutyński
NZ TD 11 yrd by Riley Adams (WR)
Poland TD 70 yrd by TE/L Wincenty Bienek - missed tackles by Cameron Wilson (MLB) & George Elliott (OLB/R)

4th Quarter 24-59
Poland TD 47 yrd by WR/R Sylwek Kraśnicki - missed tackles by Cameron Wilson (MLB) & Justin Boxall (OLB/L)
Poland TD 21 yrd by WR/R Sylwek Kraśnicki
NZ TD 10 yrd by Aaron OLD (TE)

In summary, too many long TDs were given up and Leota need to have a better game tomorrow if New Zealand want to get out of the group.

paulo187 wrote: Looking at the scores, I think you may have just missed out on qualifying by 3 points...

Yep, need at least a FG on final drive. Went 3 and out at the 47 instead