Author: Ash
Dominant Chiefs defence led them to a 24-3 victory over the Reds, giving the understrength Chiefs their first victory over the Reds since 2009 and showing that they are building some form heading into the finals. The primary difference between the two teams was defence: the Chiefs defence was fantastic, and the Reds defence was poor. Despite continued set piece dominance in both the scrum and the lineout, the Reds struggled to get the ball to Cooper when they had dominance early, and when Cooper finally managed to find runners in space, the scrambling Chiefs defence had the Reds covered…
Match Preview Handbags at 20 paces! The bottom two teams face off in a game that could be the decider for the coveted wooden spoon. In game likely to be largely of interest to only diehard Reds and Force fans (or whatever remains thereof for both teams), we, at GAGR, are pleased to bring you the key matchups. Yes, sit down and get comfortable, for this is the preview that you probably don’t want to read for the game you have been waiting all year to watch. Or is that the other way around? Anyhoo, onto the key matchups… The Form…
A dominant Brumbies side rarely got out of second gear, earning a comfortable 29 – 0 victory against an impotent and injury riddled Reds. First Half From an early defensive scrum in the 5th minute, Talakai collapsed under pressure from Sio and Lealiifano missed the relatively easy early penalty chance. Both events set the tone of the game: the scrums were a mess with the Reds more often than not under pressure, and Leliifano seemed to have left his kicking boots on the bus. The Reds got a chance to inflict some rare early pressure on the Brumbies. A charge down from…
A strong performance from France resulted in a close loss to the Wallabies. However, the scoreline flattered the Wallabies in the end, and the Wallabies should count themselves lucky that they had a real shot to win the game in the last two minutes. Plenty of possession but a predictable attack and not enough thrust over the gain line will have the Wallabies working hard before the next game against Ireland. Here are my ratings: [one_third last=”no”] James Slipper Part of a strong scrum until Skelton came on. Busy, made the most tackles of the Wallabies. Off at 61 minutes. 7 [/one_third]…
The Wallabies kicked off their end of year tour and Cheika’s first game as coach with a nail biting 40 – 36 win over the Barbarians at Twickenham
A win is a win, yet the result felt a little disappointing after blowing a comfortable lead in the wet for these Wallabies player ratings. After the second watching, I am still wondering how the Wallabies gave up such a comfortable 29 – 13 lead in the wet. Meanwhile, it seems that Link can’t get the usage of his bench right. Last game, Link arguably waited too late but had great impact from his bench. This game Link went to the bench early, with Slipper being replaced at the 49th minute, yet he got the opposite impact from his bench this…
In the battle of the Australian conference wooden spoon the Rebels have heaped more misery upon the hapless Reds with a 30 – 27 victory at Suncorp Stadium. The game was marked by plenty of injuries and a late red card to Ed O’Donoghue. The Match The Rebels got off to a poor start, with Scott Higginbotham yellow carded in the first minute for an elbow to the nose of Mike Harris. The Reds capitalised shortly afterwards with a long Cooper pass to Harris, who stepped inside the stretched Rebels defence to score. The leadup included a long maul down…