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The thing that stands out for me is that in the Farrell case the judiciary seems to have equated a "change of direction" with lowering of the head". There does not appear to be much lowering of the head in the incident, yet the judiciary seems not to have asked the question "What was the likely...

I would rate him as number one, but I don't think he's widely liked by the referee hierarchy. BOK, on the other hand, seems to be an absolute favourite.

Do we get Bowen and Wilson back just for round 15, or also for finals? With Tuipolotu and Walton looking good we don't need Foketi till the quarter final. Perese probably needs to play next week to tune up for the quarter final. So centres are covered. 10 is covered providing Edmed goes OK, 9...

Also extraordinary that we let him go before season end. If Porecki or Vailanu go down we are in deep do-do.

I thought Leatigaga made some impact off the bench last week. The Drua were pretty physical but he made metres after contact and put the team on the front foot. He looks to be a keeper for next year. If they run that team on I don't think they'll be hit for 96. I don't think they will have that...

I feel for the Saders? No rugby person outside the south island of NZ ever, ever, ever had this feeling.

Watching live (haven't watched the replay yet), the Drua gameplan seemed to be to cut back to try to bust us on the inside, even when they went three or four wide. I don't remember them ever trying to skin us outside, except when the winger only had a metre or so left. Their go-forward was...

And the irony in our placing 6th is having to play our quarter final against the Brumbies in Canberra. Should we beat the Saders next week that is likely to mean we play them again in Christchurch in the quarters. Our record against both teams away is bloody awful.

And if he completely buggers it playing injured and can't take Hooper's position next year (and possibly his Wallaby position) will he think it was worth it? Playing injured is a huge risk in Super, the hits are hard and repetitive.

I don't know about dumb defensive decisions, I reckon Ioane's three dropped balls in try-scoring positions was 21 points thrown away. That was ultimately the difference.

Just back from the game, not sure what to make of the blog. At half time I thought the Rebels were a twenty point better team. The Rebels backrow totally obliterated the Tahs, every time they made a tackle and turned it into a ruck they forced a turnover. For the whole game I thought Hardwick...

What's a ref to do? Listen to the players on the opposing team or trust his TMO. Given the quality of some of the TMO's, that's not an easy question to answer.

Just looked at the teams side-by-side. I reckon the 11-15 advantage is clearly to the Tahs. If the forwards can keep parity then the backs should bring it home. The other imponderable is the weather. Showers (1-2 mm) are forecast from lunchtime Saturday onwards and the Tahs have notoriously...

Remember when the season began we were supposed to have too many backrowers and fly halves! Well, that proved to be an absolute crock. There are four players from Qwerty's list who have a "+" beside their names. All of them now have had their due dates extended from the original and can...

This team looks remarkably similar to last week's team except that a number of players who started are on the bench and a number of bench players get starts. But the basic skeleton of the team is unchanged.

That would probably improve the Blues future performance if the players were picked in their right positions.

Give her one of Doleman's games. She could not be any worse!

Agree! They are likely to lose all four games from here, best chance will be the Highlanders in Dunedin. Tonight I thought McReight clearly won his battle with Hooper. I think the old dog is just about ready for the couch. Wilson gave it everything but needs to pick his moments. He is involved...

Not if Gleeson's still on the park.

That would truly be a disaster for Gordon. To miss the match-up with Lolesio would definitely not promote his Wallaby chances. I assume that the match review committee has not cited the offending player, when I saw it on TV in the match I thought it was a definite red card (late and to the...