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In all fairness to Marshall, you haven't really made it as a success unless you have a facebook hate page: He's made it.

That last one is the best. Hilarious.

I am in a minority of one but I thought Higginbotham played very well in the second Bledisloe test. In one sequence close to the line he single handedly slowed the breakdowns enough to stop a certain try. I was gobsmacked and very happy when he was replaced with Samo.

From what I have seen, he's been OK. He hasn't made many spectacular runs or anything like that because that hasn't been his role, but he is very effective at getting people out of the way at breakdowns. I don't know if he has done enough to earn a Super XV contract (if that was his aim - I...

I think there is a happy medium between too much TMO involvement and too little. In assessing a try, my preference would be for a TMO to be able to look at anything from the last phase until the try is scored. By this I mean the last ruck or maul prior to the try, but I would not include...

I look forward to it. It does not help that all the evidence thus far has been presented by the attorney for the defence.

Yeah, clip 2. I think everyone has agreed that should have been a penalty. They have split off from the maul, possibly they take a few seconds to realise this and they look a bit foolish - hence the amusing name of the video. I don't think its automatically a penalty, but a couple of...

Not every one is totally convinced. http://www.sareferees.com/News/law-discussion-australian-substitute/2829712/ I think this opinion came out before the IRB one. They avoid giving a definitive answer but I do think the implication is that they aren't convinced there is a distinction...

To be fair I don't think that was the intention this time. There are legitimate concerns about what is acceptable at the breakdown. Furthermore, in NZ we have a style/method at the breakdown, particularly at ruck time, that is different to other countries, especially in Australia. I suspect...

I thought it was OK, because I think Slipper wasn't holding his body weight almost immediately once he arrived and basically killed the ball. I have conversed with refs who thought the first offence was holding on against the green player. There's an argument to be made that way, but I do think...

I thought so. I think 3.12 is a red herring. It seems nobody knows for sure.

Can someone please explain the logic behind staging two major test matches on at the same time? How on earth have the TV bosses let them get away with scheduling AUS v WAL on at exactly the same time as NZ v ENG? Do they dislike money or what?

To get everyone even more confused, I offer: The IRB communique: SAReferee's opinion: http://www.sareferees.com/laws/view/2829805/ I think it just goes to say that, like with economists, if you put 10 referees in a room and ask them for a decision, you are likely to get 10 different...

They say there is no accounting for taste. :)

Perhaps I am being a bit harsh on Marshall because he is not the only one who makes mistakes. I just think that because his role in the commentary team is to provide impartial expert comments, he should be better at it than the others. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other...

He is unbiased, and I think he sees his role as the guy who explains all the intricacies of the game, including the referee decisions. Unfortunately, his knowledge of the laws is tenuous at best, and he doesn't appear to listen to or watch the referee's descriptions of the decisions he is...

I am somewhat reluctant to comment as I don't want to distract too much from the very interesting thread we are creating but yes. IMO, Higgers commits 3 offences there; # He comes in dramatically from the side (cf the Carter and McCaw ones from earlier); # He plays at the face/head of a...

I am pretty relaxed I think. I'm not entirely sure I can quite go along with you that Blue made that point in his original post, but I am sure that was merely an oversight on his part. Apologies if my post was interpreted as being angry or unnecessarily argumentative; that was not the spirit...

Well, the original post referred to the Pumas v AB's game so I naturally went looking for examples from that game. Admittedly I only did the first half, but if the ones that I found don't illustrate the problem then perhaps that is indicative that the problem is overstated (?) (And I also am...

I know that none of you are naive enough to think this is an All Black tactic, and not a rugby tactic. Right? I wonder how many Wallaby offences you can count in this short piece of play. If we go by the GaGR standard I don't know if I have enough fingers and toes ... If we just stick to...