On the field goal: hope I'm wrong but it looked to me like no one wanted to be the player who missed.
Higgers: everything was perfect, in that he had got under mccaws skin, and then he just topped it off with some gratuitous stupidity.
Palu: surprisingly good given such a long layoff.
Tapuai: glimpses of class, whatever McCabe is I think tapuai is really a 13 so I wouldn't move either just because McCabe might be better at 13, because tapuai offers more there - acceleration for one!
Phipps: not so good.
Joubert: good, mostly: pleased to see him caution Sir Richie twice at the breakdown, though no doubt the second one was in his capacity as captain, hence no card. ;-)
My major concern was that when the game was there to be won, and he we had got ahead on the back of grit and determination we went to the air with the same stupid midfield kicks: kick for touch, kick for position, kick for open space but don't understand the obsession with mid field hoists - they're 50/50 to regain possession at best and they often if not always put you in you own half from the next phase with the consequent risk of a penalty for a minor infringement turned into 3 points. They seemed to think this would be a good way to close out the game but it predictably let them back in.
Mindless stuff, IMO.
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