Brumbies vs Reds - Saturday 22 February 2014.

[Lindommer]

Didn't watch the game (Her Majesty INSISTED on watching a replay of Sherlock ), could one of the scrum gurus comment on Slipper's contribution at LHP compared to his THP effort.

Good to read Turner played well. His injuries these last two years were particularly poorly timed as his contract ran out while his competitors lifted their games. Maybe a change of scenery will be good for Lachie, one of my favourite footballers.

BTW, Reds, thanks for stirring these bastards up, they're going to come out breathing fire against the Tahs in a fortnight.

 

[liquor box]

Aden Toua - man of the match IMO. Great try and saved one when Tomani looked a cert to score early in the first half.

Toua reminded me of Rod Davies, his blistering speed got me to the edge of my seat and his try was all class and had massive speed to burn. The similarity with Davies was his woeful defence, I think that he made the old bad Quade Cooper look like a defensive giant.


I have not seen much of him on the field and think he demonstrated great talent, but if this was him close to his best then he needs to do a lot of work.

Turner was my MOM for the backs

 

[Tomikin]

Congrats to the Reds

First half was Reds
Second half - Brums

The difference was the defemce of the Reds was quite incredible.
Toua was great in that try but nothing special after that.
Turner was awesome - great signing for the team
Reds scrum just dominated - Slipper over Alexande and whoever on both sidesr and Holmes over the talked up Sio. Even Daley got amongst 'em which was great to see.

White;s terrible kick-offs and Moggies fuckup hurt the Brums bigtime

Gives some momentum for the Reds and RG. Bring on the Tahs.

I dont think the Reds scrum dominated it was quite even till we pulled our front row. Rose coloured glasses maybe.

Overall Brumbies made too many costly mistakes and couldn't get over the line. Tomane cutting in, Mogg being held up.

Maybe we need a second ball player to To'omua. The Japanese guy at 12 or possibly Robbie Coleman.

Diving Maul looked good, played in the Reds half, Missed Leo's kicking.

Break down was a shit fight but dont think either team clearly Dominated.

Speight is pretty amazing. Plus gotta love the Fro.

Conrad when he came on looked out of his depth.

Cooper, Genia, Horwill looked good.

For mine Turner was man of the match.

All the better for the hit out.



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[Tomikin]

Toua reminded me of Rod Davies, his blistering speed got me to the edge of my seat and his try was all class and had massive speed to burn. The similarity with Davies was his woeful defence, I think that he made the old bad Quade Cooper look like a defensive giant.


I have not seen much of him on the field and think he demonstrated great talent, but if this was him close to his best then he needs to do a lot of work.

Turner was my MOM for the backs

Your right Toua didnt save that try if Turner hadnt have chased Tomane would have been over.

Although I give him credit he did slow him down. Like a speed bump to cars.

Great try though pace to burn.

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[kiap]

Five minutes of video condensed from the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tZbBnVa7TBw#t=30

 

[wamberal]

Five minutes of video condensed from the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tZbBnVa7TBw#t=30

Are there any rolling mauls in the highlights?

 

[Penguin]

I dont think the Reds scrum dominated it was quite even till we pulled our front row. Rose coloured glasses maybe.

Overall Brumbies made too many costly mistakes and couldn't get over the line. Tomane cutting in, Mogg being held up.

Maybe we need a second ball player to To'omua. The Japanese guy at 12 or possibly Robbie Coleman.

Diving Maul looked good, played in the Reds half, Missed Leo's kicking.

Break down was a shit fight but dont think either team clearly Dominated.

Speight is pretty amazing. Plus gotta love the Fro.

Conrad when he came on looked out of his depth.

Cooper, Genia, Horwill looked good.

For mine Turner was man of the match.

All the better for the hit out.



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The starting front row was on for the Brumbies when they couldn't get over a 7 man Reds scrum when Holmes was harshly binned. In fact I think they conceded a tighthead in this time. That equals dominance in many opinions.

Speight looks like he walked straight out of an episode of Shaft with that fro & beard. Love it!

 

[Tomikin]

The starting front row was on for the Brumbies when they couldn't get over a 7 man Reds scrum when Holmes was harshly binned. In fact I think they conceded a tighthead in this time. That equals dominance in many opinions.

Speight looks like he walked straight out of an episode of Shaft with that fro & beard. Love it!

Umm no we throw the ball wide and Mogg scored in the corner

I know the tighthead your talking about when Daley turned sideways pretty sure we just changed our front row. I remember thinking Ruan Smith got screwed on that one

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[Sully]

I think the scrum was pretty even until the subs came on. And yes Daley was bloody lucky the scrum penalty didn't go the other way.

And a even scrum with the Brumbies is a step up for the Reds scrum so I'm very happy with that.

 

[fatprop]

The starting front row was on for the Brumbies when they couldn't get over a 7 man Reds scrum when Holmes was harshly binned. In fact I think they conceded a tighthead in this time. That equals dominance in many opinions.

Speight looks like he walked straight out of an episode of Shaft with that fro & beard. Love it!

Harshly? half of each side deserved to be binned, every ruck had someone illegally all over the ball, coming in from the side, diving off their feet and that doesn't include both backlines being off side for most of the match

 

[Thinker]

Toua is benefiting from Kurindrani syndrome at the moment. His try was superb, but as TOCC mentioned a lot of lesser moments.

I've always felt he's never been up to it, gets picked, plays poor, dropped to bench, hurt, out season x3. But I'm prepared to give him a real look this time.

Plenty to work on but if he can stay fit he might turn out to be solid. Playing club rugby is no match for S15 and he's had no time defending at that speed. Though being stepped twice by one player in 5m was pretty shocking, given it was errors in his movement that is usually coached out by U15.

The overall depth of the Reds and Stiles involvement has me slightly optimistic.

 

[ChargerWA]

The Reds looked composed and won that one on the back of a largely settled squad. But they still have some positional weaknesses that concern me. 12 and 13 are two clear worries. Tapuai needs to step up or he is fast heading for journeyman territory. The pack still also seems light on, mainly Quirk and Schatz who play to their weight, but certainly not above it.

Brumbies on the other hand looked like a team who's coach quit before the season and their captain announced he was following. Mogg is a confidence player and he looked a little bit beaten around. Then again, a lot of players struggle in the second year after their break out season. I love the fact the White will still try and push it and kick for long touch, but 3 in a game on the full is too much. I though Butler looked good.

After that game I still haven't seen anything to change my mind that the Brumbies will finish above the Reds as long as they can get their group mentally back together. I think Fisher will sort that. First thing I would do is find a way to slip Pocock the captaincy.

 

[Brumby Runner]

Gotta say, incredible game from Pocock all things considered. Gill slightly outpointed him, but remember Pocock's coming back from a knee reconstruction. Players normally take 6 months or more to get back to form after those ops. Good signs for Pocock.

Problem for Brumbies was 9 / 10 / 12 not contributing much in attack. Inside backs seemed to be too deep or static. The attack looked best with the loosies and Fardy chiming in.

Interesting that the Brumbies had similar tactics from last year carrying over. High pressure rugby at the breakdown with multiple guys trying to get over the ball, good long kicking game to play the game down in the opposition's half, no desire to play with the ball in their own half.

Gotta say, glad to be proven wrong with Holmes at THP for the Reds. The Reds scrum was in control all game, and that continued with Daley at LHP and Slipper at THP.

Exactly, Ash. Looked like 2011 all over again. The problem is Pat McCabe at 12 imo. To'omua really had few options in attack. Brumbies again resorted to too much tactical kicking instead of playing with ball in hand. We need to have Matt at 12 with Cronje at 10 hopefully to liven things up a bit until Christian returns. Cronje would not have missed some of those penalty shots either.

All in all, Reds have reasons to be confident about their season. Set piece was solid and performed better than the Brumbies, and some shining lights in the backline. Quade, Turner and Toua were outstanding.

Brumbies will need to address their game plan and make some changes or 2011 will happen again where they finish at the lower end of the table. Scoring tries is the name of the game, and they have to improve their attack even if it means running a bit from their own half.

 

[boyo]

Why do professional players seem surprised when they are pinged?

Entering from the side at a ruck, hands in the ruck, offside, etc., etc.

They should know the laws FFS.

 

[Ignoto]

Leckie could have penalised each side numerous times at every ruck and then penalised the defensive lines for being off side.

I always thought at the start of the season, the Refs were given certain areas that they wanted to focus on this season. Areas which they would pay particular attention to, enforce and set the standard for the years competition.

Looking at the game last night, I couldn't see an area where the Refs are wanting to improve as it was consistently crap on both sides at ruck time.

 

[tranquility]

Toua reminded me of Rod Davies, his blistering speed got me to the edge of my seat and his try was all class and had massive speed to burn. The similarity with Davies was his woeful defence, I think that he made the old bad Quade Cooper look like a defensive giant.


I have not seen much of him on the field and think he demonstrated great talent, but if this was him close to his best then he needs to do a lot of work.

Turner was my MOM for the backs

What is with the tall poppy syndrome regarding Aidan?

Why would his first game of the season, and first game starting at fullback be him at his best?

Clearly he made errors last night, and did a few good things. He also slotted into first five a few times and showed that is indeed a ball-player and a ball-runner. His kicking game is good, even though he made an error there as well. Technically I don't think he is a bad defender, however I think the speed of the game and perhaps being caught out of position contributed to him running into the defensive situation too fast and not allowing himself to set a solid base to make the appropriate tackle.

All things considered there is much to be excited about his game, why the cynicism? Especially from Reds fans?

 

[tranquility]

Harshly? half of each side deserved to be binned, every ruck had someone illegally all over the ball, coming in from the side, diving off their feet and that doesn't include both backlines being off side for most of the match

Mate let's just watch the Tahs this arvo, before we get too critical shall we? It's been a while since they were much chop, and even when they were the master of dour slow English rugby, it was hardly "squeaky-clean."

 

[vidiot]

Leckie seemed more concerned about the reds defenders touching (pushing) the halfback after he passed the ball than any number of more meaningful infringements (from both sides).

Brumbies didn't have much clarity about what they were trying to do until they settled into a pattern in the second half. But they made too many errors to look like winning.

Jake White will be turning in his grave.

 

[Set piece magic]

Does anyone else think Mogg is extremely vulnerable to be cut inside off his left shoulder? He missed a tackle on C. Smith in the Bledisloe last year very similar to how he missed Toua last night

 

[Brumby Jack]

Leckie seemed more concerned about the reds defenders touching (pushing) the halfback after he passed the ball than any number of more meaningful infringements (from both sides).

Brumbies didn't have much clarity about what they were trying to do until they settled into a pattern in the second half. But they made too many errors to look like winning.

Jake White will be turning in his grave.

Jake's not dead yet.

I did notice Liam Gill tackling Nic White after he had passed the ball and holding onto him on the ground so that he could not get to the next ruck and Leckie had picked up on that fairly quickly.

The benches were the difference in the end. If White wasn't cramping then he wouldn't have gone off and Hoffmann seemed lost out there - one example where he pulls the ball out of the ruck and looks one way and all his backline are the opposite way and it seemed the Brumbies were playing for a ruck penalty, which they did get but Mogg fluffed the kick.