Brumbies vs Shorks- Canberra

[Pfitzy]

Cyclo - I think between then Fainifo and Leiilifano made more line breaks than the Sharks.


Quote from another thread:

:lmao: Which game did you watch mate?

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=10631951

Obviously I was watching the same game as the Kiwi journo. The difference is probably that he doesn't have a working knowledge of scrums, judging by his assertion that the Brumbies scrum produced tries "from resulting crashes at the line".

That is like saying that my team won based on the first kickoff of the night. Or that the Wallabies owed their wins in the Bill Young era to pure scrummaging power and not outright trickery.

It was around the time of Alexander's second try that the Brumbies were getting on top at scrum time, but their inability to finish off a couple of 5m pushes shows they weren't all that (though personally I think the Sharks should have been penalised for standing up).

Note also that putting Adi Jacobs at hooker would produce "an all Springbok front row" but that doesn't mean that they can scrum for shit.

Beware of journalists bearing gifts.

 

[cyclopath]

As for line breaks - can't recall the exact numbers after the game, but I think the Sharks won that (might be wrong), and certainly the Sharks were better at getting over the advantage line.

Umm no - Stats show Brumbies made more line breaks and made more running metres. 2 tries to 1 as well.

Well the stats on the televised coverage DID show the Sharks got over the advantage line more, and I noted I wasn't sure about line breaks so happy to concede that.
I'm stoked you're happy with all these facets of the Brumbies play. I'm not. I prefer to see the other Aussie teams doing a bit better. With their personnel in the backs, I would have expected more. To outscore the try-scoring machine that is the Sharks is some feat - they average less than 1 try / match. The Tahs were rightly pilloried by many here (including many fans) for their display last week.
As I said earlier, an ugly win is a win, so good. But geez, you gotta see some of the problems there.

 

[Langthorne]

The overall Brumbies performance was very patchy, but they got the win in the end. Improvement is needed if the stronger sides are to be even threatened (the good news being that there is plenty of talent, just not form).

In the backs, AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper), Fainifo and Lealifano looked good.



Goode had a very good game for the Sharks, 'skullet' and all.

 

[Pfitzy]

On reflection, we should probably consider (as I may have mentioned elsewhere) that the Sharks seem to have been good this season at dragging teams down to a muck fest, and therefore the Brumbies weren't entirely responsible for their solid if unspectacular performance. It takes two to tango.

I think they might benefit from this sort of scrappy game and put on a cleaner run next time.