I had the misfortune of attending this appalling game, the only relief the company of His Ancientness Lee Grant and my 19 year old son, both astute rugby judges. Towards the end of this shocker I did something I've NEVER done previously: left before the full-time hooter. But fate kept my record intact as the siren sounded before I reached the bottom of the stairs and turned away from the disaster in front of me. A quick beer at a nearby rubbity failed to ease the pain before my young bloke and I headed back to the Blue Mountains with the memory of this shocker still on our minds.
Where to start for the Tahs? As always, rugby results are determined in the forward contests and here the Tahs pigs were woeful. His Ancientness opined the team which wins the collisions invariably wins the match, he couldn't've been more right last night as the Tahs pigs were either belted off the ball or resolutely refused to compete. HA remarked a Kiwi team would at least counter-ruck to (occasionally) bugger up the ball for the opposing halfback. Why oh why don't Australian forwards counter-ruck? The commitment (and physical weight) the Cheetahs pigs exerted at the breakdown resulted in tiny shifts of momentum and, lo, Brussow's turned over the pill. Again. And again. Heinrich was magnificent, a deserved MotM. My young bloke returned recently from a three match tour of New Zealand, one thing about Kiwi forward play which impressed him mightily was the placement of forwards' pods at specific points across the paddock and the prediliction of Kiwis to play to a prescribed pattern to take advantage of those pods. He took great delight in pointing out similar pods of Cheetahs forwards at certain times, and, bugger me, play wandered over to those pods with no Tahs fowards in sight! Apart from dynamic play, at one kick-off we counted five pods of two Cheetahs players spread across the park anticipating a sneaky Tahs play, the players closest to us were a winger grasping the pants of a 13 ready to hoist him up. I mean, these are the Cheetahs here, not exactly the smartest rugby players going around. What does that say about the Tahs?
The individual skills displayed by professional rugby players was simply not up to scratch. How can a bloke who trains, what 30 hours a week, drop the pill cold with a try begging? Why do we see rugby players wandering around near the play surprised when a ball's thrown to them, AND THEY DROP IT! "I didn't know it was meant for me", they say, "I wasn't expecting the ball", they cry. Take up soccer if you can't catch a rugby ball.
The lack of urgency to reform structure after set pieces was appalling. Time after time Burgess tossed the pill out to the backs and there was no bastard there to catch it! I lost count of the times a pass went to no one. That's the times Burgess tried to get the Tahs attack moving, he seems to've got a bad case of the Gregans as he waits for the ball to hatch. Luke, it never did for George, it won't do it for you. HA remarked the Saders would've had a sprint race to get back to put numbers behind a kick return, last night very few (if any) Tahs exerted themselves to provide support in counter-attacks. Beale had a poor game, he didn't use whatever support he did have when running the pill back, he didn't pass it once on kick returns. And Carter had his usual, predictable, unimaginative game; did Tom pass the ball at all last night? And don't get me started on the pointless kicking by Barnes and Beale.
Those of you who know me know how passionate I am in my support for the Tahs, even to the extent of naming my business after the state rugby side. This is the worst performance I've ever seen from an Australian rugby side, and I was there for the defeat by Tonga in 1973! I haven't got a fucking clue how the Tahs are going to get themselves back from this one. It's becoming painfully obvious they aren't competitive without their first-choice team on the paddock.
