Crusaders v Waratahs. Christchurch.

[Spook]

Beale was good. Bloody good tackle there.

 

[fatprop]

Great game of quality rugby

 

[Pfitzy]

Beale was good. Bloody good tackle there.

Yeah he was unfortunate to be pinged as a Crusaders player came in from the Tahs' side and knocked him over the ball. Bad application by Joubert.

Also bad call by Joubert to ping Kepu on reflection. New prop on the field, give him at least one scrum to get it right.

 

[chief]

Tahs can only blame it on themselves. Tough game, good tight game of rugby. There can't be ref blaming here, it was just in the end the Crusaders who got the points, and the Crusaders who finished it off.

 

[Pfitzy]

Fuck that - the ref was a useless fluffybunny! Of course I can blame him. Fuck the rules. His advantage play in favour of the Crusaders, the continual "roll away Red", and complete cocking up of the Beale "offside" position, contributed directly to the result.

Balance that against the hideously stupid call to yellow card Photocopier and the ledger is still firmly against the Tahs. Can we bitch and moan like the fucking Sharks did to get a ref fired?

 

[Hawko]

Hands up all those who thought the new interpretations would lead to better rugby. I did. But unless something changes we are going to see a lot of teams play like the Crusaders did in the last 20 mins, and that was dire. I think the key is that attacking teams are still being allowed to dive off their feet and seal the ball off from the defending team.

We had a real red-hot go tonight and our execution was just slightly off a few times, and that's what did it. Refereeing didn't help though, we didn't crack a break all night. You have got to say we had a lot of players who really put in, but there are no points for trying. Some players did not reach the heights they needed to. Hats of to Blackadder, who put Jack on to add real push in the scrum. Thank goodness he didn't start Waldrom for Whitelock.

The gameplan was not right, we attacked too close to the ruck too often, we needed to set our pods and runners wider. And we needed to attack Fruen more too. Nothing I saw tonight convinced me we have the right coaching team. Now Cliffy's gone for the season our second in line number 8 comes in with just seven minutes game time. I knew it would come back to bite us.

 

[Pfitzy]

I think the key is that attacking teams are still being allowed to dive off their feet and seal the ball off from the defending team.

And the refs are only occasionally pinging it. Its not just sealing it off either - its the attacking team going straight to deck in order to create a squeeze ball scenario where its impossible to drive it off. I was all for the NRIs provided they gave us a better competition for the ball, but erred on the side of the team willing to use it.

As with all revisions, its only a matter of time before teams start finding a way around it.

From the point where he pulled out that yellow card, Joubert lost it.

 

[louie]

bad bad call
tahs have every right feel cheated
however they got the call in the sharks game so so so

 

[Biffo]

I have had a look around the rugby websites and there seems to be quite some opinion that the Tahs were dudded by the referees - including from some kiwis and saffas.

 

[CanadianRugby]

As a Tahs supporter this was agonizing to watch.

First thing is first. Joubert was awful. Awful both ways, and the Tahs could have won it, but Joubert just ruined the game. The Yellow Card was wrong (it wasn't even really a penalty), the Beale offside was wrong, his marshalling of the breakdown was just incomprehensible. And the Saders try definately wasn't a try.

Having said that.
The Waratahs were stupid. Particularly in the first half. No one seemed really sure where the play was supposed to be going. People picked the ball up with no support, made bad decisions with the ball. Mitchell's kick toward the end was brainless. Why would you kick the ball about 20m when you need to run the length of the field? Either hammer the ball all the way down field, or hold on to it. Burgess ran a penalty when it was definatley the wrong thing to do. The lineouts and scrums were crap. This was not a team that was ready. They are a better team than this. And as badly as the Crusaders were playing, they could have beaten them.

Hangers was bad, Mitchell was terrible. Berrick, Beale were good. Waugh was incredible. Feel bad for Waugh he obviously wanted that one pretty badly. Sigh. Would have liked to see them go into the Bye with a better game.

 

[Ruggo]

Good dig by the Tahs and well done for that.

In reality, they threw everything including the kitchen sink at the Saders and it wasn't enough. This tells me that they can't win the comp.

I'm not a Phil Waugh fan but his game was nothing short of sensational.

 

[waratahjesus]

In reality, they threw everything including the kitchen sink at the Saders and it wasn't enough. This tells me that they can't win the comp.

i know what your saying, but i think they showed they could match the crusaders, the last try which sealed it was a knock on, apart from waughs strip on mccaw over the line they never really threatened that much. The tahs defence can win the comp, it comes back to attack again, also, if the game was at the sfs im confident the boys would have got home.

 

[Spook]

In reality, they threw everything including the kitchen sink at the Saders and it wasn't enough. This tells me that they can't win the comp.

i know what your saying, but i think they showed they could match the crusaders, the last try which sealed it was a knock on, apart from waughs strip on mccaw over the line they never really threatened that much. The tahs defence can win the comp, it comes back to attack again, also, if the game was at the sfs im confident the boys would have got home.

Stuff the Crusaders, if the Bulls finish on top it's all over.

 

[Pfitzy]

Yeah good point Spooky. They're going to be hard to beat at home no matter what anyone else does. They seem to have a very good mix of youth and experience in the right positions right now, and at altitude with Steyn kicking to the corners and Matfield ruling the lineout, people are going to find it very hard to knock them off.

The Reds will feel the full brunt of that next weekend.

 

[Spook]

I hope the Reds come home feeling refreshed but they ran out of steam a bit against the Lions. The Reds could score a lot of points against the Bulls...but it might not be enough.

 

[fatprop]

Tahs can only blame it on themselves. Tough game, good tight game of rugby. There can't be ref blaming here, it was just in the end the Crusaders who got the points, and the Crusaders who finished it off.

I agree, we lost the 12 inches at the breakdown, so the Crusaders were getting clean ball regularly and we were being disrupted.

 

[Scarfman]

On Joubert - the Beale call was obviously wrong in real time; a shocker.

+ he shouldn't have pushed the video ref towards a "try" decision; should have given him more scope to make a negative call

+ I thought he said "Roll away Red" about 50 times too often. Penalty and a yellow is the only thing they listen to.

But the Crusaders certainly did enough to win. Tahs were out on their feet at the end, and the Crusaders kept the pressure on. I really didn't think the 2010 Crusaders would be this good. Maybe Blackadder is a better coach than Deans?

 

[the gambler]

Why cant a ref just say "Tell me what you think mate" rather than these stupid "is there any reason" crap conversations

 

[Ruggo]

Why cant a ref just say "Tell me what you think mate" rather than these stupid "is there any reason" crap conversations

Try or no try should be the only question.

 

[chief]

I like the "is there any reason, why I cannot give a try" that being said, thats only if the ref has seen a decent grounding.