Perth Spirit v Greater Sydney Rams

[qwerty51]

They just need to play in dry conditions and they're good.

 

[Ash]

It's also very close to a Spirit B team. Spirit are a very different team in Perth.

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Iro

It's also very close to a Spirit B team. Spirit are a very different team in Perth.

Ironically it was this squad that beat the Vikings in Canberra and the predomonantly Force squad that lost to City in Perth last week.

 

[Pfitzy]

Pissed off that all 3 games are on at the same time

Yeah but fuck Canberra. Seriously.

Rams FTW! Feed wasn't the same quality as the one out of Brisbane, but better than a kick in the balls. Got a good feel for the game this way.

 

[Pfitzy]

And I'll maintain my stance on Swanepoel. Poor.

Maybe if he got a haircut he'd stop being hesitant. Like the wool is in his eyes or something?

 

[Pfitzy]

Jeez what happened there Hawko?

I assume you went to the game.

 

[I like to watch]

And I'll maintain my stance on Swanepoel. Poor.

Maybe if he got a haircut he'd stop being hesitant. Like the wool is in his eyes or something?

Strange!
I would have thought the replacement 9 was more suited to the coaches style of play.
Not to mention that he impresses every time he goes around.
I thought after the first game,he had done enough to start.

 

[Pfitzy]

Faleali'i started last week and was good.

Interesting that the previous games, the Rams faded at the back of the half against professional opponents. Against the club guys of the Spirit they held strong.

 

[Lindommer]

Our man was on the job, Pfitzy. Report to follow, it's all good.

 

[Hawko]

The judge just revoked my parole and I am back in Adelaide for the term of my natural life. But it does brighten things up that I can see a game from the NRC live. Someone's doing a match report so I'll just make a few observations (not more than 2000 words - ha ha.)

• Rams had a much better 23. Spirit's known players (Leyds, Lacey, Burton, Holmes, Prior, Hoskins, Turner) were up against Roach, Robinson, Sigg, Mafi, Holloway, Perret, Swanepoel, Volavola, Naiyaravoro, Falealifi). For the first twenty minutes Spirit were totally outclassed but were only 0-2 down. Melrose, Manenti and Woodhouse must have been going spare. Three tight heads, total ruck domination, Naiyaravoro on fire. It should have been 40-0 and all over.
• Then the Spirit started to get some ball and used a very direct approach with good ball retention and lots of pick-and-go's and at half time it was 22-10 in favour of Spirit.
• The first half was totally frustrating to watch. Men against boys but some of the men were truly awful and the boys somehow were way in front.
• After half time the Rams were about three minutes late getting back on the field. Would love to see if there was any paint left on their dressing room walls. I'll put money on the air being totally blue.
• After half time things slowly began to turn around for the Rams. Naiyaravoro scored his second try and then Hollaway scored a beauty. Naiyaravoro got a third, Spirit got one back but the Rams held on in the last five to run out winners.
• For the Rams Naiyaravoro was unstoppable. Another six months with the Tahs and he'll be a real rugby player.
• The Rams 12,13,15 defence was very poor. Their line speed was snail-like and the Spirit scored several tries from big advances through the 12/13 and 13/15 channel.
• Holloway and Mafi were both very good and Roach and Perret busy. The Rams scrum was totally dominant (both run-on and bench). They were so dominant that they got pinged about five times for pushing before the ball, though several times I thought the Spirit were just not engaging.
• Swanepoel was just too slow getting to rucks. Cross him off your lists, he doesn't do the basics. I thought Falealifii was better.
• Volavola was patchy. He has a long kick but seemed determined, even on penalties, to make sure the kick went out a long way and sacrificed a lot of distance unnecessarily. He also sits too deep - something the Tahs should have bashed out of him by now.
• Jed Gillespie showed a lot of toe for a loose head and got held up over the try line after a near 40 metre run.
• You would have thought with the three point conversion that the coaches would have drummed in the need for wingers and others to run around under the posts. But most scorers were content just to put the ball down as soon as they could. Braindead football.

Great afternoon, well organised by SARugby, 20+ degrees and sunny - overall a fabulous experience.

 

[Pfitzy]

The Rams 12 was fucking ordinary on defence. He was good on attack last week though. Henry Taefu.

 

[Hawko]

The Rams 12 was fucking ordinary on defence. He was good on attack last week though. Henry Taefu.

Both centres were slow to get up to their counterparts and the Spirit made huge inroads through there. I wasn't impressed with either. Taefu was opposed to Burton, who does have a good rep, but he had all the starch of Tofu.

I'll see myself out!

 

[Lee Grant]

Have just watched the match.

Agree with Hawko's assessments in the main.

It was a fine effort from the Perth boys apart from the scrums, as not a lot of them had as big scrapbooks as the Rams' guys did.

As we saw in game after game it was the defensive work of the teams that was the major problem: not just the tackling, but also in the fuzzy alignment of the tackle line outside of set pieces.

If this was bad normally it was worse on the sudden change of possession to the other team. Players who were urgent getting in position to devour meat were less enthusiastic to be in place to stop opponents getting a feed.

Maybe that is unfair and it was just that their reaction to sudden dangers was not as good as their reaction to unexpected opportunities.

Evolution instructs us that species with those habits get snuffed out. You have to have both attributes.

And if they had problems as individuals on defence they also had difficulties in combining with team mates for that purpose.

This is always so with new teams and in this country it is so even with established sides, including the Super teams and the Wallabies.

When you watch Aussie squads train you seldom see transition exercises.

The NRC teams need a lot of that stuff, especially for when they lose the ball.
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