Dan54
David Wilson (68)
Ok mate, I don't recall anyone getting pinged, as there wasn't a ruck,wasn't it from a ruck after that? If there was it was definitely wrong. I will watch in replay if I can be bothered and see
Rebels v Crusaders 21/04/23
- Thread starter waiopehu oldboy
- Start date
Stockade1988
Stan Wickham (3)
So biased
Stockade1988
Stan Wickham (3)
This happens week after week it’s such a shame the ref has such a big role in the game for the fav teams
Wallaby Man
Nev Cottrell (35)
Looks the saders were clearly the better team, but there was knock ons, turnover with hands all over the ground etc. that was frequently missed. Where as the same scrutiny wasn’t applied because the ref is almost preprogrammed to believe it will happen to the lesser team. This happens in all sport but rugby has an uneven weight towards the refs ability to influence the game. Even towards the end there was a clear hold on the scrum half’s leg with Tuttle pointing at clear evidence to the ref and nothing happened.
Wallaby Man
Nev Cottrell (35)
I did find that comical. Not sure if he’s friends with Talakai but numerous times he was getting munted in the scrum by Moody but he kept referring to Gibbon and Williams, where the pressure clearly wasn’t coming through.
molman
Jim Lenehan (48)
True. Looked like he was covered in vasaline the way they all slide off him. It's something the coaches will need to puzzle at, because it wasn't like those players hadn't been landing their tackles earlier in the game.
My gut still says it's more around how the team managed the game holistically and the resulting fatigue. The Rebels tackle completion rate wasn't significantly worst than the Crusaders at 112/131, 84% compared to 200/239, 83%. However the shear number of tackles made (239 as compared to 131), and the fact that many of them were multi player efforts illuminates the shear amount of work going on. Add in the fact that the Crusaders always controlled territory and possession across both halfs of the game and you could feel that the dam was going to break at some point.
It would be interesting to have some metrics of player effort across the game for both teams just to see the differences. Even something as simple as heart rates would be interesting.
That’s how Tom Banks got through copious amounts of tackles. His legs were slathered in Vaseline. Considering the player had just come onto the pitch, I wouldn’t take it out of the equation and if that’s the case and he was covered in Vaseline, how is that not cheating?
Scooter
Nicholas Shehadie (39)
Rebels didn't help themselves. Eg Ekuasi is in the bin. Rebels have the ball around about halfway. James Tuttle puts in an ineffectual box kick and gives the ball away. We should have kept the ball in the hand and used some of the clock whilst Ekuasi was in the bin. It would have also given the Rebels a "rest from tackling".
Drew
Bob Davidson (42)
You wonder though, with scrums the replacement hooker needs his teammates to get a solid bind. Kemeny seemed to go too high to lock up the ball first up, and the second guys tackle wasn’t good enough. Also the next defender on screen made little effort to cover or help.
molman
Jim Lenehan (48)
I'm actually finding this years team a lot more exciting to watch than some of the prior incarnations. There is some real nice connections forming, some players have really started to step up. Players like Stacey Ili are starting to look like they belong at this level... and the player that came on for him (was it Daniel Maiava?) didn't look to bad either. Carter Gordon has come on leaps and bounds from last year and is a joy to watch.
If this had been a 40 minute... even maybe even 60 minute game, you wouldn't have been unhappy with what you saw.
Rebel man
John Thornett (49)
Look we are a young side we play fast footy early to try and build a lead.
I have only watched the first half so far as this is the first home game outside of covid I haven’t been to in about 4/5 years.
But the Gordon penalty was a joke the Crusaders player clearly went two hands on the ground and never actually got on the ball.
Then their 9 knocked on.
That a side the more experienced outfits last better over the 80 and that’s where we have to close the gap. We need to defend better in second halves.
That’s is something that I expect will improve over the offseason as the majority of this team is young and inexperienced. Getting another pre season In should help them run out games better.
If we have showed no signs of improving this time next year I will be exceptionally disappointed
Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
Ripley. Another one to get away from the Reds I believe? Had a very strong game.
wamberal
Phil Kearns (64)
He was a great player, but his comments are banal in the extreme.
Derpus
Nathan Sharpe (72)
I don't think the backline clicked in attack too well but then they struggled for continuity given the ruck shenanigans. Ili going off early probably contributed. Monty had a blinder I thought, mostly off the ball though.
Most of your best work came from your loose forwards. Ekuasi and Wilkin particular looked fantastic. I also thought Mafi had a great game (although the scrum was shaky).
I think basically a couple of key errors are what lead to the second half decline. Even in the first half, every time the Rebels looked to relieve the pressure (and they defended very well) someone made an error and brought it right back. 200 tackles vs 112 illustrate this. There was a particularly brain dead ruck penalty from Canham on about halfway which followed a prolonged defensive effort on the line that stands out.
By 60 minutes the Rebels were gassed and their bench depth is probably not good enough to sustain the effort they were putting in. Crusaders on the other hand brought on a handful of All Blacks.
If the Rebels could keep the injury ward to a lower level they'd be much more competitive. Imagine bringing Leota, Philip and Hardwick on to close it out. Whole different ballgame.
Brumby Runner
Jason Little (69)
I thought the backline defensive system was sorely lacking. Crusaders made huge gains just about every time they ran the ball, sometimes through the centre of the backline defence or around the outside.
Scrum was caught napping a few times by the power of the Crusaders' shove. Need to keep their minds on the job better, as they were competitive when not caught napping.
Gordon was well contained but he tried everything he could to get the attack moving, nice cutout passes, short offloads and a more than passable short kicking game. Pity was that none of his team mates played at the necessary standard. Hodge particularly disappointing in his kick chases - got into position to challenge and sometimes only player in position to take the kick on the full but held back to see what happened. Could have tried a whole lot harder. Ripley came on to replace Ili and showed a lot of courage in defence.
Lightblue
Arch Winning (36)
Although now, living off his once great player tag is wearing thin. He is an extremely biased and very poor commentator….
Derpus
Nathan Sharpe (72)
Yeah the quality of reffing in the comp is laughably poor. You could see at one point O'Keefe was going to let an obvious offside from a kick go, right in front of him, and obviously got a realtime update on the laws from his touchy.
Missed a clear as day knock on before the 'Saders first try. The first penalty against the Rebels for holding on was laughable. The bloke was making a bridge over the ball and never got close.
He also just generally has no fucken clue what a breakdown is. Should have sent the offside Crusader who stopped an attacking opportunity in the 22 following a break and then contrives to find a yellow in an effective pilfer from Hodge in the reverse situation.
And it's not like these kinds of issues are unique to O'Keefe. I don't know the laws for shit and even I can count 10+ obvious errors each ref makes every game.