Rebels v Waratahs, rd15 SR2013

[swingpass]

i have yet to watch the replay (to savour)

i think this particular ref is really pretty poor. we have had him about 3 times this year and he seems consistently to second guess who is at fault and generally favours the "superior" team. i thought the tahs forwards and backs were as much offside as any team i have seen this season, never behind the last foot at the ruck, but probably so were the rebels. poor assistant refereeing. the scrum penalties are a lottery, and the "holding on" versus "not releasing" at the tackle apparently requires nanosecond timing. and a different interpretation each week.

overall i think the waratahs supporters are not giving enough credit to the rebels defence and the pressure they applied which led to the handling errors and turnovers. it is constantly said, there is not a lot of difference between most of the S15 teams and if you are off the game by even a small margin the errors will cost points and games.

 

[Sully]

So the Waratahs for the previous 5 weeks have been playing quite well and now that they've had one let down on performance (was was due) all their Wallabies have gone back to being shit and undeserving of selection?

To be fair I thought a few of them were shit before the match.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD

 

[mech4bg]

Finally caught the replay, and I can't say I'm surprised that it's the Waratahs fans saying that was a shit match to watch. Yes, there were handling errors, but there was some amazing rugby on display... 22 phases by the Tahs?! Fantastic defence by the Rebels last night too. Definitely some issues with the Rebels - they did try to tell the Ref what to do a bit much though, and while Hegarty was very solid, some of his kicks were not great, and Phipps had his usual yips. However, great solid team effort, and the defence at the end in particular was amazing.

Hope we get more games like that.

 

[mech4bg]

Oh yeah, almost forgot, Woodward was amazing.

 

[cyclopath]

Finally caught the replay, and I can't say I'm surprised that it's the Waratahs fans saying that was a shit match to watch. Yes, there were handling errors, but there was some amazing rugby on display. 22 phases by the Tahs?! Fantastic defence by the Rebels last night too. Definitely some issues with the Rebels - they did try to tell the Ref what to do a bit much though, and while Hegarty was very solid, some of his kicks were not great, and Phipps had his usual yips. However, great solid team effort, and the defence at the end in particular was amazing.

Hope we get more games like that.

I've speed-read this thread, and struggled to actually find pretty much anyone saying that. A few have criticised some of the Tahs' play, which is not quite the same thing. Maybe they meant it was shit to lose that match, for obvious reasons?

 

[mech4bg]

Not from this thread, but from the site:

http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/melbourne-rebels-defeat-waratahs/

e.g.

Ref was dreadful, Tahs were dreadful, Rebels were dreadful in an utterly committed way, allowing them in the end to taste victory.

Surely we can claim compensation under trade description act. "Super rugby" - a contradiction in terms the game was so frustrating to watch.
Plenty of endeavour but little accuracy and so many turnovers.
Had a few hours cold turkey and now Top 14 toulon v Toulouse to get over it. Giteau, Wilkinson et al.

Anyway, my apologies, it's not all Tahs supporters, I just went into the game expecting something much more dour, but it was good fun to watch, regardless of the outcome (after all, the Tahs almost did win it). Lots of mongrel and heart.

 

[cyclopath]

Yep. The front page does tend to have more polarity in the comments than in here. Fair call.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Oh yeah, almost forgot, Woodward was amazing.

Whats his background - I know he came from Wellington in the NPC but does he have a 3 year (?) wait before he can be picked for the Wobblies?

 

[barbarian]

Anyone find this Fairfax article strange?

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...bubble-20130524-2k790.html?rand=1369397787079

Maybe it's just me, but it's always bugged me how shamelessly they come off as Waratahs supporters, for what's meant to be national news. you don't see the same thing on the News Ltd sites, e.g. with shamelessly pro Reds Courier Mail stories, or at least not that I've seen.

Uh........ really?

How dare the Sydney Morning Herald take a Sydney-centric view of proceedings. It's vile, shameless parochialism from a paper that should know better.

As for pro-Queensland stories from the Courier Mail, try this one maybe. I don't think these articles are bad at all, but let's not pretend it's just a Sydney thing or a Queensland thing.
.

 

[mech4bg]

I think you've missed what I'm saying - if that were smh only, sure. But rugby heaven now redirects straight to smh (hence the link), whereas news and fox rugby still have national sites. Am I missing a national fairfax site?

 

[Sully]

Uh.... really?

How dare the Sydney Morning Herald take a Sydney-centric view of proceedings. It's vile, shameless parochialism from a paper that should know better.

As for pro-Queensland stories from the Courier Mail, try this one maybe. I don't think these articles are bad at all, but let's not pretend it's just a Sydney thing or a Queensland thing.
.

This one may have worked better
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport...ns-is-a-travesty/story-fn8t8ah6-1226646280243

 

[barbarian]

I think you've missed what I'm saying - if that were smh only, sure. But rugby heaven now redirects straight to smh (hence the link), whereas news and fox rugby still have national sites. Am I missing a national fairfax site?

Rugby Heaven is national, but is just a collection of local writers writing local stories. Rugby Heaven has Phil Lutton from the Brisbane Times, Stathi Paxinos from the Age, Chris Dutton from the Canberra Times. Each write for their own paper, so the local perspective isn't isolated to Robinson.
.

 

[mech4bg]

Yeah, that's fair enough, but there is a very strong Sydney slant, much more so than on News.

Look - it's probably to be expected. Sydney's their biggest market, especially for Rugby, it makes sense. But it's still frustrating as a Rebels support to read the Age and just read articles bagging the Rebels. I'm sure you can understand that? I did try to add context to my post - the constant bagging of the Rebels by Greg Growden really didn't help, and I guess I'm surprised to still see such a Sydney slant now he's gone.

And where's the The Age article about the Rebels win? Going to http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-union all I see is the very pro-Sydney article. Surely you could see why that's frustrating as a Melbourne supporter?

 

[mech4bg]

And speaking of that article:

Bryce Hegarty must have found a cloak of invisibility in his locker at the break because neither the referee nor touch judge saw the Rebels five-eighth hold back Ashley-Cooper when the NSW centre was trying to chase a kick early in the half.

It was hilarious when I finally saw what they were talking about. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it sounded like they were trying to draw parallels to the holding back of Phipps in the Rebels-Stormers game last week - there was almost nothing in the holding back of AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper). In the replay it looked like he went to tackle him, realized he didn't have the ball, then let go.

 

[Athilnaur]

If a team makes a lot of errors it is usually because they are under pressure. If you criticise your team for errors often I think what you are really saying is you let the opposition in.

 

[Shiggins]

The tahs were shit. Dropped the ball way to
Much. Woodwood is looking better and better every week. As is Jayden Hayward or the force.

 

[USARugger]

Whats his background - I know he came from Wellington in the NPC but does he have a 3 year (?) wait before he can be picked for the Wobblies?

Yep. He's allegedly interested in Gold as well.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Yep. He's allegedly interested in Gold as well.

We cant wait 3 years.
Not saying he's the saviour or anything but he has a look of quality.

 

[Brumby Runner]

So the Waratahs for the previous 5 weeks have been playing quite well and now that they've had one let down on performance (was was due) all their Wallabies have gone back to being shit and undeserving of selection?

Not at all Qwerty. Timani, Dennis and Palu were all questionable even when the Tahs were winning.

 

[Sully]

Not at all Qwerty. Timani, Dennis and Palu were all questionable even when the Tahs were winning.

Palu?