Rebels vs Kings Super Rugby R9 - Saturday April 13

[Dave Beat]

In this match tonight, there was a scrum which went for almost 5 minutes. It went something like this: front rows bound, both sets of 2nds taking too long, ref speaks to them and there is a discussion, in this time the front rows release their binds and the process starts again, crouch, touch, set, ball in, as half back picks up ball from back of scrum, referee whistles, orders reset and the whole process starts again and the 2nd time around the scrum looks exactly the same and the ref lets play go on. Somebody fix these scrums! (and tell the refs to get on with it)

QH I was sitting next a World Cup ref a couple of years back - he openly said on some occasions r have no idea why a scrum colapses, twists, etc we just give a free kick so the game can flow.
Playing in the front row I love a good scrum, the backs will never understand.
You complained about 5 minutes - the crap last week Manly V Gordon went on for over 10 and about 3 penalaty tries should have been awared.
That world cup ref is a quality ref, didnt get to see the Rebs game it doesnt sound like he had much of an idea.

 

[swingpass]

having watched live and not yet able to bring myself to look at the TV replay, apart from the obvious implosion in the last 15 minutes, the question i am asking is where was JOC (James O'Connor) at this time. i cannot recall him being overly involved and trying to take control of the game. really still think as good a footballer as he is he is not a 10.

 

[Dark Shark]

having watched live and not yet able to bring myself to look at the TV replay, apart from the obvious implosion in the last 15 minutes, the question i am asking is where was JOC (James O'Connor) at this time. i cannot recall him being overly involved and trying to take control of the game. really still think as good a footballer as he is he is not a 10.

I agree with above. The Rebels had a glut of possession and JOC (James O'Connor)'s game management was missing. He looked like a fullback coming into the frontline when he had to. The few times he took it up to the King's defensive line saw him all at sea trying to use the support around him and IIRC the only time he had success was when he went by himself. He will be very predictable for opposition if he continues to be played at flyhalf no matter how well the forwards play.

 

[ChargerWA]

But he will still play 10 for the Wallabies.

 

[Scooter]

My six year old son summed it up perfectly after the Kings drop goal: "I can't believe the Rebels lost the game."

Rebels still don't know how to defend a slender lead, but there was a number of basic errors that cost us including Higginbotham dropping a Phipps pass which if caught probably would have resulted in a Higgers try in the corner, Roberts dropping the kick off in first half, the ill-discipline that led to Reid's sin binning, Reid's pass to nobody and then when scores were tied Woodward's kick off out on the full. Just to name five.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

i've now rewatched the last 15 and can see now that Inman was injured.
JOC (James O'Connor) was floating in and our of 10 for a bit of that last stretch of play. at one point he was lined up at full back and roberts slotted into 10 and proceeded to kick the ball away - straight to the opposition.

The whole game though the backline looked very non-threatening. we spread it wide quick constantly but no one actually ran any lines or penetrated the defense. i thought we were very predictable. vuna needed to be more involved.

Woodward i thought was the only back that looked creative and in the first half almost all of our big breaks came off something he did.
his kick straight into touch was shocking, but that aside i thought he was pretty good again.
sidey doesn't offer much. he's not big enough to be effective running straight at the d, which is what he did regularly.
a great shame about inman as he is a top notch defender and was just beginning to find the gaps and wreak havoc.
JOC (James O'Connor) looked great running with the ball, but al that did was serve to convince me that he's probably a better 12 or 13 or that roving winger. he needs to be able to hit the line at angles which is tough for him to do playing 10.

 

[swingpass]

The whole game though the backline looked very non-threatening. we spread it wide quick constantly but no one actually ran any lines or penetrated the defense. i thought we were very predictable.

sidey doesn't offer much. he's not big enough to be effective running straight at the d, which is what he did regularly.

i thought sidey did his job pretty well, not creative but defended effectively and when he took the crash ball up, we generally got over the advantage line and won the ruck. i agree that once again, as against the the reds, brumbies and tahs the backline work was very predictable, especially the "2nd " man/line plays off phase ball.

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

yup. not that he didn't do a decent job of it, it's just that its all he did and never got more than a yard or two over the gain line.
my gripe was mostly with the lack of creativity of the backline. no runners coming from off the ball and hitting defenders on an angle. it seemed they tried to get it wide as fast as possible and hope that they could trick the D with a quick flick pass or dummy.
that is why we need beale back i guess - he provides a bit of spark on the back line with good lines in attack. we would've had that with kingi but he went out too early.
i think we should've put woodward to fullback for kingi and brought mitchell onto the wing - but again i just think roberts is absolutely not up to super rugby at the moment.

 

[tigerland12]

O'Connor is not a 10. Very talented, but he is a great ball runner and much better when he plays as a second reciever.

Should be at 15 for the Walllabies.

 

[Brisbok]

O'Connor is not a 10. Very talented, but he is a great ball runner and much better when he plays as a second reciever.

Should be at 15 for the Walllabies.

Agree that he is a back three player at this stage, until he spends more time at 12 outside a quality 9 & 10, he won't develop there. Definitely not a 10 at the moment. Has he been better than Mogg at 15 when he's played there this year? I don't think so. I guess it might be an easier task playing 15 for the Brumbies than it is for the Rebels though.

 

[Brisbok]

As an aside, I wonder how Higgers is feeling about his decision to move to the Rebels at the moment. Surely can't be helping his Wallabies prospects.

 

[KevinO]

For all the Stirzaker fans and Phipps haters won't like this comment.

But Phipps should have never been taken off last night, he had control of the game and Stirzaker isn't ready to control tight games like that. The last 15 minutes was dread full and he had no impact last night. He was failing to organize the forwards and the Kings started to find the holes.

Venter had no impact on the game until Stirzaker was on and leaving holes for him to run into.

 

[Brisbok]

Venter had no impact on the game until Stirzaker was on and leaving holes for him to run into.

Did you not see his try in the first half?

Edit - Just watched it again, almost solely Phipps' fault for not even getting a hand on Venter at the back of the lineout.

 

[RedsHappy]

As an aside, I wonder how Higgers is feeling about his decision to move to the Rebels at the moment. Surely can't be helping his Wallabies prospects.

I suspect only his bank manager would be applauding the experience.

 

[KevinO]

Did you not see his try in the first half?

Edit - Just watched it again, almost solely Phipps' fault for not even getting a hand on Venter at the back of the lineout.

Vuna??? Yeah stepped Phipps who fell for the dumby and than ran straight through Vuna and Woodward as it looked like Vuna planted his feet to cover the pass instead of making the tackle that was needed.

 

[Brisbok]

Vuna??? Yeah stepped Phipps who fell for the dumby and than ran straight through Vuna and Woodward as it looked like Vuna planted his feet to cover the pass instead of making the tackle that was needed.

Phipps is hardly blameless there and Venter scoring a try certainly had impact on the game.

 

[daz]

Inman off JUST as he was making yards and finding holes in a tired defence, only to preserve ROBERTS' (a horrrrible player) place on the field, was at best, mind boggling.

Mitch got smashed and thought he had done his AC joint in the shoulder. I spoke to him after the game and he said he tried to continue but his shoulder was rooted. Getting scans and probably cortisone shots today.

 

[KevinO]

Phipps is hardly blameless there and Venter scoring a try certainly had impact on the game.

I have not said his blameless, no one in the 22 is blameless last night. I said he should not have been replaced in such a tight game.

I think this team needs to take a good hard look at itself. SA 11 - 0 ratio against the Rebels is a disgrace, especially when we have got losing bonus points in most of them in Melbourne.

 

[swingpass]

venter's brilliant use of the ref stopped higgers getting a hand on him, contributed significantly to the try, but vuna shouldn't have taken the dummy either

 

[Sir Arthur Higgins]

Mitch got smashed and thought he had done his AC joint in the shoulder. I spoke to him after the game and he said he tried to continue but his shoulder was rooted. Getting scans and probably cortisone shots today.

ya have now seen the replay (was at the game) and could see he was sore.
hopefully he's ok and can play through!