The Tahs didn't.I'm happy with the win and like the way that the Waratahs held their discipline
Fantastic to see a number of Reds have their best game.
Great to see Perese and Nabuli effectively contain Naiyaravoro, but Tahs did a good job containing Kerevi also. I believe that man v man in their position if you were to ask who had the better game, the Reds players would take the majority.
Faagase > Robertson
Moore> Roach
Tui>Mcduling
Higs> Wells
Tui > Hanigan
DP> Horwitz
Perese > Clarke
Hunt > Folau
Simmons or Mumm ? - Both annoying to watch
Smith or Hooper? -both epic
Kerevi or Horne?
Nabuli or Naiyaravoro? - both nullified
Talaki < Kepu
Tuttle < Phipps
Quade < Foley
Tough to be 4 tries to 2, keep the points down after pereses brain explosion, but to let the tahs kick their way to victory.
Really don't agree with the SMH that the tahs won the passion battle. Looked like the Reds forwards had a monopoly on that (Moore and Faagase was huge in defence, both Tuis were huge in attack, Smith had his best game by far and Higs gave exactly what Stiles said he would, a real enforcer and aggressor both in tight and out wide (HAS to be back in a Gold jersey). It was technicalities that got the Tahs the win. Their attack was pretty ineffective even against 14 men and with Nabuli & Kerevi giving them acres of space out wide.
The Tahs didn't.
Faagase > Robertson
DP> Horwitz
Perese > Clarke
Fair assessment.
Shite we arent looking good in gold this year.
Wrong. The referee ignored Tah indiscretionsThe Tahs closed out a tight game by holding their discipline and not giving away a shed load of penalties unlike the Reds who didn't hold their discipline and gave away a shed load of unnecessary penalties
Wrong. The referee ignored Tah indiscretions
FWIW, I agree with everything else that QH said in his post, but to ignore a poor performance by the referee and how that affected the outcome is revisionist and wrong.
There have been some blatantly one sided refereeing performances over the years that deserve criticism (Berry vs Blues, Berry vs Reds, IGA guy vs brumbies, Lawrence vs Reds). Are they only thing that affected the outcome? No.
But this bullshit of ignoring poor performances in favour of some kind of political correctness or higher horse crap is devoid of logic.
I made no mention of any other points in QHs post because on the whole I agreed with it. Except that bit.
There were plenty of things the Reds were penalized for that were ignored when the Tahs did it because the referee was watching one side only. Ergo, the Tahs did not maintain discipline, their discipline was just as lax as the Reds but they got away with it because the referee had a bad game.
There were 3 Wallabies locks on the pitch last night, yet a 20yr old with 4 Super Rugby caps played better then all of them
The Tahs recievers in the backline from the long throw were all inside the ten before the lineout was over for that try too.Just watched Hoopers try off the back of him not releasing Kerevi at the tackle.
As Scott Allen used to show so compellingly in his long-ago excellent game analyses, the crucial pieces of objectivity required in these types of 'ref got X and Y wrong or was biased against Team A' analyses if they are to be valid vs excuses-making by one side, are:
- the observer concerned has to carefully analyse the entire game end to end, not just fragments of it
- the observer has to be meticulous in analysing every ref call and looking for errors of commission or omission against both sides with zero bias
- the observer must have an excellent knowledge of the laws of the game
Scott and others who used the above method and applied it carefully without pre-judgement often came up with very different conclusions re a ref's performance and error rate or alleged error bias vs those of we the armchair warriors.