Round 14 : Reds v Force 24 May (Suncorp)

[molman]

Ryan's looked solid under a few high balls - I wouldn't let Wales sending up and unders at us all night be the deciding factor in not selecting him....

I know we need the Wallabies to win but with Marky Mark (Nawaqanitawase) (Nawaqanitawase) leaving (and him not looking dominant) I wouldn't have him in the side

I'm not sure I'd have him anywhere near the 23 yet, but I would be fine with him being brought into the wider squad as they like to do for developmental players. Similarly Toole has had a reasonably good season and his defence has improved a lot.

As for Mark Nawaqanitawase, I actually think he's been looking pretty good the second half of the season off the often small amount and at times pretty average ball he's been getting. He generally makes good metres in contact, is extremely strong and on the odd occasion they give him any space he looked threatening. He's just been stuck behind a squad that isn't functioning particularly well at the moment.

I'm not sure which way Joe will go with all the players signed to overseas clubs next year.

 

[Ignoto]

Not sure what more the young kid needs to do in order to win some praise and get his name in the paper

We all know if Ryan was the son of an ex-league player, in the Waratahs squad it's all we'd ever hear.

I'm any event, I don't think anyone from Queensland is calling for him to be starting for the Wallabies. The hype behind the kid is all about there being an electric back who has had a great season at finishing and finding tries.

In a code who is starved for attention and personalities it's bloody refreshing to see everyone having some fun.

 

[RugbyReg]

I was out for dinner when this game was on last night. I came home and looked at the score - yikes! Were the Reds at least good to watch?

yea. At the very least the Reds were good to watch.

 

[Wilson]

I'm not sure I'd have him anywhere near the 23 yet, but I would be fine with him being brought into the wider squad as they like to do for developmental players. Similarly Toole has had a reasonably good season and his defence has improved a lot.

As for Mark Nawaqanitawase, I actually think he's been looking pretty good the second half of the season off the often small amount and at times pretty average ball he's been getting. He generally makes good metres in contact, is extremely strong and on the odd occasion they give him any space he looked threatening. He's just been stuck behind a squad that isn't functioning particularly well at the moment.

I'm not sure which way Joe will go with all the players signed to overseas clubs next year.

I think there is an argument for picking players headed overseas if their form is good enough, but that doesn't exactly apply to Nawaqanitawase, given he's leaving the game all together. I think he really needs to be banging the door down to make sense and I haven't seen that from him this year. Still, with some of the wing injuries he might still make sense for the first part of the Wallabies season as we bring guys back to fitness or up to speed.

 

[molman]

Well done to the Reds! Forwards won the match.
”One of the best performances I’ve seen by an Aussie halves pairing for some time”….now that is spoken like a true Reds man! Hyperbole. They played well off an extremely dominant forward pack who won the collisions and had plenty of post contact metres. Any halves can look good behind that. But hey.. if you want to call them superb, your opinion. Hope the Reds go well in the finals and Ryan scores plenty of meat pies against the Kiwis. If you want to get excited about performances… he’s your man. A great young talent.

I get your sentiment Yoda, it's generally easier for a player to look good in a well performing team, but I think it's undeniable that Tate and Lynagh put in a solid performances last night. I actually think it was one of Tate's better games this season. His service was fast, some nice crisp passing from the base. Good decision making all round and he didn't overplay which he sometimes can.

I do still think that White is up there as one of our better 9's. He's shown his class in a couple of the Force games this season, and there has generally been a drop off when Fines is on the field. Donaldson likewise has had some nice moments and put in some solid performances in some games. He's looked better with Beale also on the field.

I don't have the current stats (maybe someone has the running stats?), but my broader issue with the current crop of flyhalves is that our set piece kicking which isn't as good as you'd hope. They all need to be slotting more of their shots.

 

[molman]

I think there is an argument for picking players headed overseas if their form is good enough, but that doesn't exactly apply to Nawaqanitawase, given he's leaving the game all together. I think he really needs to be banging the door down to make sense and I haven't seen that from him this year. Still, with some of the wing injuries he might still make sense for the first part of the Wallabies season as we bring guys back to fitness or up to speed.

Yes. It's an odd one with Mark and a bit of a shame really that he won't even be in the same code. My gut says they won't pick him as Joe needs to be building towards the Lions, so he needs to be establishing his structures for those players this year. I don't actually expect many (if any) of these players heading overseas to be selected unless they are clearly the best option. Getting some wins this year right off the bat is still going to be priority one after all.

I'll be curious to see where incoming players like BPA feature.

 

[Adam84]

I'm excited by Ryan too but can we all please stop swinging from his nuts. His defensive positional play needs plenty of work. Young kid. Give him time.

Sure, but can still recognise and celebrate good talent and performances.

 

[LeCheese]

Despite the smaller crowd (larger than I expected though) the atmosphere at the ground was pretty great last night. Obviously a dominant performance helps with that, but even pre-match there was a fair bit of energy.

Also worth noting the several large groups of Tim Ryan supporters who turned up, many in custom Junkyard Dog t-shirts - the guy's got all the makings of something special.

 

[Adam84]

Despite the words of a certain Brumbies fan who claimed “Grealy who must dream of being average one day”, Mac has been playing very well on his wing, he isn’t the biggest, fastest player or come with the same fanfare as others, but he runs good support play lines and looks for work..

He complements the back 3 of Campbell and Ryan nicely.

 

[Shiggins]

Force left side backline defence was frankly awful.

Good play by the Reds to exploit it but the Force backs weren't dealing with very simple moves all night.

Their defence on the fringes of the ruck won't make their coach very happy either

The last 2 weeks the force defence has been the best part of their game. It's unreal how they can go from that to this. Fair enough one of the games was against the tahs but they defended well against drua

 

[Shiggins]

Few people talking up Lynagh. Lynaghs kicking was poor. Can't play wallabies. Not a chance

 

[Sully]

I can't remember anyone saying he should be the Wallabies flyhalf. I do remember reading a few suggestions saying it wouldn't hurt for him to be in camp and to get a run against an easier team. I can't see anything wrong with that. As for the kicking. His kicking from hand looked fine to me, he missed a couple of conversions from the sideline but, the success percentage on those isn't great.

 

[Sword of Justice]

I was out for dinner when this game was on last night. I came home and looked at the score - yikes! Were the Reds at least good to watch?

Yep, Tate and Lynagh were superb, no two ways about it. I think every Red played well.

 

[Ignoto]

Few people talking up Lynagh. Lynaghs kicking was poor. Can't play wallabies. Not a chance

Bloke was kicking from the sideline most of the time and copped a stray boot to the face.

Tiatia on the other hand got tackled and was rolling on the floor for 5 minutes.

 

[Brumby Runner]

The discussion around Tom Lynagh was about him playing the best No 10 game (in conjunction with Tate at 9) of the year, not about him being a Wallaby Sully. I agree that Tate had an exceptional game last night and should be the front runner for the first Wales test spot. But I thought Lynagh was pretty ordinary, especially given the dominance of the Reds forward pack. I don't think he showed any outstanding kicking ability in general play and his place kicking was woeful. Rather than missing a couple from the sideline, I reckon he missed more shots at goal than he kicked. In general play, I think he overplayed his hand by running the ball more than setting up his supports. No doubt he is a tough little bugger, but I wouldn't say he had anywhere near the best performance by a No 10 this year. This is not really the place to discuss others, but to answer TSR the Brumbies pack has been going backwards in each of the past two or three games but Noah L has continued to poll well in various TOTWs including our own at GAGR.

 

[Strewthcobber]

And his place kicking was woeful. Rather than missing a couple from the sideline, I reckon he missed more shots at goal than he kicked.

He kicked 3/6 conversions and 2/2 penalties.

JOC (James O'Connor) kicked 1/3 conversions.

A pretty ordinary night for the Red's goal kickers, but Lynagh was at 63%

As an aside, how can we not even find goal kicking success rate for kickers in Super Rugby? It does my head in

 

[Wilson]

He kicked 3/6 conversions and 2/2 penalties.

JOC (James O'Connor) (James O'Connor) kicked 1/3 conversions.

A pretty ordinary night for the Red's goal kickers, but Lynagh was at 63%

As an aside, how can we not even find goal kicking success rate for kickers in Super Rugby? It does my head in

I don't have much issue with Lynagh's misses last night. They were all from the sideline (and he got a few of those still) and he struck the ball well for each one.

I really miss the days of the goalkickers.co.za guys out of South Africa doing a full statistical breakdown taking into account kick difficulty as well as simple accuracy numbers.

 

[RugbyReg]

Lynagh was very good. Particularly when you consider it was his first game for a month.

Its as much the work he does off the ball as on. But hes a bloody tough bugger. He ran more with the ball last night than I've seen. All good options with defense up on him. I don't think he got turned over on any of them?

I would like a goal kicking success rate up an extra 15%. Once he has that, his Wallaby claims become pretty undeniable. He's only 21 too. Two to three years behind Gordon and Loloesio, 4 years behind DOnaldson

 

[liquor box]

Personally I hated the bright red jerseys. I’m a traditionalist and the maroon/navy jerseys is the way to go, mainly because thats what I grew up with as a kid sitting in the tin stand at the end of Ballymore.

Thats ok, everyone is entitled to their opinion on jersey colours, even if they are wrong

I think given we won a competition in the Red jerseys that we could at least have a throw back jersey for nostalgic reasons. I also think the Red jerseys were a better indigenous jersey too.

 

[liquor box]

I can't remember anyone saying he should be the Wallabies flyhalf. I do remember reading a few suggestions saying it wouldn't hurt for him to be in camp and to get a run against an easier team. I can't see anything wrong with that. As for the kicking. His kicking from hand looked fine to me, he missed a couple of conversions from the sideline but, the success percentage on those isn't great.

This really annoys me, I think making the Wallabies is too easy, and has been this way for a long time.

There cannot be too many Super Rugby players who have played Super Rugby for more than 5 years who have not played at least one test as a starter or from the bench.

The majority of games seem to have 6-7 wallaby forwards against 6-7 wallaby forwards.

I am all for making a training squad, but think getting a start should be only for the elite.

This is not about any particular player, it is just a general rant