Scott Higginbotham - Liverpool kiss on McCaw

[Lee Grant]

Too many of us are beating around the bush. Higginbotham was stupid and deserves to be out for a while. Had an official noticed it he would have been red carded and we would have lost the game.

Hooper needs a big kick up the arse too for the yellow card earned by his late tackle.

They weren't the Lone Rangers in being dumb for the Aussies.

In 2012 Kepu seemed to have left his brain snaps of recent years behind him, but his flop was a blast from the past and ruined any chance we had of winning the game.

Gill was culpable too not long after of thinking the laws had changed overnight and he could lean over for the ball with his belly resting on fallen players, even after Joubert shouted at him to stop. He helped to give the Kiwis field position to win the match, which, thanks to Weepu, they didn't.

Harris was dumb for us too once but is forgiven for his nerveless goal kicking.

OK - so it was humid and Oz made a lot of handling mistakes and they stuffed up a lineout on their own 5M line which a decent All Black team would have scored from - those things happen, but some of the penalties were caused by actions that were made by choice.
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[en_force_er]

Up until maybe a year ago he didn't comment. How many times can you be given a cheap shot before it just becomes plain annoying though. Higginbotham, Greyling, Rougerie, Cooper, Rossouw, Hartley, Heaslip, Powell.. list goes on.

Oh and NO. Pocock has not been targeted like McCaw.

Yes he didn't comment on it until a year or so ago, but now he appears very comfortable with it.

Let's remember this guy does get involve in little niggles, pulling guys off their sweeper lines and whatnot. Not suggesting it's untoward or not in the spirit of rugby (which is very much a game about bending the rules) but he does engage in contact which is against the literal rules of the game. Thus, I don't think it's overly controversial to suggest he's became a bit too willing to play the media game of late specially when there was obviously a citing on the way anyway.

As for suggesting Pocock (who I merely used as an example) isn't targeted by other teams, that's ridiculous. Oppositions have targeted key players since rugby was invented and to suggest McCaw is the only player to experiance this is absolutely insane and untrue.

Your points are particularly one eyed. I have nothing wrong with McCaw as a player or as a person but the 'deploy the media' tactic does lack a little tack. Rightfully or wrongfully, the ABs hated it when O'Driscol did it to them on the '05 Lions tour.

 

[en_force_er]

In 2012 Kepu seemed to have left his brain snaps of recent years behind him, but his flop was a blast from the past and ruined any chance we had of winning the game.

Throughout that whole passage there was hardly an Aussie on his feet at ruck time. Yes Keps' was the most obvious and silly but he wasn't alone by long shot.

I'm amazed the ref let us push it that far.

 

[cyclopath]

Throughout that whole passage there was hardly an Aussie on his feet at ruck time. Yes Keps' was the most obvious and silly but he wasn't alone by long shot.

I'm amazed the ref let us push it that far.

I thought Joubert was pretty good in all that overtime. He seemed to be mindful of calling a marginal penalty to give the game one way or another. He was vocal and clear to previous efforts of players falling off feet, he allowed a few Kiwis a little extra time to get out of the way when they came down on the wrong side, and he gave Oz a bit of latitude down the other end leading up to the DG attempt (in the same way he did at the other end with Oz players on the wrong side given time to make an effort to clear). Marvellous feel for the game at that stage I thought. He had clearly warned the Wallabies, then Kepu most obviously did not heed it.
He let a team try to win it, rather than making a team lose it.

 

[en_force_er]

I thought Joubert was pretty good in all that overtime. He seemed to be mindful of calling a marginal penalty to give the game one way or another. He was vocal and clear to previous efforts of players falling off feet, he allowed a few Kiwis a little extra time to get out of the way when they came down on the wrong side, and he gave Oz a bit of latitude down the other end leading up to the DG attempt (in the same way he did at the other end with Oz players on the wrong side given time to make an effort to clear). Marvellous feel for the game at that stage I thought. He had clearly warned the Wallabies, then Kepu most obviously did not heed it.
He let a team try to win it, rather than making a team lose it.

I completely agree. The ref made the right call to let the game continue but I also think we were lucky that he did.

 

[wamberal]

The totally idiotic aspect is that nothing that Higginbum did would hurt my little sister, let alone one of the most durable players in the history of the game.


If you are going to do something dirty, Scott, make it count. Or play clean.

 

[Bruce Ross]

Applying the SANZAR random number generator, the Etzebeh Coefficient, the GOAT Factor and planetary alignment, I would guess 4 weeks, due to a previously pretty clean record. But it might be 2 or 6.
I could not believe he did it - it looked so deliberate that he blundered into McCaw's head then carried on.
Just stupid stuff.

You may have it already covered, cyclo, under the GOAT Factor, but I think he probably merits an extra two weeks for stupidity verging on idiocy. If you're going to administer a Liverpool Kiss or Glasgow Kiss, you don't do it when you're the bloke lying on the ground. Someone should attempt to explain to him - slowly - the principle of gravitational attraction.
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[Antony]

What surprised me was how rattled Richie was after the incident. The obvious send-off that he gave Woodcock after his yellow was really out of character.

 

[Blue]

In my opinion the knee looked pretty accidental and like it resulted from the fact there were bodies everywhere.

 

[daz]

Blue, very sneaky of you to quote that bit. If you had looked a few posts further along you would have seen en_force_er take that bit back and admit it was deliberate.

Please don't go looking for a fight out of nothing.

 

[Dan54]

I not sure where Richie has been using media enforcer, I know he talked about Cooper in his book, as you would expect,in a book, but not sure where he he went to media about other incidents, but no doubt you can help me out.
I agree that not much harm was going to come from Higgers stupidity last night, personally to me it shows him for what I think he is, a little flashy with no substance as a test player, but anyone who thinks it ok to do this if players perceive that other player is in wrong are asking for a lot of dirty play to happen, as last night Wallabies gave away 14 penalties and All blacks 11, there could be an awful lot of injured players today.

 

[TOCC]

Higgers was a massive idiot... No one got hurt.. Richie didn't ask for it, but he is obviously a target being captain..

don't turn this into some self righteous bullshit..

 

[Penguin]

What surprised me was how rattled Richie was after the incident. The obvious send-off that he gave Woodcock after his yellow was really out of character.

He certainly gave him a mouthful, he was not a happy skipper at that point.

 

[Dan54]

Higgers was a massive idiot. No one got hurt.. Richie didn't ask for it, but he is obviously a target being captain..

don't turn this into some self righteous bullshit..

Dunno if that was aimed at me TOCC, but what self righteous about it, you actually said what I said, I was just responding to people that excused it, by saying Richie was in wrong.

 

[TOCC]

He certainly gave him a mouthful, he was not a happy skipper at that point.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time Richie McCaw has won a game at Suncorp(test or super) was back in 2008..... Not a happy stomping ground for the guy..

 

[Dan54]

It turning into Wallabies 'Eden Park'

 

[Groucho]

I'm not a fan of the cheap stuff by any means. But the thing that I REALLY don't understand is why be half hearted about it? The downside is pretty clear, but where was the pay off?

The cheap stuff must be done half-heartedly. The intention is to get inside the head of the opponent, not to hurt them or (worse) get carded or sent off.

Some players seem to have the ability to niggle invisibly and well. Higginbotham, clearly not.

And it can be highly effective against some opponents, especially those with a short fuse. It's been part of the game since the game was invented.

 

[wamberal]

The cheap stuff must be done half-heartedly. The intention is to get inside the head of the opponent, not to hurt them or (worse) get carded or sent off.

Some players seem to have the ability to niggle invisibly and well. Higginbotham, clearly not.

And it can be highly effective against some opponents, especially those with a short fuse. It's been part of the game since the game was invented.

Actually, for many years after the game was invented, there was very little niggle, and a lot of actual thuggery. In the good old, bad old, days, the touch judges had no input other than waving the flag for the touchline or goal attempts, and there was no video. So, why bother about niggle?

 

[Blue]

Blue, very sneaky of you to quote that bit. If you had looked a few posts further along you would have seen en_force_er take that bit back and admit it was deliberate.

Please don't go looking for a fight out of nothing.

True. Spotted it only after I posted. Still quite amazed that someone could have thoguht it was accidental.

Me? Look for a fight? Never.

 

[Bardon]

Everyone knows Richie cheats he probably hangs a "gone offside" sign on his door when he's not home. However I'm not convinced that's justification for what Higgers did.

Yes there can be frustration with what McCaw gets away with being offside but I think Joubert did a pretty good job. Joubert had already awarded the penalty to Aus so Richie didn't get away with anything at that particular ruck. I think part of why Higgers was wound up and looking for McCaw was that it wasn't long before that McCaw had stripped him of the ball.

Add on the normal frustration players feel about McCaw and then seeing him on the wrong side again then there's a reason why he did it. But still no justification as personally I don't think you can justify doing something like that. He was lucky it wasn't spotted as he would have received a red card and penalty would have been reversed.

In terms of suspension I would think that he'll be another missing for the EOYT but I wouldn't be surprised if he gets less as we've discuss previously there seems to be no rhyme or reasons as to why one person gets X weeks and another Y weeks for the same offense.