Stormers vs Reds @ Newlands round 9

[Ash]

Jees, that's a harsh maul call against Neville. He called a maul as he hit the ground.

I think the two turning points for me were bring on the bench at 55 minutes, and McIntyre's poor kick for goal around the same time.

Stormers score after the full time hooter as the Reds just stopped playing.

It was really there for the Reds to take, but they just didn't play any rugby in the last 20 or so.

 

[fo!!ower]

Frustrating final minute. Stormers try after the siren makes the scoreboard look a lot more one sided then it should.

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[Simon.]

The Saffa refereeing was definitely its usual shitty biased standard. The home side keeps getting away with things the Reds would have been penalised for, the Reds get pinged for things at the drop of a hat. So many times the Stormers were slowing down the ball at the ruck in the last 10 minutes and the ref just told them "no Blue" - he would have penalised the Reds in a heartbeat.

That's no excuse though, this one was there for the Reds to win, and they crumbled in the last 20. At least it's good to see their attack is picking up with liberal use of inside balls and offloads that we just never saw under Graham.

 

[Ash]

Yeah, scoreline flattered the Stormers in the end, but the Reds played rubbish rugby in the last 20. Scrum went wonky (at least in the ref's eyes), they lost lineouts, pushed and dropped ball, and gave away dumb penalties.

The Reds make plenty of breaks, but need to finish a couple more. Like all non-Kiwi teams, the support play isn't quite there and when it is, they don't find them at the right time.

Defence needs to be tightened up too.

On the bright side they are playing with a heap more intent than under RG, and are playing way better rugby. Stormers are the top of their conference, and the Reds were pushing them hard until the last 20.

 

[TSR]

A try at the death by the Stormers blows the score out.

Early in the second half I was going to comment that players were starting to show what they are capable of and there were signs we could knock a few teams off on the run home. But we really came apart at the end there and, for the second week in a row I felt our goal line defence was just too brittle.

I thought Damien Marsh coming on board would make a big difference to our fitness, but we are still fading badly at the end of games.

 

[Tordah]

The Saffa refereeing was definitely its usual shitty biased standard. The home side keeps getting away with things the Reds would have been penalised for, the Reds get pinged for things at the drop of a hat.

I have to disagree, I thought that game was exceptionally well refereed.

 

[Ash]

I thought the ref was pretty good, but that yellow was poor (I actually thing Gunn should've been yellow carded) as the team all looked onside.

And he has a point in the last 10, quite a few times a Stormers player off his feet was playing the ball slowing it down and the ref just yelled to let it go, when he should've blown a penalty as it blatantly stopped quick ball.

Didn't affect the end result apart from allowing a bigger blow out of points.

 

[Simon.]

Major issues with the reffing that I had were mainly around the amount of time the ref allowed before making a call being inconsistent between Stormers and Reds.

- Reds scrum was dominant in the first 50, no penalties awarded whatsoever except to the Stormers, even when the Stormers crumbled and were shoved off their own ball

- Called a maul within 1-2 seconds whenever the Reds had the ball, did not do the same for the Stormers

- Pinged the Reds several times at the breakdown, let the Stormers slow the ball down at will in the last 10, the Reds at times were almost pleading for penalties

- Talakai's YC I am going to give them a pass on as I thought none of the Reds were back a full 10 but others here saw it differently

- Laloifi's penalty for behind the kicker was a real line call, several equal line calls for the Stormers were left alone

I will watch the replay tomorrow and look at all these again but it looked like a clear-cut case of bias to me. I kept thinking that you would just never see such one-sided calls against a Kiwi team with a Kiwi ref.

 

[Gillys_ghost]

unfortunately it seems to be a common theme in south Africa. the stuart Berry reffed game against the lions in Johannesburg was another example of seemingly bias refereeing.

 

[TSR]

I thought Kerevi was very good again and Nabuli is getting more and more involved. In the forwards Browning, Tui, Holmes & Simmons were all good. Stormers clean out was strong and accurate, which limited Gill's success at the breakdown but he was still very strong around the field.

 

[Simon.]

I thought all the backs from 11 to 15 had excellent games. They just have so much more spring in their step. McIntyre is improving but still has a long way to go, but at least he's starting to get some good inside balls happening. Laloifi unfortunately never got a chance to use his pace but I think I've seen enough that I'd start him over CFS.

Gill has really not had the impact at the breakdown this season that he had last season anyway, so wasn't really surprised there. His turnovers won stats are way down. Thankfully his running game is still on song.

I was disappointed that the Reds didn't make more use of the maul instead of going for shots at goal that McIntyre missed. They were looking really dominant there but never got a chance to use it inside the Stormers' 22.

My Reds MOTM would have to be Browning I think.

 

[Intruder]

Damian Marsh is not the issue.

The Reds actually look good until the 60 minute mark. The subs came on and did not do the job the starting XV laid for them.

Fa'agase was poor again and I don't know the reasoning behind his backward form. Crucial scrum penalties going against him and it didn't help Fainga'a and Talakai in going forward.

Fainga'a was great at set piece yet still no real impact on the game across the park.

Talakai was good at set piece and around the park that yellow card IMO was a shocker. A penalty at most even if he wasn't on side, rather him make that tackle and give away 3 then move and they score.

Neville tried hard but never really got into the game, ineffective at lineout too.

Goromaru was poor, really poor.

Paia'aua was really good with his few touches, really want to see him get some more game time.

 

[TSR]

The subs may not have given us the impact we needed, but that wasn't the only problem. Our fitness levels aren't good enough - and this wasn't the first game that that has been an issue in. In fact it's been a common theme this season.

I had not expected that to be an issue with Marshes appointment - but I am not actually trying to blame him as I don't know enough about the inner workings of the Reds to apportion blame there.

But I don't want to be too harsh. I never expected that we would suddenly transform into a top 4 team overnight, but I always thought that, with the players we have we could be much more competitive.

We have made definite progress, and it is much more enjoyable to watch the Reds these days - even if there is still a way to go yet.

I'm in Brisbane next weekend and looking forward to getting to my one game a year with genuine hope that they'll roll the Cheetahs.

 

[biggsy]

I'm sure Nabuils's down the side line was a try,have to watch the replay.
And the last stomermer try was a forward pass.

Reds are getting better and constructing great try's.
Macintyre is big issue at the moment, goal kicking and his attack. Seem to go back wards when he get the ball. And the goal kicking needs to be sorted out. Would have had a couple win this season.

I like the Reds at the moment and the coaches and players have turned it around in a season that I thought would have been one of the worse in recent history.
Going to miss gilly

 

[TSR]

Nabuli definitely put a foot in touch.

 

[Scoey]

Yep Nabuli was definitely out just before he dotted down. Although he had no right to get as close as he did. Wonderful effort! He's really starting to come on now!

 

[TSR]

Yeah - he's really starting to impress. Although, to be fair, I thought he looked quite good from the start, but initially the Reds were hopeless at getting him the ball and he wasn't coming looking for it enough.

 

[biggsy]

Yep Nabuli was definitely out just before he dotted down. Although he had no right to get as close as he did. Wonderful effort! He's really starting to come on now!

When Matt o'cconr tell you stop kicking and run bloke over you listen. Drop a number F bombs in there though

 

[gel]

The reds played well for quite a lot of teh match and were competitive which makes me happy (compared to where we were under *that* coach).

Years of bad habits are not going to be broken in half a season, but its great to see some tries being scored that are well constructed (and scored against good teams too). That's the second most points scored against the stormers this season IIRC. They are second overall as well and we gave them a scare. Under the old regime, they would have racked up a cricket score whilst we relied on a penalty try to lift our spirits.

I thought the referee was pretty OK, but he did give a lot of warnings to the home team that the reds were immediately penalised for, but that is nothing unusual for a home ref really. The game was allowed to flow and didn't end up in a niggly crapfest so kudos to that man.

I am actually really disappointed in that last try - there were a number of the reds that were already in the showers there and that was not a good look. That was something we did under *that* coach all the time and has been missing since he went - so not a good look to see it return at the death of that game.

How much time has this organisation wasted? We could be so much better if the bleedingly obvious was acknowledged immediately instead of excuses being made for whatever reason.

 

[TSR]

You look at the progress they have made and wonder how well this same group of players could be going if they had a full off season under the new coaching set up (or one of the two) instead of under the old regime.

Given that some concerns were raised about O'Connors methods, he has really improved our backline attack.