What can I say about this match which hasn't already been said. I follow my beloved Tahs to Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne most years (but not recently due to the bushfires and pandemic) and last night was no exception. A wet drive down and back.
The match
My seat was very high up on the western side, a long way from the field which was slightly obscured by light spray, I may not've seen everything perfectly clearly. GIO's a crap stadium, the sooner the ACT government bites the bullet and builds a decent indoor stadium the better, preferably on the current pool site in Civic.
Losing Williams and Cridge, and then Turner, certainly hurt the Tahs' continuity after last week's close loss. Cridge is one of the Tahs' best forwards this year along with Bell, HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes), Gamble and, surprisingly, Harris. Add Swinton, Hanigan, Hooper, Holloway, Williams and one or two reasonable backups and that's a respectable pack. The Brumbies are a much more settled side and it showed from the kickoff, they knew who was doing what and where.
I though Donaldson tried to be a bit too cute and/or smart last week; those two chip kicks to the outside backs were pointless, and that last wide pass to Turner to, hopefully, win the match was bordering on incompetent. All Ben had to do was put the ball through the hands, draw and pass and go over. Last night, I imagine after the backs coach boxed his ears, Donaldson played a much simpler meat-and-potatoes match on a heavy pitch. He should stick to this style and perfect it before attempting anything fancy.
The Brumbies back-row were magnificent; Valetini is a monster and was, deservedly, man-of-the match. I was talking to a couple of Brumbies supporters next to me and asked them what they reckon were the best positions for Valetini and Samu, there was no agreement among them where they were best suited so they agreed the coach knows best. To my eye they both look like blindside breakaways, but what would I know. We all agreed they both must be in the 15 somewhere.
Bell and HJH (Harry Johnson-Holmes) are developing nicely, their scrummaging can't be faulted and their overall play is coming along beautifully. They can now run, pass and truck the ball up as good as any other Oz props. And they can both tackle.
Harris has been one of the good news stories for the Tahs this year. I thought we might struggle at 8 after Wells chose to wear a sombrero, but Will has shown a mental toughness which is delightful to watch.
The referee
First of all I'd like to declare I've been a fan of Nic Berry for quite some time. To my, former ref's, eyes last night wasn't one of his better games, and that's not just because the Tahs lost.
As a so-so back I know bugger all about the dark arts of the front row, so I bow to those who know better. One is my brother from Wagga, an astute judge of forward play, and last night he was surprised Slipper wasn't pulled up for slipping his bind and turning in. He reckoned the Tahs' were scrummaging straight and should have been awarded most, if not all, of those early scrum penalties. He also reckoned White was standing on the Tahs side and feeding at a very acute angle (don't all scrummies cheat like that?). The other is Pfitzy here on G&GR. Nick was mainly in agreement with my brother on the Brumbies' pigs shenanigans. So, the Brumbies props WERE infringing.
Years ago when I reffed I used to hand some old lag standing around a piece of cardboard and ask him to note penalties, scrums and free kicks awarded to both sides set out in a column. At half time and full-time I checked how I was going to ensure I wasn't watching one side to the detriment of the other. It's a very human fault to take exception to one side/player or other and watch them/him closely all match. A lop-sided penalty count is always a point of concern, especially if it's in favour of the home side. Last night's count was 14-9 the Brumbies' way, although their backrow were hard on the ball most of the match. Many of those penalties just didn't look even-handed to me, particularly those five in a row late in the match on my side. It'd be interesting to know what Berry's referee assessor made of his performance.
One thing I will chip Berry about was his time-keeping: his signalling of time off for stoppages was appalling. Twice in the first half the clock ran off 40 seconds because he hadn't put his arm up when players were being attended to. I reckon the match lost about five minutes overall because of Nic's sloppiness on this point, not good enough.
The future
So far this year the Tahs' forwards have held their own with the Reds and Brumbies; the backs haven't. There's still no ensemble play and support between the inner and outer backs and I'm not convinced the best players have been selected. Foketi never fails to disappoint and the wingers don't know how to finish. One gem in the Tahs' backline is Perese, dunno whom I'd select for the gold 13 jumper out of Izaia and Len Ikitau.
Running the Brumbies to a seven point loss in Canberra was, on one level, disappointing. Considering we were utter shite last year and had some injuries all week to overcome it was an encouraging performance. If/when we have a reasonably fit list and a few more games under our belt we'll be competitive with anyone.
