Super Rugby Rnd 2: Waratahs v Reds AKA The 2022 Festival of Hate.

[Rugbynutter39]

Leichardt is a stupid fucking place.

Where can we play rugby that is impossible to get to via public transport and has shit facilities?'

Gees thanks negative Nancy

But back to the rugby…best game of oz rugby been to for a little while with conditions being considered. Super proud of tahs and if where lost it was with inexperienced second row replacements and that critical line out loss and no surprise Williams pulled. But reds giving them their due showed their experience to win the game despite tahs being the better side.

I went to last weeks game where tahs won 40-10 but actually found it so so game to watch but this game despite sitting in the rain was enthralled the entire game as a contest and performance of both sides in challenging conditions. Whilst could expect that of the reds probably less so for the tahs after last season. But nope tahs the real deal this season so I will be back.

 

[Adam84]

Even did the Gus Gould walk through intro speech, fuck me the goose thinks we turn on Stan to listen to his gibberish …..

I like that they’re trying new things, I don’t mind the pre-match build up stuff, just swap him with someone else.

 

[Adam84]

I did clarify saying young to Super Rugby.

Surprisingly.

Average Age:
Reds: 23.2
Tahs: 25.65

Average Caps
Reds: 31.5
Tahs: 34.15

I took the courtesy of substituting in Jamie Roberts European club games as Super Rugby games. Guys like Faulkner, Roberts and Smith on the bench really dragged up the Tahs average. Although Tahs had 6 players with less then 10 caps, Reds 4.

 

[Up the Guts]

Would have taken that score line at the end of last year as a Tahs’ supporter. Always hurts to lose to QLD but we’ve moved out of the doldrums. Thought we were missing the show stopper at the beginning of last year but I’d pay admission just to watch Perese.

 

[Derpus]

Would have taken that score line at the end of last year as a Tahs’ supporter. Always hurts to lose to QLD but we’ve moved out of the doldrums. Thought we were missing the show stopper at the beginning of last year but I’d pay admission just to watch Perese.

Bloke is absolutely explosive. Wallaby centre stocks are looking pretty healthy at the minute.

 

[KOB1987]

Also missing Paisami and Wright and lost the captain McDermott in the first half.

I love hearing losing teams say “you’ll struggle against xxx” - come on mate you’re better than that. Each game is its own. The Tahs win one game against the brand new Fiji team and suddenly the supporters have a voice.

If you’re going to go down that road we were missing Hooper and Swinton.

 

[Lightblue]

Good sides win even when outplayed everywhere. Credit to the Reds, or should I say Maroons.
The Waratahs however showed they are on the up, playing some great footy in the wet. They will learn from this and change tactics to close games out.
Plenty to like as a Tahs fan.

 

[Dan54]

I thought it good game in conditions, though I suspect that Thorn will be pretty pissed at his team, they look to be struggling to have a plan at moment. The Tahs forwards I thought were dominant which was a bit of a surprise. Tahs backs seem to blow a few chamces with what I thought were dumb options, but when I thought about ot, they just seem fairly young, and have a bloody good base to build on.
So I imagine most Tahs supporters will be not to depressed today.

 

[Drew]

Sorry to hear that mate. Any idea what the problem was?

Amateur stuff from the grounds and hurts our game. I’ve made a few jokes about the ground but honestly it’s a good place to watch footy, or so I thought.

Didn’t get close enough to figure out what the problem was. Staffing and an old fashioned ticketing system would be my guess. I don’t doubt it is a good place to watch, just have to get there more than 5 minutes before kick off to see much of the first half. I did enjoy the game on tv in the end, so not all bad (except the result).

 

[Rugbynutter39]

As an aside to all this witty reparte; Went out last minute to watch the game, Game kicks off, there’s a hundred people waiting in line for tickets, about the same waiting to enter. 10 minutes later, neither line had moved, with the exception of people (me) giving up and going home to watch on telly.

Yeh has same problem. I was lucky though as waiting in the line for tickets which was not moving and game kicking off we luckily had a guy come up and give us 2 tickets for mates who had not turned up because of the weather. I had with the mate turned up late as we grabbed dinner and a beer at orange grove pub near by which food wise was as good as probably been with food options at Leichardt.

Had similar past experience with Leichardt so should have known better. Next time I will arrive early or will actually buy tickets online. Only didn’t in this case as weather so crappy kept options open. The weather was atrocious and with no umbrella between us got pretty drenched but with good rugby for a change and bonus of free tickets made it all worthwhile.

 

[Drew]

I thought it good game in conditions, though I suspect that Thorn will be pretty pissed at his team, they look to be struggling to have a plan at moment. The Tahs forwards I thought were dominant which was a bit of a surprise. Tahs backs seem to blow a few chamces with what I thought were dumb options, but when I thought about ot, they just seem fairly young, and have a bloody good base to build on.
So I imagine most Tahs supporters will be not to depressed today.

It was an opportunity lost for the Tahs. Some naive decision making, a few missed penalties and sloppy execution really hurt us. These things will be worked on, so not all doom and gloom. Someone in the commentary after the game said the reds have been together for a few years longer than the Tahs and it showed on the night.

 

[Drew]

Yeh has same problem. I was lucky though as waiting in the line for tickets which was not moving and game kicking off we luckily had a guy come up and give us 2 tickets for mates who had not turned up because of the weather. I had with the mate turned up late as we grabbed dinner and a beer at orange grove pub near by which food wise was as good as probably been with food options at Leichardt.

Had similar past experience with Leichardt so should have known better. Next time I will arrive early or will actually buy tickets online. Only didn’t in this case as weather so crappy kept options open. The weather was atrocious and with no umbrella between us got pretty drenched but with good rugby for a change and bonus of free tickets made it all worthwhile.

It was probably a blessing in disguise as I’m a postie and had been out delivering in this weather Tuesday through Friday. So to not be soaked through again was a bonus. Awesome luck with the tickets, glad it worked out for you.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

It was an opportunity lost for the Tahs. Some naive decision making, a few missed penalties and sloppy execution really hurt us. These things will be worked on, so not all doom and gloom. Someone in the commentary after the game said the reds have been together for a few years longer than the Tahs and it showed on the night.

Yeh to me where they lost it was with tah finishers and in particular recall Douglas muffing up taking tahs line out throw which if had of taken it would have led to a clearance downfield - instead ball spilled and led to the reds try. But skill wise and go forward wise otherwise tahs we’re slick and well drilled. Hard to believe same team even compared to last week as they did look good backs and forwards generally on skill execution. The tahs always looked threatening and only because of odd final dropped ball or knock on close to the line that let them down. But conditions were attrocious so don’t think could be too harsh on that as surprised not lot more dropped. But definitely the difference to me was the reds experience as kept in the game despite being outplayed and took those critical moments.

Good thing for reds was in similar conditions to last week they were improved so at least heading in right trajectory whilst they got the win despite tahs being the better side. I would not be too disaheartened if reds or tahs supporters as I thought skills of both in wet weather pretty good.

 

[Silverado]

Good win by the reds.
But perplexed about the Tah's not taking the easy points in the first half when it was bucketing down.

They had 2 missed penalty attempts when it was bucketing down

 

[dru]

The Waratah turnaround is no flash-in-the-pan. It's not one swallow but a definite Spring.

I won't argue with anyone who says the Tahs were unlucky here, deserved the win, but for the Reds to hold and close a game like this is rewarding.

Thought the Red scrum wasn't too shoddy given missing personnel even though the front row got a rude introduction to Super when you are down a world class prop.

Crazy possession and territory stats to the Waratahs in the 1st half, they really should have come away with more points. An example of the difference is Tate made 8 passes, Jeans coming on the second half made 34. Crazy tackle count at the Reds spread pretty much across the board. JOC (James O'Connor) with an eye-watering 12 tackles. I'm not panicking yet as he was sweeping behind a hard working crew - BUT a game plan that has the flyhallf working this hard probably needs a think. While I'm praising JOC (James O'Connor), thought I would see similar for Tate, but get this - Gordon with 8 leading by example.

High work load from Fraser and Harry. I'd still like to see more evidence (through the stats) of hard work in the locks for the Reds. It's there, but not a stand out.

Perese, wow.

 

[wamberal]

Gutsy win by the Reds. Okay, Swinton and Hooper were out, but surely to lose a player like Tupou in the warm up was a bigger net loss? Particularly when the Tahs have Bell. I expected the scrums to be a shambles for the Reds, full marks to them.

I cannot understand why Seru Uru does not get a lot more time on the field. Reminds me a tiny bit of Itoje.

 

[redstragic]

I found the game really tough/stressfull to watch. It is great we ground out a win but I would love to see us retain the ball and get into and stay in the attacking zone.....or at least stay off our line.

 

[TSR]

Experience definitely won us the game IMO.

Reds may not be playing at their best, but you can’t be at your best all year. It wasn’t long ago we were the ones losing these sort of games whenever we got in this position. I’m glad we’ve become a team that has the confidence and composure to find the win.

Return of some cavalry will be good but, at the same time, it is good that the rookies are stepping up and getting us over the line.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Got to say the crowd was much larger then I thought it would be given appalling conditions to watch rugby in and known factor that Leichhardt does not have much under cover seating.

Pity such bad weather as given how many people would have kept away looks like if had good weather might have packed out Leichhardt oval. Guess it shows what winning can do (both tahs and also reds being super rugby au champions).

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Looking forward to hanigans return as we seem to go to shit in line out and scrums when Holloway and cruder went off with William and Douglas going into the second row.