Well done the Reds. Was very nervous watching it and had to pause my recording a few times to settle the nerves. Switched to a recorded movie back and forth; it had a few restful murders in it.
Some stray thoughts.
• Both teams started nervously and some of the execution was poor. And how seldom have the Saders blown chances as they did in this match: Guilford dropping that ball and Thorn not passing near the line – plus generally taking the wrong option?
• The Saders bullied the Reds at the ruck. When it mattered they got there too early with too many and even when things were matched up at the ruck they were too strong. Then they got a bit weary in the last quarter and the Reds had their turn.
• But well done to the Reds for their defence, especially in the 1st half with all the ball and real estate owned by the Kiwis.
• Some of the Saders had inferior games: Guilford was poor and showed he is little more than a top ball runner, Freuen looked below par, and the dodgy lineout throwing of Flynn was game changing. McCaw was a shadow of himself and Carter, apart from a moment of wizardry, was ordinary and didn't provide much direction. On the other hand Read was exceptional.
• It was a poor effort to stop Genia's try. Fotuali'i attempted an ankle tap instead of leaving his feet and trying to tackle him and Maitland could have tried a more robust tackle to knock the ball out.
• Genia was mediocre at the beginning even when he wasn't being bothered by the Kiwis, but the Reds season has been defined by intermittent occurrences of inspiration and his try was one of those. An earlier brilliancy: Ioane's step at pace to score, so hard to do, switched the momentum of the game.
• Tapuai has stepped up from a rookie to a class 12 in a short time and he and A. Finger constrained their vaunted opponents nicely.
• The refereeing of the ruck was bad and Rafferty's Rules seemed to apply. Others would have talked about the infractions of the Crusaders but the Reds were no angels. S.Finger came in at the side a couple of times in emergencies without being pinged and the Reds forwards around the ruck were advancing from in front of last feet on several occasions without being noticed.
• The Reds scrum was bullied. It's an 8 man effort but you could see that Crockett, the form LHP of the tournament, was smashing Holmes. But some of their wheeling looked dodgy as you don't spin a scrum that quickly without the LHP moving his feet out and walking around and/or the THP pulling back. Holmes didn't do his chances of making an Oz comeback any favours,
• Had the Crusader's lineout been as good as it's scrums it would have been game over but poor throwing, and interceptions by Samo and Simmons countered their scrum advantage.
• Well done Reds. At the end of the day you were too bloody good.
