Vikings v Rays — Thurs 2 Oct @ Tuggeranong

[Quick Hands]

9 pushes Ale into 20. Lees misses it and bins opposite 7. Great refereeing once again. Andrew Lees, you suck.

They guy is incompetent at Shute Shield, incompetent at Super rugby, why would he be any good at this level? Leeds has absolutely no feel for the game at all, pedantic about the mark and other minutiae, but misses so much and comes up with some really crap decisions.

 

[Quick Hands]

Another strange game of rugby involving the Rays. Their scrum is hopeless, but their back row gets through so much work around the ground. At least we found a team tonight that has a worse lineout than ours.

First half in particular very scrappy from both sides, very poor ball security and thus a lack of continuity in attack. Probably the only NRC game I've seen where the new experimental laws have had no impact on how the match was played - well done Mr Leeds.

A draw probably a fair result in the end, but the Rays should have received a penalty in front which was missed by Leeds - fortunately a subsequent penalty awarded to the Vikings at the other missed.

Can't see either of these teams winning the competition.

 

[Lee Grant]

Stream of consciousness

Not a bad game though defensive reads were poor - Dempsey looking promising at this level - ditto Jones - ditto Perry - ditto Ale - Ward plays above weight - Peterson playing bruiser rugby like two weeks ago against Perth - Ah Wong looked like Kuridrani when he scored - Coleman wasted on the wing Brumbies - young scrummie Powell has promise - Rays' scrum sucks again - but found a team with a worse lineout to play against - Mogg misses penalty goal = karma.

Goodnight and good luck.
.

 

[Dave Beat]

Stream of consciousness

Not a bad game though defensive reads were poor - Dempsey looking promising at this level - ditto Jones - ditto Perry - ditto Ale - Ward plays above weight - Peterson playing bruiser rugby like two weeks ago against Perth - Ah Wong looked like Kuridrani when he scored - Coleman wasted on the wing Brumbies - young scrummie Powell has promise - Rays' scrum sucks again - but found a team with a worse lineout to play against - Mogg misses penalty goal = karma.

Goodnight and good luck.
.

Thought Ale had a cracker, Dempsey continues to impress.

 

[Quick Hands]

Thought Ale had a cracker, Dempsey continues to impress.

The back row are sensational. They have to make up for an inability to obtain any decent scrum ball and most weeks a similar inability to get clean lineout ball. The lineout was better last night, although the Vikings lineout was even worse than ours.

 

[Brumby Runner]

The Vikings lineout improved when the replacement hooker came on late in the game. Lala Lamb is still a WIP at hooker imo.

Powell looked much better at halfback than Dowsett. I was surprised when he was replaced.

Robbie Coleman better at 10 than on the wing but did butcher two tries with poor passes within reach of the tryline.

Very disappointed with how Staniforth is playing. No impact in attack and misses tackles. Think Rory Arnold had a much better game. Tim Cree solid once again, but this time on the side of the scrum. Perry looks the goods to become a Super standard player in a year or two. Nigel Ah Wong is getting better and better at 13. Will be a valuable backup to Tevita next year.

I was particularly disappointed with the Vikings' maul defense. Their scrum was superior to the Rays and they were stronger at the maul also, but they continually and enthusiastically pushed forward at full strength when defending mauls on their line allowing the Rays to peel off to the side and then the momentum of the Vikings' pack simply put them all off side. As a tactic, it cost them two tries and a yellow card. Coaches need to fix this.

 

[Ash]

Arnold showed he knew how to use his size when running the ball, lowering his body height into contact.