Waratahs v Brumbies, round 6, Sunday 22 March

[Quick Hands]

Great game of rugby - these two sides will no doubt provide the bulk of the Wallaby squad.

Brumbies had me worried early, but I was very impressed at the way the Waratahs came back after the Brumbies started so well. Attack and defence were top class but the Waratahs set pieces need some work.

IMO Joubert had a very good game - my only real disagreement was that the Fardy knockdown should have been a penalty try. Over the years we've seen penalty tries awarded in similar cases at test and provincial level.

 

[Slim 293]

It shouldn't have been a penalty at all............

Also, to highlight how inconsistent he was he failed to penalize the Tahs for the same thing despite a clear slap down of the pass before Speight's no try...........

Quite mind boggling, inept officiating.

I like Joubert, but that was frustrating to watch............ Nearly as frustrating as the Brumbies' decision making today.

 

[Pfitzy]

Some understandably bitter Brumbies fans on here - well, those that don't understand rugby, anyway. Your forwards didn't have the same accuracy as ours in contact, simply put. Then our backs put you to the sword, and your injuries limited your ability to come back.

Those getting snarky about the Tahs in the last ten minutes being cycnical have conveniently forgotten the first twenty minutes where the Brumbies played merry hell with the offside line and flopped over every ruck they could. Well, those they weren't swinging into from the side (a theme that continued throughout the match - do you even "gate" bro?). You probably should have had another yellow card within a minute of Fardy's, truth be told.

Great game to be at. Nic White should be penalised for being an utterly disrespectful attitude toward the ref. His signal for TMO was the low point if an otherwise forgettable game for him.

I was surprised at how effective we were at the breakdown and think we could have easily beaten the Highlanders if we had shown about half of that last week. Honestly didn't expect that win.

Big injury ward for the Ponies will concern them.

But whoever from the Tahs side has made these homophobic slurs needs a good sit down. Not happy Jan.

 

[Slim 293]

Anyways, Folau was in fine form and I thought Speight was great in a losing side..........

The Tahs must've taken notes from the Chiefs game because they had similar success targeting Tomane's side of the field, although he was still quite good in attack.

 

[Slim 293]

Pfitzy, I think the criticism of Joubert is pretty apt here...........

He was extremely inconsistent today, and he made a few obvious howlers.......... Although I'd put forward that his assistant were just as bad in the 2nd half..........

In saying that though, it didn't affect the outcome of the game, although probably did frustrate the Brumbies...........

But the Tahs aggression and intensity was far greater, and they had better handling/support play in attack.

 

[barbarian]

Penalty count was even in the end.

Thought Joubert was OK, let the game flow pretty well. A couple of 50/50 calls (like Fardy's) but nothing abjectly horrible.

But I was watching at the ground so may have missed one or two things.

 

[Pfitzy]

He falls into the trap of playing "evensies" sometimes. I agree he was inconsistent.

e.g. Ponies were fucking atrocious at the start of the game when they were defending their line -they couldn't handle the intensity like the Clan did last week and reverted to type. They could have easily been done multiple times in the last quarter for going around the corner of the ruck - something Joubers seemed to ignore.

He allowed the Brumbies to do this, showing down Waratahs ball repeatedly, which got the Ponies back into the game and prevented any chance we had at a bonus point.

And the tackle to force the knock on from Hooper? That is a 22 drop out every day of the week.

The better team won, and thankfully Joubert couldn't stop that. Let's not pretend he was in any way responsible for the visiting team failing to execute.

 

[Ruggo]

Tahs played very well. Did their homework and executed their game plan well. Brumbies made some silly errors and blew chances but credit to the Tahs as that was due to pressure.

 

[Gnostic]

I think the controlled aggression of the Tahs got to the Brumbies. When Potgeiter had the little scuffle with Carter I noted the next two carries Carter attempted was met with very hard tables by Jackpot. I think that was the big difference. Tahs defence getting back to where it was last year.Notice that Skelton took 4 lineouts by my count and played a very active 70 odd minutes, monstered many in defence but I note he is very closely marked by all sides this year. Joubert is far from my favourite ref. But what we saw today is about average for him and it is a known quantity. Nothing the coaches wouldn't have known and been able to plan for.

 

[Quick Hands]

It shouldn't have been a penalty at all....

Also, to highlight how inconsistent he was he failed to penalize the Tahs for the same thing despite a clear slap down of the pass before Speight's no try.....

Quite mind boggling, inept officiating.

I like Joubert, but that was frustrating to watch.... Nearly as frustrating as the Brumbies' decision making today.

For as long as I can remember, when a player sticks his hand out and knocks a pass forward and the ball goes DOWN, it has been considered a deliberate knock on. This it the first time I have heard that interpretation questioned for years.

The sanction for a deliberate knock-on is a penalty as a matter of law.

Being 5 metres out from the goal line, a yellow card was entirely appropriate. As all Palu had to do was catch the ball and run 5 metres with 1 cover defender coming across - a try would PROBABLY been scored. This is the requirement for a penalty try.


Intentional knock or throw forward. A player must not intentionally knock the ball forward with hand or arm, nor throw forward.
Sanction: Penalty kick. A penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would probably otherwise have been scored.
http://laws.worldrugby.org/index.php?law=12.1

 

[qwerty51]

Hitting the ball in a downward motion is a deliberate action to knock it down. It's very clear, if you want to regather it you knock it upwards.

 

[Merrow]

Stupid me, I thought it was an attempted intercept.

 

[mark_s]

Great game. Both sides went hard for the full 80. Tahs defence was too good. Brumbies had lots of opportunities but only got the early try after some weak tahs defence. Even though tahs had a 10 point lead, the brumbies seemed within reach until the last breakout try.

Our scrum had a few wobbles but also some good showings. Same with our ruck defence.

That big winger was great, smashed guys with ball in hand but more importantly kept his feet and stayed in play to allow the ball to keep alive.

Izzy mom?, sure but there were plenty of other good showings. I would have picked out one of the tahs forwards.

 

[cyclopath]

Stupid me, I thought it was an attempted intercept.

Well, it was a clumsy attempt. One arm. Palm down. Sure, it's a reflex thing, but ultimately, that will be penalty / yellow most times. Shit happens.

 

[Merrow]

Penalty yes, YC no.

 

[Pfitzy]

Well, YC fucking yes, because he got a yellow fucking card.

The Ponies left him no options really, because they were being so cynical just out from their line.

 

[Merrow]

Come off it, even Kearns didn't think it was a YC. I'm not arguing that the Brumbies should've won however there was some pretty dubious decisions.

 

[Keiran]

Joubert is an A class asshat. His descisions are incrompihesible. Would have been a different game without that clown, oh please bring back George Ayoub, can't do any worse.

 

[Keiran]

Well, it was a clumsy attempt. One arm. Palm down. Sure, it's a reflex thing, but ultimately, that will be penalty / yellow most times. Shit happens.

Palm down give me a break!

 

[Pfitzy]

His descisions are incrompihesible.

So delicious...