Waratahs V Brumbies. Sydney Olympic Stadium.

[Hawko]

On Giteau and Barnes:

they both showed flashes of OK to good play, but also flashes of poor to utterly crap.

Barnes is kicking a little too often, and not always well. But to be fair, one of his kicks led to a great try, and quite a few did make good touch (i can only assume there was a 'play it in their half' game plan). Barnes' defence is excellent, and his running and passing game has improved gradually over the season (but still has some way to go).

When playing a side whose tries all season are coming from props diving over or halves getting around the edges, it makes a lot of sense to require them to score from 75 metres away, especially when all they do is up and unders from that far out.

Agree that's what Barnes was trying to do, but a test-quality kicker needs to have a much higher success rate. Some of his kicks were good, especially the attacking ones like the try, but the "field position" kicks were poor over 50% of the time.

With Barnes doing all the field kicking, Hangers skills are not fully utilised.For the rest of the season Barnes needs to put his kicking boots in the bag and just keep running and passing it till he is doing it well 90% of the time. Beale is running really well, first option should be to look for him or Horne to set up.

Love your Avatars FP! :yay

 

[Lee Grant]

mark_s and Hawko

Good posts and they weren't the only good ones on this thread.

Most of the points I made in the blog have already been mentioned by you and others but one hasn't been. The Brumbies coaches erred badly in leaving the injured Mafi on the ground and lost a game that might have been won.

When Beale made his break and kicked forward to the in goal area Mafi had already been hurt. He got crocked tackling Holmes just before that and one of the reasons Beale was able to circle around to start his run forward was that Mafi was hobbling.

The Brumbies guy behind me was screaming for Mafi to be hooked after the ball was made dead by AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper). On that side of the field we could all see that he was in trouble. I guess that because Huxley was already back on the bench injured the Brumbies hoped that Mafi would come right, but he was left on the field as Giteau drop kicked the ball out from the 22. But they paid the price because Turner saw what we saw and called for the kick by Barnes and that was that.

Talking of Beale and Turner - and add in Mitchell for that matter - the Tahs backline is schizophrenic. These 3 want to have a crack but most of their best opportunities last night happened only after the Brumbies had kicked the ball back to them, not from ball provided by their team mates.

Beale is going well at fullback. He doesn't have blinding pace as we saw by comparison when AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) was able to clean up his kick, but at the S14 level he is earning his pay. Another who won't be embarrassed picking up his pay cheque is Halangahu, who was like dead-eyed dick with his goal kicking. This was one element of Tahs performance I warned about pre-season: Hangers, Barnes, Beale and Turner were not elite goal kickers and the team would suffer. I had seen Hangers have some shockers said I - and even on the Moore Park training paddock - but the long penalties soared over from someone I termed a pop-gun kicker.

Also Beale is tackling better this year. He missed a few last night to be honest but they weren't through the lack of ticker I suspected when large no. 8s, and I'm looking at you Kankowski, used to run at him in his 10 channel. He is trying to go low when it's on and is realising that if the tackle isn't as righteous as it should be, the bloke will probably fall over him anyway.

Maybe he is tackling better because he's older. Maybe we expected too much from him on the high veldt and in other parts a few weeks after he turned 18, and now he is 21 he has the physical and mental maturity to tackle in a way that was not natural to him as a teenager as it was to his contemporaries. Watch this space.

On the AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) no try: it looked like a sure 5 points at the ground but the big screen showed why it may have been disallowed. You are allowed to place the ball to score a try when tackled but that's it. Sure some refs allow a roll or a twist with a half pike, but AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) did infringe just as Pom winger Ben Cohen did all those years ago trying to place the ball for a try against Ireland. He moved his body after going to ground so he could get the ball under it and place it.

The law can be a bitch sometimes.

 

[Scarfman]

Another who won't be embarrassed picking up his pay cheque is Halangahu, who was like dead-eyed dick with his goal kicking. This was one element of Tahs performance I warned about pre-season: Hangers, Barnes, Beale and Turner were not elite goal kickers and the team would suffer. I had seen Hangers have some shockers said I - and even on the Moore Park training paddock - but the long penalties soared over from someone I termed a pop-gun kicker.

I'm sure Matt Burke is helping a lot with that.

 

[Sully]

Another who won't be embarrassed picking up his pay cheque is Halangahu, who was like dead-eyed dick with his goal kicking. This was one element of Tahs performance I warned about pre-season: Hangers, Barnes, Beale and Turner were not elite goal kickers and the team would suffer. I had seen Hangers have some shockers said I - and even on the Moore Park training paddock - but the long penalties soared over from someone I termed a pop-gun kicker.

I'm sure Matt Burke is helping a lot with that.

How good can he be? no golf pose or a super man or Matador pose. what about staring at the goal post for 90 seconds or very very slowly tracing an imaginary line from the post to the ball. No skip steps, no 5 back the 4 to the left. nothing!

What sort of a kicking coach is he?