Waratahs v Crusaders, round 15, Saturday 23 May @ Homebush

[Gagger]

As Nathan Sharpe said once - the only way to beat the ABs is to belt the bastards. Same with the Crusaders and that's exactly what the Tahs did. They pushed it to the edge, and it worked.

Skelton almost single handedly bullied their pack, Naiya their backs (sometimes even using his arms). How good if Big Will could do this in Gold?

Horne, Folau, Kepu, Hoiles also had great runs. Good time in the season for the Tahs to find their mongrel and a bonus point.

 

[Dismal Pillock]

Cantab pack monstered. Ominous. 1991.

Cantabs side-to-side rubbish a special kind of nonsense tonight.

who coaches these guys?

"Just go side to side and their big boys will be tuckered out by the last 20."
"Um, but coach, we do it all so slowly and so far behind the gainline that they're hardly even stretched."
"Just trust the systems, moran."

 

[scaraby]

Class? That's rich coming from a tahs fans. A team who have no sense of sportsmanship and play the game in a very dirty fashion.


you only been a fan since they started winning?

Tahs where fantastic putting pressure on the saders without the ball. All their breaks came from quick turn overs. However with the ball they, like the saders, where very ordinary. A limp performance is one that doesn't convince. That didn't. If the saders had put in half a decent performance the tahs wouldn't have stood a chance.

Yep in about 1975 from memory ....just bandwagon fan....... Which makes me question why I am even answering a guy who has a qld bakery shop as an avatar....is there a brumbies page you should be running off to.....waratahs v crusaders say it out loud twice then off you hop....

 

[scaraby]

So - Nadolo or Naiyo?

Qwerty, do your worst.

Horne

 

[Gagger]

Contrary to Louie's brain fart about the game, the nature of that win is one of the few glimmers of hope I've seen for the Wallabies this year.

The mongrel we saw tonight - beating up a good Kiwi pack - plus the Reds scrummaging, plus the Brumbies efficiency in the pack is just about enough to stop me crying into my RWC pool of death beer.

 

[Marcelo]

So Taqele beat Nadolo

 

[qwerty51]

Special mention to Hoiles who I thought had a great game. Given Potgieter's form, I'd keep Hoiles starting.

 

[scaraby]

Contrary to Louie's brain fart about the game, the nature of that win is one of the few glimmers of hope I've seen for the Wallabies this year.

The mongrel we saw tonight - beating up a good Kiwi pack - plus the Reds scrummaging, plus the Brumbies efficiency in the pack is just about enough to stop me crying into my RWC pool of death beer.

Add in two descent rugby brains working together to get us there.....Cheik and Larks I'm liking

 

[louie]

Special mention to Hoiles who I thought had a great game. Given Potgieter's form, I'd keep Hoiles starting.

He's really come back better then he ever was. Inspiring stuff.

 

[louie]

Contrary to Louie's brain fart about the game.

All i was saying was the Tahs are stronger without the ball then with in. That how they build their pressure and how points are gained. What worries me is when they face a side who can use ball over multiple phases and can build pressure (like the force). Simialir to what you saying but a different way of thinking about it. I'll admit i didn't articulate very well.

 

[Lindommer]

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers who were there when God FINALLY decided to render justice to that cheating bastard Richie McCaw, and smited him. O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! with apologies to William Shakespeare and thanks to Lewis Carroll.

I can now die a happy man.

 

[fatprop]

Pretty well perfect night, 4 try bonus point vs the Crusaders and McCaw spends the last 10 minutes in the bin

 

[Ash]

I reckon it was really close between Nadolo and Taqele.

I'd give a points decision to Nadolo as he put in a few decent kicks, threw a few passes and it looked like to me he broke a few more tackles (but I could be really wrong there). So Nadolo gets it for a more all round game.

Taqele was definitely better on defence, he monstered a few while Nadolo fell off a couple. I thought Nadolo was poor on defence. If Nadolo manned up in defence like Taqele it would've been an easy win.

Taqele dropped/knocked on a few, Nadolo did juggle a few but showed decent hands.

Taqele scored two tries but both were easy finishes, Nadolo scored one which was an easy finish, and set up another with a broken tackle and a little offload.

 

[Brumby Jack]

Latu and Skelton cited, both for the lifting tackle on Whitelock

Latu: Law 10.4 (j) Lifting a player from the ground and dropping or driving that player into the ground whilst that player’s feet are still off the ground such that the player’s head and/or upper body come into contact with the ground is dangerous play.
Elapsed time in match when incident occurred: 17th minute

Skelton: Law 10.4 (j) Lifting a player from the ground and dropping or driving that player into the ground whilst that player’s feet are still off the ground such that the player’s head and/or upper body come into contact with the ground is dangerous play.
Elapsed time in match when incident occurred: 17th minute

 

[Ash]

The most important thing for the Tahs is their improvement going into their SA trip. They were scratching for a few weeks, and scratching at times tonight, but they were also dominant at times tonight. If they can keep improving, winning both games in SA is very easily doable and then it should be an easier game vs the shambolic Reds before the finals.

I think the Tahs forwards have looked the best they have all season in the last couple of games.

 

[Lindommer]

So far this year the Tahs have scored three tries in five matches (round 5 against the Clan, 6 the Ponies, 11 the Rebels, 12 the Ponies again and 14 the Sharks), that's a possible five bonus points left on the paddock. Conversely they've scored four tries only twice (round 2 against the Rebels and tonight, 15 the Saders). If things fall their way this lack of bonus points may not jeopardise their chances of finishing second after the final round. But they have to keep on winning.

 

[ChargerWA]

Not to rain on the parade, the Saders are a formidable team. But I'm not sure there are 2 Crusaders this year who could be picked on form alone for the AB's.

Probably only Whitelock and even he may be pushed by Romano and co.

 

[USARugger]

Geez I dunno? It was a tough one, both made defensive errors leading to each other scoring but after their tries didn't do much in attack at all. Nadolo slipped a couple tackles after that but Taqele knocked it on a few times but I thought his rushing up defence was decent. What are your thoughts?

I think I had a few too many last night and slept through the match! Will have to catch it sometime tomorrow when I've got some down-time. Does seem like it was a pretty even outcome based on everything I've read about the match so far.

 

[teach]

"Just go side to side and their big boys will be tuckered out by the last 20."

That was the Highlanders game plan in Round 6. But they did it better and it worked.

 

[Quick Hands]

Much better performaqnce from the Waratahs and a throroughly deserved win. We played the game at speed and the defensive performance was first rate.

I don't have a problem with them muscling up and getting a bit of physical intimidation going, but they need to make sure that they don't over step the mark with cardable offences.

The Latu yellow card was just silly and I think that the ref and the TMO got it right. I see from a post above that Latu and Skelton have both been cited - as the TMO said in the conversation Skelton didn't do any lifting it was Latu.

I thought that the referee did a good job, the first time I've seen him and on that performance he's far better that Glenn Jackson, Mike Fraser, Stuart Berry, Angus Gardiner, Andrew Lees and Rohan Hoffman.

Rod Kafer should be banned from doing Waratah matches - his pathological hatred for the Waratahs seeps through every comment. We can only be grateful that he wasn't the referee - we would have been reduced to 11 players, had a couple of penalty tries against us and been on the end of a penalty count resembling a Year 10 boy refereeing a 15s game involving his own school.