Waratahs v Highlanders - Super Rugby round 3

[waratahjesus]

I have never, ever met a soft Scotsman.

Watch the 6 nations

 

[Inside Shoulder]

have you been to Dunedin? In winter? Have you watched Southland play Otago - soft indeed

 

[ShtinaTina]

Cliff Palu ruled out with a hamstring issue.

Fuckety fuck fuck.

FUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKK.

Best to rest rather than him get worse. FUCK.

 

[RedsHappy]

I have enjoyed lots about the 2012 Tahs.

There will be 100 'don't likes' re me saying it, but I suspect the departure of the great ex-Captain has had a subtle freeing up effect upon both coaches and players.

To me, the 'grey curtain' that seemed to hang behind the Tahs forwards and led to a kind of disconnected incoherence in execution and tactics between the Tahs wonderful forwards and their often 'lost' backs, has simply disappeared this year and the team as a whole seems far more fluid, less error prone in key back line moves, and more confident in long phase attack. Kingston and Foley seem authorized to play naturally, but link beautifully with the team's tactically ploys. I suspect that the wisdom of the great ex Randwick coach sits silently behind much of this, and is complementing Foley's talent perfectly. (The crucial importance of the right specialist support coaches in depth, another RH 'broken record' topic.)

IMO, there are real signs here that the 2012 Tahs are starting to at last look like their championship potential - always there but never there for long enough or reliably enough - might be consistently liberated over a whole season.

And I stand by what I said last year - it is simply essential for the good of all Australian rugby that the Tahs very soon win an S15 and get their crowd numbers way up. If this means in 2012 we see a Tahs v Reds GF and the Tahs win, I'll know that, at destiny's forge, a very good thing has occurred for our beloved game that sits today so vulnerably poised.

But the omens for the early 2011 Tahs were very good, and then came that exposing, dissembling game v the Cru away. Darkness fell again, and they never seemed to recover consistency and championship-level belief. So the away games v the best S15 teams (a la the Reds v Stormers last year) will be the really telling sirens, then we'll all know if a trophy calls its name for the mighty Tahs.

 

[What2040]

Happy for a Reds v Tahs final BUT and sure that the Reds Happy to win

 

[What2040]

jeez, don't particularly like the bloke's on-field behaviour but I honestly feel for Carter being benched for Berrick - maybe it should have been the other way around

 

[Henry]

With Palu out should have put tommy carter at 8...

 

[Bruce Ross]

jeez, don't particularly like the bloke's on-field behaviour but I honestly feel for Carter being benched for Berrick - maybe it should have been the other way around

I am apprehensive tonight, particularly now that Palu is out.

Carter, after a very impressive game last week is benched to allow Barnes to come into the side. So now we have as halves, Pretorius who has missed 35.7% of tackles in his Super career and Halangahu who has missed 22.0%. In the centres we have Barnes with 19.3% missed and Horne with 25.0% missed. By contrast Carter has missed just 9.7%.

We have our 7, 8 and 12 having their first starts this year, with considerable doubt over whether Tevita Metuisela is up to the task. In six seasons in the NRL he played only eight games playing for three different clubs.

The last time Carter did not start at 12 was when he was out injured in Round 9 last year against the Blues. The halves that day were Burgess and Beale, and the centres Halangahu and Cross. The Blues scored tries in the 10th, 13th, 19th, 27th and 39th minutes.

Do we gain a lot of strike power by dropping Carter? In Super Rugby he has scored 13 tries; 2 in 2008; 1 in 2009; 2 in 2010; 6 in 2011; and 2 so far this season. Barnes has scored just 3; 2 in 2009; and 1 in 2010. Of course Barnes has missed a lot of games through injury but that is also a relevant factor. Both centres for this game have been particularly injury prone.

 

[Godfrey]

Hang on, are you arguing for Carter to be dropped or against?

 

[Bruce Ross]

Hang on, are you arguing for Carter to be dropped or against?

You're winding me up I hope, Godfrey. Perhaps if I posted in Swahili it might be clearer.

 

[waratahjesus]

I spent yesterday knocking the walls and roof off my lounge room and replacing them with glass so I could get the feeling of being in highlander country tonight.

At about 6am this morning while meditating in my centering pyramid within my glasshouse I realized, Tom Carter is gonna go berserk, remember in Star Wars, can't remember which one, but there is one when Luke Skywalker gets put in a hole, it may have been by Jabba the Hut and in the hole he has to fight a big monster, well the monster is angry cos he has been living down the hole away from the action. There keeping Carter locked up just like this monster was so he has time to brew and stew and by the time he comes on there is just gonna be 15 highlanders in the phetal position begging for there sheep mothers to come take em back to there cosy wombs. I realize this isn't the best analogy cos in the star wars I'm referring to the monster loses. but if you imagine that the monster wins, the monster being Tom Carter and that Luke Skywalker and the Rebel army lose cos there the bad guys then it makes a heap more sense and is much more positive to my point about how great the Tahs are.

 

[Lee Grant]

After last night I hope the Force isn't with the Tahs.

 

[Jnor]

I don't know what I just read, but it was awesome.

 

[SuperGrover]

one of the 4 basic tenets of the game is to go forward in my opinion.

Sonny, could you let us know what the other 3 are?

 

[I like to watch]

I am apprehensive tonight, particularly now that Palu is out.

We have our 7, 8 and 12 having their first starts this year, with considerable doubt over whether Tevita Metuisela is up to the task. In six seasons in the NRL he played only eight games playing for three different clubs.

The last time Carter did not start at 12 was when he was out injured in Round 9 last year against the Blues. The halves that day were Burgess and Beale, and the centres Halangahu and Cross. The Blues scored tries in the 10th, 13th, 19th, 27th and 39th minutes.

Do we gain a lot of strike power by dropping Carter? In Super Rugby he has scored 13 tries; 2 in 2008; 1 in 2009; 2 in 2010; 6 in 2011; and 2 so far this season. Barnes has scored just 3; 2 in 2009; and 1 in 2010. Of course Barnes has missed a lot of games through injury but that is also a relevant factor. Both centres for this game have been particularly injury prone.

So Carter would have stopped all 5 tries against the Blues?
It appears to me that Foley has conceded the battle of the forwards and wants to play with width.
You can't play width with Carter.
with regards to strikepower, it would be more honest to compare the tah's outside backs try scoring records with other outside backs,to determine Tom's value add in attack.

 

[waratahjesus]

So Carter would have stopped all 5 tries against the Blues?
It appears to me that Foley has conceded the battle of the forwards and wants to play with width.
You can't play width with Carter.
with regards to strikepower, it would be more honest to compare the tah's outside backs try scoring records with other outside backs,to determine Tom's value add in attack.

The 10/12 channel in that blues game was a liability. Hangers especially.

Why is playing with width, something that has been talked about as a tactic due to the Highlanders narrow defense instantly an illustration of foley conceding the forward battle. Shouldn't the plan be to win the forwards and play wide?

 

[#1 Tah]

The difference this week is that there hasn't been much media build up for this game - no distractions - seems to be when the Tahs to best.

 

[tigerland12]

Tahs getting killed at the breakdown so far and has ultimatley resulted in Aaron Smith scoring.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Tahs started good, Highlanders working their way back into it. Intensity from Highlanders nothing like the Cru game however.

Nice read of play & tackle from Berrick just before 20min mark.

 

[tigerland12]

I tend to disagree, Highlanders don't deserve to be behind, they are playing all the rugby here.