Some Dicko 'highlights'
8th minute – Force get first penalty shot for hands in the ruck... there are no hands whatsoever! Force won the counter-ruck and knocked on... 3 points.
20th minute – Mumm called for not releasing the tackled player when he was completing the tackle. Signal from ref is hands in the ruck... 3 points
22nd minute – Dunning backs off and has the elbow go straight to ground. Robinson called for boring in... opportunity for 3 pts missed
25th minute – Pocock tip tackle on Beale; not too dangerous, but definitely got him past the horizontal. Maybe not a card, but a penalty for sure
27th minute – Cross penalty for obstruction is questionable. He ran to the ball and at the last minute moved, and it was into Brown’s line. However he had eyes on the ball and was probably trying to open up the potential attacking line for the catcher at the last minute. He wasn’t running him off the ball. Result... 3 points
30th minute – Cowan rolls away in the tackle from a bad position, and although he goes over the ball he ends up clear and the ball is there for Burgess to grab, which he does. No advantage, penalty... 3 points to the Tahs.
33rd – Smith knocks on from a kick by Burgess. Dickinson says straight down. Force clear into the in-goal and a Tahs 22. Force have next phase on half-way, 30m up from the “knock-on”
35th – Force stand up on scrum after already being warned much earlier in half. He resets instead of F/K. Ensuing scrum has a whip wheel by WA once being pushed back and scrappy ball ends in a Burgess knock-on 5m out. Three minutes later the same thin g happens but because the scrum goes to ground, it is a penalty to the Tahs. Missed penalty attempt.
48th – Beale taken out in the air and not called. Replay shows Brown with one arm around the front and a forearm in the midriff. Not attempting a catch at all. Force get the ball, go right and Tahs don’t seem to do anything wrong. When the ball pops out the side, he calls a penalty as if the ball couldn’t have got there from a Force error. Force kick 3 and take the lead.
51st – from the kickoff, the ball goes loose and is toed downfield and Turner is tackled into touch. Replay shows the ball from the kick-off went forward off Sharpe.
57th – Tahs scrum 18m out... apparently the Tahs want to collapse on the engagement.... mmm....
62nd – Aweful throw from Whittaker let go. Soon after Force lose in contact and ruck forms with ball on Waratahs side... no advantage from the knock on.
64th – Huge hit by O’Connor on Burgess after he passed. Was he committed? Maybe, but it was late and took him out of the next 3 phases. Although it did commence the 25 phase play which led to the Ulugia try. Not sure that was the ‘advantage’ he was looking for. Included a past-the-horizontal tackle by Whittaker on Mowen. Also included a collapse identical to that which Baxter was earlier penalised for and an ensuring reset which he also thought was a stalemate, followed by another chat to only Fairbrother with the comment “the crowd is getting bored of this rubbish... get it right”... no, penalise them!
75th – scrappy lineout win to Force, but Mowen grabs Stannard. Stannard wins the ball but not cleanly and should have been a penalty.