Waratahs vs Force - Super Rugby R2 Sunday 23 February 2014

[I like to watch]

I reckon Michael Foley had Izzie as captain in his fantasy team.
It can be the only explanation why they kept kicking the ball to him.

 

[I like to watch]

Would any of the surprised Force supporters be interested in my share in the Nigerian lottery? The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and expecting a different result.

While our squad has improved, it's the equivalent of tinkering around the edges at this point. The path the Force have chosen of a slow build instead of buying established stars will take time.

Having said that, I don't have faith Foley is ever the man to deliver a title. But having a self imposed ban on calling for his head until after the 4th round we will just smile and enjoy the positive spin he will put on the loss.

FFS they didn't play any football at all today.
Slow build?
Their target this year is to have a losing season!
Their target!
If Force supporters are happy with that,then they will get what they deserve.

 

[#1 Tah]

Like I said earlier this week, the Tahs love nothing more than playing at the SFS on a sunny Sunday arvo and getting a bonus point win over Michael Foley. It's almost a perfect storm.

In the forwards, Douglas and Palu were immense, popping up everywhere and making the big hits and runs. Potgeiter was fantastic when he came on, you heard it here first, he will become a crowd favourite (and also one of the most polite and genuine blokes I have ever met). Paddy Ryan also had some great involvements, but I would have liked to see our scrum dominate more.

What can you say about the backs? Izzy is just a class above, and Alofa, KB (Kurtley Beale) and Foley are all on their way up there too. As soon as Carraro got the pass away to Izzy, the crowd knew it was a try. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) always solid and Betham difficult as always to bring down. Great set move for Alofa's try

Now being a referee, I dont normally like to criticise a ref's performance, and I do think that Rohan Hoffman has improved quite a bit recently, but I think he needs to work on his positioning a bit more. You can see he has to duck out of the way of passes and runs quite often, and sometimes is a bit too far away for my liking when a break is made. But I'm confident this will come with more game time and referee coaching. Hopefully this also leads to better vision in-game, there was a knock-on from the Force missed completely in the 30th minute and, scarily, not even a penalty for lifting Rob Horne above the horizontal in the tackle and dropping him on his head. The IRB treats this as a serious safety issue and once a player is lifted past 90 degrees and dropped, the minimum is yellow card, with a red card if the player is dropped on their head (ignoring the instinctive reaction the tackled player will have to use their arms to minimise the impact).

Big plus for the women's sevens running at half time. Awesome stuff.

 

[Shiggins]

Like I said earlier this week, the Tahs love nothing more than playing at the SFS on a sunny Sunday arvo and getting a bonus point win over Michael Foley. It's almost a perfect storm.

In the forwards, Douglas and Palu were immense, popping up everywhere and making the big hits and runs. Potgeiter was fantastic when he came on, you heard it here first, he will become a crowd favourite (and also one of the most polite and genuine blokes I have ever met). Paddy Ryan also had some great involvements, but I would have liked to see our scrum dominate more.

What can you say about the backs? Izzy is just a class above, and Alofa, KB (Kurtley Beale) and Foley are all on their way up there too. As soon as Carraro got the pass away to Izzy, the crowd knew it was a try. AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) always solid and Betham difficult as always to bring down. Great set move for Alofa's try

Now being a referee, I dont normally like to criticise a ref's performance, and I do think that Rohan Hoffman has improved quite a bit recently, but I think he needs to work on his positioning a bit more. You can see he has to duck out of the way of passes and runs quite often, and sometimes is a bit too far away for my liking when a break is made. But I'm confident this will come with more game time and referee coaching. Hopefully this also leads to better vision in-game, there was a knock-on from the Force missed completely in the 30th minute and, scarily, not even a penalty for lifting Rob Horne above the horizontal in the tackle and dropping him on his head. The IRB treats this as a serious safety issue and once a player is lifted past 90 degrees and dropped, the minimum is yellow card, with a red card if the player is dropped on their head (ignoring the instinctive reaction the tackled player will have to use their arms to minimise the impact).

Big plus for the women's sevens running at half time. Awesome stuff.

What game did u watch? Your right about the ref missing some things but none of Them were penalties against the force. He missed a few knock ons, hands in the ruck, deliberate infringements but none were from the force. Apart from maybe one knock on and cleaning out from the side

 

[I like to watch]

Don't worry about the ref.
Worry about your tactics.
Seems to me all the good sides are attacking in the 13 channel.
You are not going to win many games playing one out all day.

 

[Shiggins]

We suck, nothing's changed. It's going to take time for holmes to be a decent super rugby 10

 

[Richo]

I have to say, reading this thread after being at the game was bizarre. You'd think the Waratahs had a whistle and still couldn't score.

Bloody good start to the season. Folks can nitpick as much as they want, but putting on 6 tries in the first match is terrific. Especially with lots of work still to be done.

 

[Scoey]

Force are never a drawcard, though, and your 40k figure is a bit much. The Reds WERE playing like that in round 1, 2011 where they played the Force on a Sunday arvo. They drew 26,000.

It was about 40 degrees that afternoon back in 2011 not the low-mid 20's in Sydney today. You never get 40k to a Force match but the comparison is not exactly apples and apples. Just sayin'.


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[ChargerWA]

FFS they didn't play any football at all today.
Slow build?
Their target this year is to have a losing season!
Their target!
If Force supporters are happy with that,then they will get what they deserve.

What draino have you been drinking? Where did anyone say our goal was to have a losing season and we would be happy with that?

Not all of us have the luxury of 13 Wallabies in our starting 15.

 

[maxdacat]

FFS - i've said it before and i'll say it again......can we please get different coloured jersies for opposing teams!

 

[Quick Hands]

Unfortunately, matches involving Michael Foley coached teams follow a familiar path. Maintain possession without actually trying to achieve anything and then kick the ball.

 

[biggsy]

Good start for the tahs, bonus point game which most teams should do this years against the Force.


Make Sure NSW Rugby keeps izzy's pockets full of money. They would be fucked without him.

 

[I like to watch]

What draino have you been drinking? Where did anyone say our goal was to have a losing season and we would be happy with that?

Not all of us have the luxury of 13 Wallabies in our starting 15.

A Goal of 8 wins this year,is a losing season.
Well,no you don't have 13 Wallabies in your starting side,but that's because you concentrate on recruiting second tier Saffers.
Not many Wallabies can be found slogging it out in the Currie Cup.
If you keep signing players other franchises have lost interest in,you are limiting your upside.
And that's your problem,all he wants to do is to limit the downside.
Look at how many untested players the Rebels have recruited, compare it to the Force.
You guys are going backwards.

 

[biggsy]

Unfortunately, matches involving Michael Foley coached teams follow a familiar path. Maintain possession without actually trying to achieve anything and then kick the ball.

Has Foley been stand up paddle boarding with Robbie's Deans

 

[GaffaCHinO]

A Goal of 8 wins this year,is a losing season.
Well,no you don't have 13 Wallabies in your starting side,but that's because you concentrate on recruiting second tier Saffers.
Not many Wallabies can be found slogging it out in the Currie Cup.
If you keep signing players other franchises have lost interest in,you are limiting your upside.
And that's your problem,all he wants to do is to limit the downside.
Look at how many untested players the Rebels have recruited, compare it to the Force.
You guys are going backwards.

That's total bullshit the force have gone to sa as a last resort they have been unable to sign an decent wallabies since gits and Mitchell the tahs whole team is subsidised by the ARUs top up system.

The force have to pay top dollar for any player to come here just to get them here with no aid from the ARU.

Some of you tahs fans don't know how good you have it.


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[I like to watch]

So the choice is either Wallabies,or SA rejects?
No other options,at all?
That's bullshit!
Anyway, it's clear what my view is.
I'll leave it at that.
If you guys are happy with that,then terrific!

 

[GaffaCHinO]

So the choice is either Wallabies,or SA rejects?
No other options,at all?
That's bullshit!
Anyway, it's clear what my view is.
I'll leave it at that.
If you guys are happy with that,then terrific!

In the wallaby front we try and sign Genia reds break signing protocol nothing happens to them we lose out which was another reason for Pocock to leave. Force dare to talk to a tahs player they get a fine.

How about players like timani jones Inman cross Fardy Emilio siliva all players who the force signed and lost to other teams so don't given me this shit about not signing aus players.

Scrap top up distribute the money amongst the teams then it will be an even playing field until then the tahs will continue to have a starting wallabies team with 3 on the bench.


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[Badger]

A reasonable start to the season for the Tahs, plenty of things to work on at training this week though.

It was about 40 degrees that afternoon back in 2011 not the low-mid 20's in Sydney today. You never get 40k to a Force match but the comparison is not exactly apples and apples. Just sayin'.

Apparently, the bright sparks at Tahs HQ have decided not to release home crowds this year so we won't know how many people turned up.

Seriously? Not publishing them just makes Tahs HQ look like they have something to hide. Maybe they need to "massage" these numbers during the year for their own nefarious reasons, eg someone's performance or pay is based on crowd numbers.

EDIT 24/02/2014: Received clarification that the crowds figures will still be released, but not on game day. Apologies for the misinformation.

Make Sure NSW Rugby keeps izzy's pockets full of money. They would be fucked without him.

Both on and off the field! He was swamped by fans young and old when the crowd was allowed on the ground after the match. He's to the Tahs and rugby in NSW as Tony Lockett and Barry Hall were to the Sydney Swans. However, I wouldn't discount the powers that run rugby to screw it up with such things as the reported comment from Pulver about Campbelltown.

 

[Moono75]

To all everyone jumpingon the Tahs band wagon after one game thinking shit we scored 6 trys we are certainties to take it out this year. Get a grip. And to any Force fan writing us off after one game get back in your box and piss off. The season is a marathon not a sprint race. Sure the game wasn't great but I expe t the guys to regroup, rethink and come out twice as hard next week.

 

[A mutterer]

i only flew back today so didnt get to the game but there was enough there to be pretty damn smug about.

but also enough there to start having an early snipe as well.

some great work up front, i'm liking how fit some of the players look atm, the coogee steps may end being MoTM and also of the season.

some loose passages of play and far too many looks down the park leading to errors.