In the eighth version of the “Crooked Feed” we discuss things you don’t see every day, referees who got things right, trivial rubbish and the sayings of “Sumo”.
You don’t see that every day
●Kings v Rebels – The Rebels used four scrumhalves against the Kings last weekend.
They took only two specialists on their tour to South Africa: Stirzacker and Mick Snowden.
Unfortunately “Zacker” got hurt the night before the game; so Snowden got his first Super Rugby start. He lasted only 26 minutes before injuring his ankle.
Will Miller came on and attended the next lineout as scrummie, but later he swapped with Colby Fainga’a, who afterwards fumbled the ball at a scrum when tapping the hooker’s arm to get ready.
Then before the hour mark Fainga’a went off and starting 10 Ben Volovola took over with reserve Garden-Bachoup moving into the flyhalf spot.
Mick Snowden – his first starting game was ruined by injury
●Chiefs v Sunwolves – Just before the Sunwolves’ comeback at 65 minutes skipper Ed Quirk is replaced and as he walks off the field he shakes hands with the Assistant Referee.
I said there was going to be trivia – and how about …
●Brumbies v Blues – Stats are just stats aren’t they?
By half-time the Blues had about two-thirds of the possession and ditto for territory, and had missed only two tackles to 31 by the Brumbies.
So the Blues should have racked up a big lead by oranges, right? No; they were ahead by only 8-3.
Brumbies – missed a lot of tackles
The referee got it right
●Aussie Under 20s v Samoa – The young Aussies restart and the ball bounces short of 10 metres. Before any Samoan touches the ball the Aussies take it before it goes over the Samoa 40-metres line.
Why didn’t the referee stop play for a scrum to Samoa?
Because the ball was kicked into a strong wind; it passed the plane of the Samoa 40-metres line and was blown back.
Likewise a kick at goal is successful when the ball goes between the posts, passes through the plane of the crossbar and gets blown back into the field of play.
Sonny Bill – Not Goodie Two Shoes
●Brumbies v Blues – Sonny Bill gets tackled and is penalised. He thinks he is pinged for not releasing the ball; so he explained that he did let go of it, like Goodie Two Shoes.
He gets no sympathy from referee Nick Briant who said: “So you were playing the ball on the ground then?”
Indeed, SBW was still on his knees when he tried to pick up the ball after he released it.
The sayings of “Sumo”
Scott “Sumo” Stevenson was in good form in Highlanders v Stormers
He mentioned the firm surface at Forsyth-Barr Stadium:
Harder than an ex-lovers’ heart.
Naholo was strong over the ball:
Like a schoolboy bully stealing your lunch.
Squire runs over Leyds to score (above):
He just lay in his path, like road kill.
A Highlander finishes off a spectacular try:
… Faddes, the white Fijian
And last week when a Stormers’ flanker got hammered by a Crusader:
Big tackle on Carr – he got parked.
