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5. Brumbies Blindness
I don’t want to pigeonhole myself as the Tahs nutter on this site. I support all Australian teams, but just support one a little bit more than the others. But the way the general rugby public view the teams is not equal, and more often than not it is the Tahs who are on the wrong end of the stick.
Take the game on Sunday, where the Brumbies were fairly well dismantled at home by the Crusaders. One aspect where the Canberrans were especially poor was the lineout- dodgy throws, bad calls, and a number of Crusaders steals. It was a similar performance to the Tahs last week- no disgrace considering the Bulls and Crusaders are two of the top lineouts in the comp. But the difference in reaction was stark. For the Tahs fingers were pointed every which way- at TPN, at Dennis, at Douglas, at Timani. All were unfit for Wallaby duties, according to most. But after Sunday? Barely a word.
G&GR seems to have a few ‘sacred cow’ players who you dare not criticise for fear of invoking the wrath of the masses. One of these is Stephen Moore. According to the logic of this place, he is easily the #1 hooker in the country (possibly the world) and that should never come into question. And while I agree he is still #1, he hasn’t been great this year. He has had one or two good games, but also a couple of shockers – and Sunday was a shocker. If TPN had played the game Moore did there would be outrage.
Same thing goes for this week’s Team of the Week. It seems now all Will Genia has to do to make it is run out and scratch his arse. Yet this week he was comprehensively outplayed by two of the regular site whipping boys, Phipps and McKibbin. The same is true (to a lesser extent) with George Smith and Ben Mowen. Both were solid at best this week- the former gave away a few silly penalties, the latter a few soft missed tackles and was the leader of a failing lineout- and yet always seem to crop up when discussing outstanding players. But heaven forbid you suggest a few guys from the team that won by 62 points. If it was the Brumbies or Reds boasting that scoreline I reckon there would be more than 7 blokes in the ToTW, especially considering how poorly most of the other Aussie teams played.
I’m not trying to run down the Brumbies, or the Reds, or anyone for that matter. I just want to make a point about perception, and how it can sometimes differ from reality. Every commentator has their blind spots- myself included. I just think the ones I’ve mentioned are held by more than most.
