Look I don’t want to take away the efforts of the players (well, at least the Force and Reds players), but how about the reffing this weekend? Baffling at stages. Also quite baffling is how we can go from the fantastic footy played by the Reds and Force, against the Stormers and Crusaders respectively, to the turgidity displayed by the Waratahs and Brumbies out at Homebush.
Yeah ok, bring on the “typical local derby”, “it was slippery conditions” and “over officious ref” excuses, but how can players of the calibre of Dean Mumm, Berrick Barnes, Matt Giteau and Rocky Elsom look so pedestrian, so ineffective, so…blah…if it hasn’t more to do with the attitude of the team themselves.
In the end though, both the Reds and Waratahs remain well in contention for the finals. The fate of the Brumbies is out of their hands unfortunately and the Force…, if there is a better case of “what could have been” in an injury plagued season, I haven’t seen it.
But to the round, and with three wounds to go, we would like to be seeing some of our Wallaby candidates really standing up now. So let’s have a look at who did what and how this weekend past.
Team of the Week:
15 Kurtley Beale (WARATAHS)
14 Lachlan Turner (WARATAHS)
13 Mitch Inman (FORCE)
12 Anthony Faingaa (REDS)
11 Adam Ashley-Cooper (BRUMBIES)
10 Quade Cooper (REDS)
9 Will Genia (REDS)
8 Richard Brown (FORCE)
7 David Pocock (FORCE)
6 David Dennis (WARATAHS)
5 Nathan Sharpe (FORCE)
4 Rob Simmons (REDS)
3 Laurie Weeks (REDS)
2 Saia Faingaa (REDS)
1 Ben Daley (REDS)
Seven Reds players, which is down somewhat on their previous week’s representation. The Force have only four, hmmmm, I guess we will get back to that. The Tahs have three….perhaps fortunately, whilst the Brumbies probably quite deservedly only have one.
I do want to work out what other Force players could have been considered. David Hill was the best flyhalf from the Aussie teams I reckon, but he’s obviously ineligible. Ryan Cross did some good things, as did Brett Sheehan. But I don’t think either deserves selection above their Red’s counterpart.
To the pack and Pek Cowan and Ben Whitaker were both fantastic, their best games for the Force I reckon. Unfortunately it came on a round where Ben Daley and Saia Faingaa were equally excellent. Tim Fairbrother was more solid at the scrum than Laurie Weeks, but shees Weeks does a pile of work around the park. The only other opportunity, I guess, would be the ever-present Matt Hodgson for David Dennis of the Waratahs. Hogdson was his usual highly effective self, but Dennis stood out in a team that offered very little.
Player of the Round:
Back to four decent options this week for our Player of the Round. From the Reds, captain Will Genia was superb and controlled the game brilliantly for the Reds, particularly in the last quarter. Fullback Kurtley Beale was one of the rare Waratah backs who looked dangerous in their local derby but also kicked effectively and even tackled well. On the other side of the field Adam Ashley-Cooper was full of hard-running and enterprise for the Brumbies and showed the class of player he is. Try or not. Finally we welcome back David Pocock to full force, no pun intended. He stepped up in his match up with Richie McCaw and outpointed him considerably.
Try of the Round.
Well we actually have a few decent tries. Surprisingly two are pretty damn similar with Quade Cooper kicking across to Will Chambers for the Reds and Berrick Barnes kicking to Lachie Turner for the Tahs. Spectacular stuff. Then there was the Force’s try scored by Matt Hodgson, following a superb run by Nathan Charles.
Check out the highlights below for each try.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAOKLfdBrmQ&feature=related[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMaTC9WawC4[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be2HvCdpiMw[/youtube]
Moment of the Round.
For me it goes back to the lead up to the Matt Hodgson try. Replacement hooker, in every sense of the word, rookie Nathan Charles picked up a loose ball 10ms from his own line and sprinted about 60 metres before finding Cameron Shepherd in support who in turn off loaded to Hodgson for the match winning try.
