Field Theory: Worst. Game. Ever.
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Anyone else catch the news that since a peak during the Lions tour, the public's interest in Rugby has begun to wane - probably a bit to do with the World Cup misery of 2007.
Strikes me that since 2007, Rugby has seen a revival in some areas around the country - Southland and Hawke's Bay are good examples. Yet, how many Super games get played in these areas? When was the last time any of them hosted a test?
Its pretty much no surprise that Hawke's Bay tried to go for a Super team - if the Hurricanes or NZRU aren't going to bring them top rugby, I guess they feel they have to get it themselves.
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I apologise and withdraw the suggestion that Scott Yorke is a lawyer.
Apology accepted. Wait a minute...
But not from a real law school or anything... (now Scott, you know I can make the joke right?)
Paul, if anyone but you had said that I'd be suing for defamation.
As for underhand cheating, Rachel's quite right. A large part of my job involves minimising risk for clients entering commercial deals. Cheating, rule-breaking and rule-bending don't generally get very far in my line of work. The downstream consequences to clients (and to their advisers) can be quite painful.
But on the rugby field it's different. The rules around the breakdown are so mysterious that one person's cheat is another person's great player. Thuggery aside, if you can do something without being caught then its probably okay.
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A couple of things I found most inexplicable about Sunday's game;
1. Physicality. We had our arses kicked by an extremely physical Boks side. With guys like Hore, Woodcock, Thorn, Rodney and Richie in the side I would've thought we'd stand up better. We looked lightweight.
2. Leadership. Headless chooks, again surprising with Mils, Rodney, Thorn in the side. Sad to see Richie all but trying to win games on his own.
I thought the ref made 2-3 pretty costly mistakes against us. The Ross yellow was ridiculous as everyone and their dog could see that that ball was out.
I deserve a medal because I watched the match on Prime already knowing the score.
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I thought the ref made 2-3 pretty costly mistakes against us. The Ross yellow was ridiculous as everyone and their dog could see that that ball was out.
Yes. And a friend of mine also did a screen grab that showed Ross wasn't offside before the ball came out either. That was a truly awful decision.
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What ever happened to the grubber? You know flat opposition defensive line quick ball to 2nd five (think Mauger) who taps ball ALONG THE GROUND ball goes end over end twice and pops up as if on a string either back into the arms of the kicker or one of the outside backs screaming through at pace who then goes over for a try, also extremely useful when wing has little room down the touch line and only opposition wing or fullback to beat... (eg Goldie), surely a better option than the chip over the top as it is much harder to bend down on D and intercept or get a boot in the way especially when you are playing against mountain men such as the likes of Botha et al.
As to the downward trend of support for rugby in NZ how about buying back broadcast rights to the Air NZ cup and returning it to free to air?
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What ever happened to the grubber? You know flat opposition defensive line quick ball to 2nd five (think Mauger) who taps ball ALONG THE GROUND ball goes end over end twice and pops up as if on a string either back into the arms of the kicker or one of the outside backs screaming through at pace who then goes over for a try,
Well, when you have a Mauger in your side or even better, a Mehrtens, Little and Bunce backline, that's a real option. When you have a Donald, Nonu pairing, not so much...
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Paul, if anyone but you had said that I'd be suing for defamation.
Glad you took it in the spirit it was intended. There was plenty of BS put about that Law School, all of it to do with a misplaced sense of superiority...
rules around the breakdown are so mysterious that one person's cheat is another person's great player.
I don't know that they're that mysterious, more that they're hard for a referee to observe... that's why touchies are now assistant referees (I thought) but where the f**k was the assistant referee when Ross was binned?
With guys like Hore, Woodcock, Thorn, Rodney and Richie in the side I would've thought we'd stand up better.
Peter we did on defence, it wasn't a lack of physicality that lost us the game... we certainly lost the lineouts but the scrums went our way I thought. Do you mean the ruck/mauls?
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Peter we did on defence, it wasn't a lack of physicality that lost us the game... we certainly lost the lineouts but the scrums went our way I thought. Do you mean the ruck/mauls?
Yes, we gave the ball away something like 30 times in this match. I thought we were too often slow to the breakdown, or we were knocked off the ball at the breakdown.
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Yes, we gave the ball away something like 30 times in this match. I thought we were too often slow to the breakdown, or we were knocked off the ball at the breakdown.
This is one of the reasons im wondering if McCaw really is the 7 we need; compare his technique to Brussow's and its no wonder he gives away so many penalties these days.
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I thought we were too often slow to the breakdown, or we were knocked off the ball at the breakdown.
Yep, that's where the rot started. And I don't think "not enough mongrel in the pack" is the problem - Richie,Thorn and Hore are no cream puffs. They just weren't working as a well oiled machine where everyone knew their job and they could hit the rucks and mauls with the necessary aggression. Uncertainty undermines aggression.
And the lone reed snaps in the wind.
Wax on, wax off.
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Give poor McCaw a break. He's only just come back from a long injury layoff.
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I'm with scott, give ritchie a break. we didn't lose that game because of a lack of brawn, it was brains that cost us. check the turnovers, we got our share. the stuff that cost us was foolish adventurism and failures in basic skills - most likely cue to foolish adventurism. they've clearly been given license to do wotever, but lack the judgement to pick the right moment - consider Joe's attempted breakout from ingoal, Tialata's drop out and any number of ridiculous attacking bombs from within our 22. that last test was the most frustrating match to watch, like a toddler trying to thread needles. I hope it's repairable at least before we start our home games and well before I lose patience with the 'nothing is wrong' bollocks we're getting from Henry et al. the fact is that aside from Hayman, Carter and some fiddling due to form fluxuations, that's pretty much our best side. The best you can say, or hope, is that we can only get better.
here endth the hairpulling...
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What ever happened to the grubber?
ha.. they can't even catch it when it's passed into their bread basket, you reckon they'd be able to collect a bobbling ball on the ground on the run ?
Yes. And a friend of mine also did a screen grab that showed Ross wasn't offside before the ball came out either. That was a truly awful decision.
That would be good to see as from what I saw on the telly it was a little inconclusive where he was when the ball came out. It was clearly out of the ruck though when he hacked at it.
I don't really think it was the winning and losing of the game though.
Did Rockokoko think he was in the NRL trying to run that one out from the deadball ?
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Yes. And a friend of mine also did a screen grab that showed Ross wasn't offside before the ball came out either. That was a truly awful decision.
JPGs or it didn't happen.
As for being tough, our forwards were awesome. Tony Woodcock even took out Keven Melalamu.
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Nearly ready, just a few final touches...
Photoshopping him to being onside ?
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Nearly ready, just a few final touches...
Photoshopping him to being onside ?
And wee halo on Ross's head
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