Rugby Union 2013 Thread

[NCC1701]

Another thrillingly close NZ conference game, the Hurricanes beating the Highlanders under the roof at Forsyth-Barr Stadium in Dunedin 23-19. Apart from the final five minutes when Slade missed a crucial kick and the ball being thrown around willy nilly, it was a much improved performance by the southern men compared to last week. Still, they remain winless after three games, the Hurricanes getting their second win of the season.

Now, can the Cheetahs back up their epic performance against the Highlanders last week with a win against the Waratahs, or was it just a one off?

And they can! Probably the most exciting game played in Australia yet - for an outsider at least - the Cheetahs pipped the Waratahs 27-26. So the Tahs shot themselves into the foot again and are relegated to a distant third place in the Australian conference.

And is it just me, or are the Waratahs supporters really obnoxious sore losers? In the last ten minutes of the game, the Cheetahs win their own lineout, the crowd boos; the Cheetahs manage to collect their own high kick and the crowd boos again. It was at that point I started hoping the Cheetahs would win just to shut the crowd up.

 

[Orac Zen]

Another week, another Waratahs loss - and another Berrick Barnes injury.

Michael Cheika made a decent point about the side's self-belief needing to develop after the abject disaster of last season, and that it'll take time to embrace his philosophy for the team. I just hope all involved, particularly the administration side of things, hold their nerve and give them that time.

Could be another long season, though. Sigh.

 

[NCC1701]

Crusaders get their season under way with their first win against the Bulls in Christchurch, 41-19 at full time. After a slow first 20 minutes the Cantabrians came out fighting, the boot of Morne Steyn keeping the Bulls in touch until the first try by the Crusaders in the second half. Better stuff there, a lot more difficult game for the Bulls with a few players hobbling off during the 80 minutes. It'll be interesting to see if the Bulls manage to pick up a few more wins across the ditch over the next few weeks at fortress Suncorp and Canberra Stadium.

EDIT: And both the Force and the Brumbies managed wins over the Reds and the Sharks respectively, the score at Brisbane being 19-12 at full time to the visitors and 29-10 to the Brumbies in Durban, meaniing the Brumbies are the only unbeaten team left this year after five rounds, and sitting pretty at 23 points at the top of the table, even with the extra round that's a fantastiv effort!

Wales belted England 30-3 in Cardiff as well to take the 6 Nations for this year, nice! I thought this England team was supposed to be the best in the world since beating the All Blacks last year?

 

[Orac Zen]

Good to see an Australian side win in SA and just as good to see the Force snag a win.

The Wales win might have been the most satisfying of the lot, though. And of course England are always the best team in the world, at everything. Until they lose.

 

[Jono]

Haven't watched the game yet but pleased with the Brumbies result. Sounds like a good first half and another solid defensive second half was behind the victory. Saw there are a few injury concerns, so I'm hoping they aren't anything too serious.

Did watch the last 25 minutes of the Reds v Force and glad to see the Force get the win. The Force were tough and the Reds bent their line plenty of times towards the end but to their credit the Force kept it up and won a narrow victory. Cooper is continuing his average form...there must be a toxic atmosphere at the Reds.

Edit: Finally watched the game. The first half was impressive and brought back memories of the glory years. They blew the Sharks away with speed and power. The Sharks also didn't help themselves with sloppy play either, giving the Brumbies easy territory. There was even one of the rarest of Australian rugby beasts, a try off a scrum win against the feed.

The Sharks did come back well in the second half and kept the Brumbies to just 3 points and cross the line themselves. At first I thought it might be that the Brumbies faded, but they didn't really. The weather got bad and they tried to keep up their expansive play and unfortunately their handling wasn't up to it. They also ignored the easy points early in the 2nd for lineouts. They still looked in control for most of that second half, which was very good to see. Another good performance, but they still have a big hurdle to go through before they return to Australia.

 

[NCC1701]

The Chiefs win a scrappy game against the Highlanders in Hamilton 19-7. Plenty of handling errors on both sides, the travel factor for the Chiefs who have just returned from South Africa this week, as well as a yellow card for the Highlanders meant we got what was probably the most average NZ conference game so far, the Chiefs coming away with the win and the Highlanders, for the fourth game in a row, going home to Dunedin with absolutely nothing to show for it.

 

[NCC1701]

The Crusaders won against the Kings as expected, 55-20 at full time, although a few niggling injuries to Israel Dagg - who didn't play, leading to Zac Guildford starting his first game after his alcohol rehabilitation - Ben Franks and Kieran Read could make the next two games in South Africa against the Stormers and the Sharks a bit more difficult.

The Reds also won a close game against the Bulls, who looked predictable and tired until a few minutes from half time when they finally ran the ball from their own half - shock horror ! Quade Cooper was pretty good at leading the Reds last night - double shock horror - and I didn't feel the Bulls deserved to draw with a miracle try attempt at the death after generally boring play for the previous 78 minutes, 23-18 at full time.

The Cheetahs also managed their third win on the road against the Force, 19-10 at full time, while the Sharks slaughtered the Rebels in Durban 64-7, and the Stormers caused the Brumbies their first loss of the season in Cape Town 35-22.

About five hours to go now until the Blues take on the Waratahs in Sydney. Hopefully the same Blues lineup that won the first two rounds will be good enough to win against a Waratahs side that will be desperate to turn their season around after a dreadful start to this year's competition!

 

[Jono]

Brumbies came up against an aggressive and strong side last night. The Brumbies lost the majority of the collisions and were a bit too tall going into contact and often lost ground rather than getting over the advantage line. The only place the Brumbies shaded the Stormers was in the breakdown with Smith again standing tall and in the second half it was the breakdown were they got the penalties that kept them in the game.

As with the second half last week they lacked a bit of polish and passes didn't stick and there was a bit of lost ball that didn't help them, but quite a bit of credit for that would also go to the Stormers pressure building rock solid defence. A crazy pass from Kimlin in the last 5 minutes resulted in an intercept try that ended their chances of a bonus point, which they did well to bring themselves back into contention for due to just how physical the Stormers were all game.

They'll be on their way back for a couple of home games where hopefully they will put together more games that were like the first half of the Sharks game rather than the Stormers game.

 

[NCC1701]

Waratahs won a see-saw battle against the Blues with a penalty kick at the death 30-27. The Waratahs had a good comeback after trailing 24-10 at half time, the Blues never looked like they were in the game in the second half and silly errors didn't exactly help their cause. With a game at Mt Maunganui against the Chiefs next week it really doesn't get easier from here for the Blues.

 

[Orac Zen]

Great to see the Waratahs have recorded a win, battling back against decent opposition to boot. It's going to be a slow process to turn things around but hopefully this is the start of something better. Then again, my cheerful "long season" remark above seems just as likely an outcome. Oh well, time will tell.

Apparently good ol' Kurtley Beale has distinguished himself yet again, this time allegedly punching a team mate in the wake of the Rebels' record flogging by the Sharks. If it's true, what an imbecile. I hope the rumours he wants to return to the Tahs aren't true or, if they are, that Cheika and co. ignore him.

 

[NCC1701]

And the Highlanders lost to the Reds at home for the first time in Super Rugby history 33-34. Despite numerous chances, and coming back from 16-31 down after 50 minutes, the home team seem intent on hanging onto their prized wooden spoon and stay firmly anchored to the bottom of the points table.

EDIT: Hurricanes won at home against the Kings 46-30. For a while there it looked like the Kings might cause an upset at the Caketin like the Cheetahs did last year, but the Hurricanes put them away with 12 minutes remaining. Now for the big matches tonight, Chiefs vs Blues and Brumbies vs Bulls, should hopefully be an entertaining couple of games!

 

[Jono]

Brumbies sneaked away with a win with an after the buzzer penalty to defeat the Bulls 23 - 20. They seemed to switch off for the last quarter of the match and the Bulls got it to 20 in the 79 min with a good counterattacking try. What did hold up for the entire match was the Brumbies scrum that completely dominated the Bulls. Hoping to see the Brumbies pick up for the Kings next week and put on a good 80 min display.

 

[NCC1701]

Last night's Chiefs vs Blues match was another armwrestle with the Chiefs defense proving the difference and not cracking until the 78th minute, 23-16 at full time. A yellow card for the Chiefs and two tries that were ruled out in the first half will leave the home team with something to think about during the bye next week after which they take on the Reds at Waikato Stadium, and the Blues take on the luckless Highlanders at Eden Park next Friday.

And yeah, agree Brumbies were lucky to come away with a win after a spirited Bulls comeback in the second half. The Rebels got another clobbering, from the Cheetahs this week, losing 34-16 at Bloemfontein. And the Crusaders delivered another performance in Cape Town to come back from 11-0 down to take down the Stormers 19-14 with several players out injured, nice! I managed to catch the last 20 minutes this morning, I might actually get up early next Saturday to watch the Sharks vs Crusaders game live.

 

[Orac Zen]

What on earth were those...things...the Bulls were wearing??

Anyway, the Tahs managed another win, which I approve of. Seems as though they made a drama of it yet again, though.

(At some point I may have to renounce my principles and get Foxtel so I can participate properly in this phase of the thread. Then again, looking like an idiot is better than putting even more money in Murdoch's pocket. So maybe not. )

 

[Jono]

The Bulls still have nothing on the Stade Français jerseys that have appeared over the years.

 

[NCC1701]

What on earth were those...things...the Bulls were wearing??

Pretty sure that's the same change kit the Bulls have had since last year, they wore them for the Blues game at Eden Park three weeks ago as well. Pretty out of it but any male team participating in a contact sport wearing pink gets my nod of approval .

And not sure who decides when a team has to wear their change kit, whoever decided the Crusaders had to wear their white alternative strip against the Stormers must have had their head up their ass that day, considering their normal kit is red and black. It would make way more sense to me wearing their 'home' kit white while playing a team who's colours are white and blue

 

[NCC1701]

And holy shit, the Kings did what the Bulls couldn't last week and fought the Brumbies to a draw in Canberra, 28 all at full time . Cracker of a match and the Kings defense was outstanding all game, hell of an improvement from last week against the Hurricanes, and the Brumbies just looked shell shocked after being up 13-0 at one point. And just something that's been bothering me, what's up with the fatass bringing the kicking tee to the kicker on a quad bike at Canberra Stadium? Walking ten metres every ten minutes is too much to ask for around those parts?

Oh, and the Blues won against the Highlanders, no surprises there, although for the first 65 minutes it was quite close, with a few lead changes throughout the match and a yellow card per side, two tries to Piri Weepu sealed the result in the end, 29-18.

 

[Jono]

^ It's faster and more importantly you can whore it out its surfaces to advertisers for extra cash.

Brumbies drew with the Kings in what was probably their second worst performance under White. Instead of a 80 min performance they only put in about 20 mins and the Kings really dominated for the rest of the game.

They have really come off the boil in the last few weeks and the easy blame would be that it has been since Mogg has been out, but that only really could account for the waning attack, it doesn't excuse poor defence and forward runners going in too upright. Hopefully Jake White will crack some skulls in training next week because it isn't going to get easier with them going on the road. I'm sure the Highlanders will look at this game and really believe they can get their first win of the year.

 

[NCC1701]

Sharks win against the Crusaders at Durban 21-17 with an outstanding kicking display by Pat Lambie. Andy Ellis scored the only try in the match for the Crusaders, but Tyler Blyendaal missed three kicks at goal. I just question the Crusaders' tactic of kicking for goal from half way when your flyhalf has missed slotting the kick just a minute earlier from a few metres closer to the goalposts, but hey that's just me. Sharks really deserved the win after a much improved second half.

 

[Orac Zen]

A loss for the Waratahs, evidently due to the usual sort of thing - errors, turnovers and being belted by opposing forwards. Nothing new there. There might be a bit of a cleanout at the end of the season at this rate.