Crusaders v Hurricanes

[Darren]

It's an all Kiwi Final this coming Saturday when the Crusaders take on the Hurricanes (First ever Super12/14 final for the 'canes) at 7:35pm (3:35pm Perth Time) on Saturday 27 May at Jade Stadium in Christchurch.

The Hurricanes downed the Waratahs on Friday night 16-14 with a "Mystery Penalty" in the last minutes giving them the lead. Now who collapses thier own scrum?

The Crusaders sealed their 5th finals berth in a row with a 35-15 win over the Bulls in Christchurch last night.

So there we have it folks, 2 kiwi sides to decide the winner of the inaugural Super 14 grand final - onemore week and thats it till season 2007. Bring on the internationals and the APC!

[Venables]

I do agree with you coach. "Who collapses there own scrum"? But when you have Matt Dunning trying to hold it up, you have problems. If Robinson wasn't there for the Tah's this year, they would've been lucky to have been scrum contenders this year. Robinson and Hardy are the best looseys in Aus at the moment.

[Burgs]

I bash Dunning with the best of them but to be fair, in this instance, it was actually Baxter who conceeded the "penalty".
Welcome along Venables, hope you enjoy the ride!

[Sagerian]

I was suprised at the collapsing your own feed (anyone from NSW can blame Kaplan for that, hey it's our right), but that wasn't the only key moment in the second half, just the most hurtful. TNP's lineout throw not being straight on our own 5, Lote thinking the ref was playing advantage for some reason and took a drop goal attempt... Deeper than that were the constant kicking away of possesion, on the odd occasion when the Tahs backed themselves, they were making good linebreaks, I still don't understand why they refuse to do that more often. Kick, hope to steal the lineout, oh we didn't still the lineout, too bad... Oh look, we've got the ball, kick, hope to steal the lineout...

[frontrow]

Dunnings side went down heaps of times, he doesn`t bind too well.He seems to hit, drop his hand to the ground then grab the opposite tighthead. All momentum goes out the window when he drops his arm...Baxter has also had his time to shine, we really need to address the issue of the frontrow this year, if we are to be any chance come world cup time.
Good analysis of game sage, bad luck mate...Bring on 07

[Darren]

Just spotted this in the Sunday times re: the ref Kaplan "The Waratahs have lost 12-successive games on the road with Kaplan in control"

http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/c...5E2762,00.html

McKenzie is lodging a formal comlaint over ref standards of the game

[Venables]

The South African ref's are by far the most inconsistant. Even when they're touch judges they make a lot of dodgy decisions. Bad luck to the Tah's! McKenzie can lodge as many complaints as he likes, it won't help.

[htbd]

Hey guys don't forget that Kaplan awarded a questionable free kick to the Tahs when the Canes had a scrum 5 metres from the the Tahs tryline and were HOT on attack... AND... I am still dumbfounded how he penalised Masoe for being breaking early(?!) from the line out - which the Tahs kicked 3 points from.... the Canes were spanked by him too I reckon. IMHO - as good as the Tahs are (and have been all season) - it was the Canes who dominated the game and did most of the attaking... how many times were they inches away from scoring?... With all the ebbs and flows taken into account I thought that it was a fair result...

[frontrow]

13 losses from 14 appearances doesn`t paint a rosy picture of an unbiased ref, and even if Kaplan did make bad calls for both teams, why isn`t he reffing lower grades.....Yes, the `Canes deserved to win but rugby itself deserves a better standard of reffing. I agree that South African refs are , well, seem to be, the most inconsistent of the three countries. I wonder what other countries standards are like, ie within Europe.

[The EnForcer]

Just spotted this in the Sunday times re: the ref Kaplan "The Waratahs have lost 12-successive games on the road with Kaplan in control"

Could you not read that as the Tahs not being able to win away from home? It would be interesting to see the list of games that they are talking about before judging Kaplan. It is easy to come to the wrong conclusions on half the evidence.

[Goldmember]

A superior team should not have to rely on a single decision to win an important match. Both sides were evenly matched and someone had to go through to the finals. The Tahs should stop complaining and work on playing better rugby instead. As usual, McKenzie is making an ass of himself.

[LarryNJ]

A superior team should not have to rely on a single decision to win an important match. Both sides were evenly matched and someone had to go through to the finals. The Tahs should stop complaining and work on playing better rugby instead. As usual, McKenzie is making an ass of himself.

Amen...

I don't mind fans complaining about the job the refs do, but don't blame a loss on them. Players and coaches should simply keep their mouths shut.

[Dramoth]

Wasnt it Kaplan who didnt give us that try against the Crusaders?

The one that would have won us our first match.

I think that the wallabies do need to do a lot of tight 5 work over the next couple of weeks to try and get us into a position where we can compete with the poms in the first test. Otherwise, we are looking at another year of getting spanked severely by our opposition.

[Venables]

No it wasn't Kaplan but he was probably on the sideline. It was that other South African one, the small darker one. He went on to make some shocking sideline rulings in the Brumbies v Hurricanes game the next day in Canberra.

[htbd]

Fellas! The man in the hot seat (for the Force v Crusaders) was the Aussie - Geoff Acton. The South African referee Marius Jonker was right to refer to the TMO... I just thought that Geoff Acton (yes - I am never gonna forgive him or forget that name) made a very wrong decision!