Force v Reds - Game day

[The InnFORCEr]

At one point the ref asked Hodgo to "have a word with the boys about it, especially yourself"!!Hodgo then gave himslefr a good talking to!!!

[Happy]

oh what could have been, a yellow to Horwill during the game instead of after full time, and those penalty points we missed

[Muddly]

Major improvement on last week. I'll take that for now.

[hertryk]

Don't tell Jo.
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Onto it...see him on the pre-match.. Gosh he's sorely missed... !!

[hertryk]

And she had to go to "Circe de Sole" instead. I'm not sure if I should tell her about the flowers that were left on her seat.

Mr Hertryk also missed the game..he arrived when everyone was leaving ....saw the time but he missed that it was Eastern time...

[The InnFORCEr]

Mr Hertryk also missed the game..he arrived when everyone was leaving ....saw the time but he missed that it was Eastern time...

Is that what he is telling you???

I saw his car parked just around the corner from the ground out the front of a................................................. ...............................nursing home I think it was

[hertryk]

I spent my rugby years in the front row, close on 35yrs so I obviously don't have a strategic brain. So can some one tell me why the F did we start kickin the ball to some of the most dangerous backs in world rugby with 5 mins to go?
They played well and I'm very pleased with a draw but they have proved them selves better. Awesome defence. I am proud for you guys who had been written off by all including myself. I didn't expect anything else but a loss not very good for a fan but so what.
Well done boys!
I also had one of the strangest happenings at a rugby ground tonight. "We were told to stop shouting by the people in front"! Not members. But we were told they couldn't concentrate. So I told home to stand up and tell everyone else to " shut up " as he put it.
Why the f do these people even bother going to games.

An after thought both sides missed one penalty and a conversion each. We missed the ones in front, but is QC the best goal kicker for the Wallabies?

Crikey imagine if I had been there... WT???

[hertryk]

Is that what he is telling you???

I saw his car parked just around the corner from the ground out the front of a................................................. ...............................nursing home I think it was

MIL returns today.. I might just bring myself for a visit on home match day...maybe...

[Sheikh]

My 2 cents:

Front row - major improvement. I wonder if it's a coincidence that the scrum only collapsed once all game without More'food in our front row. Pek had his usual game: unflashy, solid, dependable; Kieran had his best game this season. Kieran needs a couple of games to be fully match fit, but didn't disgrace himself. Tessman needs to correct his sometimes waywards throwing, but otherwise can consider himself unlucky if he doesn't get invited into the Wallaby long squad, as he's better than round the ground than Robinson, Hanson, Faingaa or TPN.

Locks - Wykes had a better game, maybe his best this year, but Lynn was a bit quiet. Maybe I've been spoilt by Sharpie, but Lynn and Wykes don't look for contact often enough; the number of times Lynn stands at 2nd receiver and then passes 2 m to the guy next to him rather than trying to hit the defense makes my blood boil.

Back row - awesome. Really, need I say more?

Halves - Mathewson had a good game; not his best, but then his best is pretty damn good. Distributed well, but if I have a gripe I'd like him to distribute quicker. Otherwise, solid despite not seeing too much ball and tackled well. Ebersohn kicked too often and missed a couple of place kicks which could have won us the match. I'm still not sold on him and wonder what he thinks of the recruitment of Holmes.

Centres - If Godwin wasn't MOTM then he'd be close. Hard running and hard hitting, with an A for effort. I'd not seen Jacobs play before, but he didn't look that out of place; made a couple of mistakes in positioning and being caught off-sides, but also made a couple of decent runs. I think I'd still prefer Rasolea as he has an X-factor, but against the Reds a dependable head was probably required.

Back Three - HB was terrific and showed us what we've been missing; it'd be a real shame if he goes as I think he and Morahan would have made a good combination next year. Dellit still looks a touch slow for a winger, and it was noticeable that most of the Reds attacks aimed for his wing, but he's not the revolving door that Sam Wara was. Kudos for effort, but Paddy still looks like a centre playing out of position to me. SNK had a couple of horrible kicks, but marshalled the defense well and I can't recall him missing a tackle. Not a world-class FB, but more than adequate for Super Rugby.

Coaching - The coaches identified that the Reds defense comes up quickly and identified turning them around as a key to making ground. The use of gruber kicks therefore makes sense, but you can't coach for the kicks continually finding Reds legs rather than open space. (Although see Genia and Cooper for examples of how it should be done!) The fact that they completely stopped at half time shows that the coaches identified it wasn't working. Unfortunately the alternative was to kick, usually down Cooper's throat, and we still didn't chase kicks well enough. I wish they'd stop trying to form a rolling maul after every line-out, but that might be a directive from the ARU as the Reds tried it too, and didn't have that much more success than us.

Reffing - awful. Not as biased as some I've seen, but inconsistent, which is worse. The rucks were a bit of a free-for-all, off-sides were either noted pedantically (off-side before the ball came out on one occasion) or not at all, especially when defending the line, and how he missed Horwill stamping on Pek I don't know - I could see it from the top of the Eastern Stand! The Ref even gave us a final warning for continual offside and then continued to ping us without producing a card.

Overall - A 11-all draw doesn't sound exciting, but that was an extremely enthralling match. With a couple of exceptions the boys played well, although we continue to demonstrate some alarming lack of rugby smarts on the paddock. We didn't deserve to win, although the Reds didn't deserve to win more.

[hertryk]

Watching the replay..I thought Fox Sports callers of the game were much improved... Hmmm! I wonder why..??
The Brumbies v Saders tunred the sound off... just down right awful...Hmmmm! I wonder why... Time Fox Sports sorted Kearns and Cafer out... just not acceptable...

[Tazzmania]

Watching the replay..I thought Fox Sports callers of the game were much improved... Hmmm! I wonder why..??
The Brumbies v Saders tunred the sound off... just down right awful...Hmmmm! I wonder why... Time Fox Sports sorted Kearns and Cafer out... just not acceptable...

Agreed Sean Maloney is a breathe of fresh air, while not the slickest commentator he has enthusiasm and can you believe it actually shot Marty (only See Reds) down a few times.

Foxtel please for future we only want Sean and Nathan for our games leave the others where they belong, manning their relative PR departments for their relative franchises.

[palitu]

In reply to Shasta re: Junior.

Unfortunately, i don't think he has the x factor, unfortunately. Too often he has a bit of a twinkle toes, then loses all momentum and gets hit in the tackle. Imagine if he just run good lines, hard and fast into the opposition, break the tackles with maori sidesteps, instead of trying to get around players. i don't know if he has a spot in the team, perhaps on the bench.

for a bloke i had never seen before, Jacobs did really well, seems to offer more than stanley, and more than rasoslea at 13. Definately deserves another shot at 13. gel with godwin and his outside 3. i gotta good feeling!

[shasta]

que?
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[Sheikh]

Think he means me, shasta.

[palitu]

Think he means me, shasta.

Sigh, yeah it Has been a long month. Yes... Sheikh....
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