Rugby - Hemisphere Wars!

[Caligastia]

Ahhh...bugger it... I'm going to bed...

[Bearcat]

What about the upcoming game between England and Wales? It looks to be a slaughter from where I stand. The English will likely take the Dragons apart piece by bloody piece, unless the Welsh pack sharpens up and even than I still thank that the men in red will get served.

Italy-Ireland should be an interesting match, with the Azzuri pumped up after their win over one of the traditional NH sides and second 6N win ever. I think the Irish will win though.

France-Scotland looks to be another no contest, sadly. Hopefully the Scots will put up a better showing than the Welsh did last week

[Frozzy]

Halftime, and Crusaders lead Hurricanes 11-8

Not much to report... Mehrtens' boot dividing the two after a try apiece. Crusaders look good going forward on the flanks, but look very dodgy down the middle and the Hurricanes have gotten a couple of breaks there...

[Frozzy]

Crusaders 37 -d- Hurricanes 21

Crusaders far from stunning, Mehrtens saves the day again, and the back line wasn't what we saw last year, especially in the centre. Saying that, the Crusaders looked dangerous on the flanks, and the forward pack played well, and stopped any driving from the Hurricanes.

I don't think the Crusaders look indomitable, but tonight wasn't really deserving of a "test" for the champions.

[Frozzy]

Reds score a try in 21 seconds

That must be a record!

[finbar]

Brumbies 22 -d- Reds 19

A game of some quality considering the torrential rain. Chris Latham's try for the Reds after 21 seconds must be close to some sort of record. A chip and chase after gathering the return from the kick off and no one back for the Brumbies. The Brumbies did well considering they were down a man for most of the second half after a red card. The Reds did very well considering they were determined to play an expansive game in the terrible conditions. As had been suggested, the Reds have taken a much more aggressive, fluid approach, a refreshing change from their dour ways of old, and a sensible one given the talent they have available - Latham, Tune, et al - on the outside.

And, wonder of wonders, George Gregan actually made a couple of darting runs with the ball.

The interesting things to come out of this first S12 round, though, are the patently obvious directions that have been given to the referees:

1. Entering from the side is being very severely policed. In fact, Totai Kefu, Reds skipper, was sinbinned for it late in the game.

2. At the breakdown, the first priority is clearly the tackler rolling away from the tackled player. It is also being severely policed. The tackled player releasing the ball is being policed, but the refs' primary focus is on the tackler rolling away.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Frozzy
I don't think the Crusaders look indomitable, but tonight wasn't really deserving of a "test" for the champions.

I think you're right. The Crusaders' class simply told in the end.

[LDiCesare]

Italy - Ireland: 13 - 37.
Very beautiful match. Both teams played all-game long. The Italians managed to score a try, which is a good thing and reflects their much improved game. Ireland has been awesome in lineouts and mauls, and has astounding back line. They made several mistakes in the first half, but their strong scrum prevented the Italians from profitting from it. Dominguez replacement by a (still hurt) Pez didn't benefit the Italians either, as Humphreys pierced twice around his opponent, leading to 2 tries.
The Irish full back has been quite good too. I think that team is going to be very hard to play in Dublin for both France and England. Their backs are known to be good, but the performance of their scrum is where the danger can come. If they gain balls in lineouts and manage mauls as they did, it will be very hard for England to beat them. France, of course, is hard to predict.

Now I have to decide whether I don't sleep and wait till 2 A.M. to watch Wales-England, or to see only half of the match tomorrow afternoon, just before France hopefully beats Scotland to a pulp.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by finbar
Brumbies 22 -d- Reds 19

A game of some quality considering the torrential rain. Chris Latham's try for the Reds after 21 seconds must be close to some sort of record. A chip and chase after gathering the return from the kick off and no one back for the Brumbies. The Brumbies did well considering they were down a man for most of the second half after a red card. The Reds did very well considering they were determined to play an expansive game in the terrible conditions. As had been suggested, the Reds have taken a much more aggressive, fluid approach, a refreshing change from their dour ways of old, and a sensible one given the talent they have available - Latham, Tune, et al - on the outside.

I'm a bit disappointed in the Reds actually. I always support the team that plays the Brumbies, and it would have been great to see them off to a shabby start. Considering the Reds were a man up for almost half the game they should have won. It all came down to the last two kicks in the end...

I did find it to be a more entertaining game than the Crusaders/Hurricanes game though.

Thank God! Rugby is back on TV again!

[LDiCesare]

The interesting things to come out of this first S12 round, though, are the patently obvious directions that have been given to the referees:

1. Entering from the side is being very severely policed. In fact, Totai Kefu, Reds skipper, was sinbinned for it late in the game.

2. At the breakdown, the first priority is clearly the tackler rolling away from the tackled player. It is also being severely policed. The tackled player releasing the ball is being policed, but the refs' primary focus is on the tackler rolling away.

Interestingly, both are quite severely penalized in the 6 nations too. Last week France suffered a lot from the "entering from the side", and today the English referee of Italy-Ireland oten told the tackler to move away.

[finbar]

Originally posted by Caligastia
I'm a bit disappointed in the Reds actually. I always support the team that plays the Brumbies, and it would have been great to see them off to a shabby start. Considering the Reds were a man up for almost half the game they should have won. It all came down to the last two kicks in the end...

I did find it to be a more entertaining game than the Crusaders/Hurricanes game though.

Yes, the Reds could have won it with straighter kicking at the end. And, yes, the Brumbies were a man down, but I'd rather be missing a prop than a lot of other positions. The prop was replaced for scrums and the Reds pack were given a bit of a hiding on the night anyway.

Looked at in the context of Reds -v- Brumbies history, though, the Reds did pretty well. They've always struggled against the Brumbies and they came out and played a very different style of game - spreading the ball - in conditions that didn't suit.

I agree that it was a more entertaining game than the Crusaders -v- Hurricanes effort.

Thank God! Rugby is back on TV again!

Hallelujah!

[finbar]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Interestingly, both are quite severely penalized in the 6 nations too. Last week France suffered a lot from the "entering from the side", and today the English referee of Italy-Ireland oten told the tackler to move away.

Yes, it's obviously a directive from the IRB, probably aiming at the WRC. Though these sorts of priorities should have been established before this. The interpretation at the breakdown has been a mess for a while. The emphasis now seems to be on maintaining the flow of play by preventing the defence from slowing it down. It remains to be seen how long the tackled player will be given to release the ball. There have been inconsistencies in this area too.

The "entering from the side" is being very strictly policed. Before, both NH and SH refs allowed marginal diagonal entry - as distinct from side entry - providing the player had come from behind. Now, the entry has to be, literally, in a straight line from behind.

[finbar]

BTW, gents, when I trawled through the OT Archives looking for our current Bank A/c balance, I updated the number of posts we've all made since our dedicated Rugby threads started last year. Prior to this current thread, we had totalled

3,388

posts between us.

I hope we're all truly ashamed of ourselves and vow to get ourselves real lives.

[Bearcat]

One of England's goals going into their game was to not allow a try by the Welsh, according to Clive Woodward. Has Wales sunk that low in the opinion of other 6N teams?

[Tamerlin]

Sorry, I stayed away from the Internet today because I didn't want to know the result of Wales-England. The English players have been impressive today in front of courageous and able Welsh players, a very entertaining game.

I looked at the game broadcasted around 2 am, England wins 26-9 though the Welsh players should have scored a try (Taylor forgot two players to its left) and would have deserved to score another one, the score does not reflect the real physiognomy of the game though England has logically won.

Very entertaining game...