Crusaders vs Waratahs
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@Stargazer before the Blues game, Aussie teams had won 3/34 games v NZ teams...so will now be 3/37, hugely concerning.
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@taniwharugby Yes, the decline of Aussie rugby is not good for NZ rugby either. We need them to be stronger to become stronger. NZ rugby can't improve from walk-overs, only from real contests. That's why the NZ derbies are so important at the moment. Hopefully, the Stormers, and in the finals the Lions and the Jaguares (based on current rankings) can still offer some real opposition, although it's a pity that they will be helped by the travel factor which will disadvantage the Kiwi teams (except for the NZ conference winners).
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Oh ... and on tbe game ...
Crusaders were easily better and more than deserved the 5 pts.
Yes Tahs got close but IMO more by good luck than by good management.
Half or even two-thirds of the way through I wanted to say how well Marius van der Westhuizen had controlled the game. Then he lost his perception of parallax allowing the Tahs to get away with virtually any old line at lineout ... add in a couple of ruck infringements that allowed the Tahs to get close and I got a touch angry with him. But not the worstest ref going.
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Very happy with the season to date. Team looks much better than last season, with a good bit of artillery to return (Read, Dagg, Tamanivalu, Goodhue, Mo'unga). Hunt is making decent fist of 10, though.
There will be tough competition from the Chiefs & Canes especially, but we look in with a shout.
I'm liking George Bridge - looks like a spitting image of McNicholl, but he's better, quite a bit better.
Australian sides are just consistently off the pace this season - no 80 minutes performances in any of them.
Anyway, kudos to Robertson.
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I really really rate George bridge,his work rate is fantastic. He seems to be everywhere.
Mitch hunt has had a big impact aswell,better player than I thought.
Whetu Douglas is a real workhorse,again he is much better than I thought he was.
These are the players that have really stepped up when not a lot was really expected in my opinion -
@Billy-Tell I think we looked pretty reasonable through to the June break last year didn't we?
I think what's different this year is that we've got to this point with some pretty severe injury woes outside of the tight five. Toddy seemed to be pretty reliant on the same small core group and few people seemed to step up immediately when brought in, whereas Razor has had to rely on squad depth and has still managed to string together the wins - albeit a couple that we got out of jail with.
Hopefully the depth that's being built will stand us in good stead later in the season, though pretty clearly the biggest tests are yet to come.
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That discussion about the health of Aussie rugby will go on for a while
I've moved those posts to this thread so the conversation doesn't get lost in a match thread:
http://www.thesilverfern.com/topic/1056/aussie-rugby-in-general -
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@Tim i assume that try wasn't given for the very blatant obstruction?
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@mariner4life #justice4brynhall
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@Tim said in Crusaders vs Waratahs:
If you're going to post that sort of stuff @Tim you need to include red circles, yellow arrows, close ups on Folau and monotone accompanying commentary and at the end of course declare Folau is a cheat.
