Waratahs v Drua
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Swinton no arms ..!
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Bench has injected some energy for the Drua
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@barky1 I agree,buts it’s fair to say the Drua were really the masters of their own demise …you can’t make that many unforced errors and be that undisciplined and then cry that you didn’t get a fair shake from the officials ..in the first half the Drua did not hold the ball for any longer than 2 phases .
I really want them to be successful but to be successful you have got to master your own on field performance..
As a first up I was a tad disappointed because I thought they could have put the Tahs under way more pressure ,but imploded went it mattered ..still they will be an entertaining watch. -
@steven-harris said in Waratahs v Drua:
@barky1 I agree,buts it’s fair to say the Drua were really the masters of their own demise …you can’t make that many unforced errors and be that undisciplined and then cry that you didn’t get a fair shake from the officials ..in the first half the Drua did not hold the ball for any longer than 2 phases .
I really want them to be successful but to be successful you have got to master your own on field performance..
As a first up I was a tad disappointed because I thought they could have put the Tahs under way more pressure ,but imploded went it mattered ..still they will be an entertaining watch.Can't disagree with that but it's still annoying when a team doesn't get a fair shake from the officials.
It's well observed that a team playing poorly struggles to get out of a slump when they aren't getting a fair crack. Any Blues fan of the Ali Williams as captain era can attest to that.
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@crucial the YC one irked me ,because if any one of the 4 Officials had picked up an obvious knock on the play stops there and then ..
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@steven-harris said in Waratahs v Drua:
@crucial the YC one irked me ,because if any one of the 4 Officials had picked up an obvious knock on the play stops there and then ..
That was also a good example of frustration and desperation that builds when the ref is only looking at one team.
You can understand how it happens. Two offences in a row makes the ref look for a third, and find it and so on.
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@duluth said in Waratahs v Drua:
From stuff
Former Blues pivot Baden Kerr will be the Fijian Drua's only player with Super Rugby experience ... Kerr, 32, made the last of his 12 Super Rugby appearances for the Blues in 2014Looked like he hadn’t played rugby since 2014…. Better for the run as they say!
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Slept on it and watched the replay today.
Waratahs had that game won before the yellow card, in retrospect. The physicality from the home side's defence, combined with the unforced handling errors, set piece mistakes, and the lack of speed from Kerr at 10, pretty much cruelled any chance for the Drua to get into the game and stay with the Tahs.
I don't think the officials got some key decisions right, but if you're going to have 40% possession through the first half, and lose most of that by dropping the ball, you can't blame the guy with the whistle for a loss. Missed a lot of fairly straightforward tackles as well, and defensive alignment at key times (Bell's try, Foketi's try) showed their fitness needs to lift.
A couple of the Drua's big boppers need to shed some kg. Their reserve halves pairing did them the world of good, combined with some more direct play. Their starting 9 was in the middle of a lot of the niggly shit, which is no surprise, but he should have concentrated on using his hand speed to cut out the pakeha bloke at 10 and hit the centre pairing directly.
Tahs might look to Ruan Smith to fix their bench propping issue, where Tauakipulu's scrum machine technique didn't work against live opponents, but otherwise everything worked pretty well. Both locks played the full 80, and the issue certainly wasn't second row power - both the LHP and hooker were replaced before the new THP came on and gave away 5 scrum penalties in a row.
Gordon and Donaldson were good as well. Perese was excellent bar one offload (where he was isolated so sort of had to). James Turner got a lesson in Fijian speed and defence, and looked a bit off the pace of the game at times. Newsome was surprisingly good at fullback.
Tahs backrow quite good as well, bar Swinton getting sucked into the niggle. He was replaced at just the right time. Charlie Gamble impressed after building nicely last year. Will Harris had his best game so far in sky Blue.
Tahs will know where they're at next week against the Reds. The Drua have a lot of improvement in them, but they've seen the lay of the land and will be better for it.
