Waratahs v Chiefs
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<p>If Steve Hansen did have Damien McKenzie in his squad for tomorrow, I suspect he may have scratched his name off after watching last night's performance.</p>
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<p>Bloody impressive win from the Tahs. Folau was excellent. Chiefs went a bit missing.</p>
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<p>I thought Harris & Teu put their hands up.</p>
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<p>McKenzie is still too raw. EOYT. Dagg for now for me.</p> -
Not a Tahs fan but have always rated Gibson based on what was, imho, a very slick backline. Must be difficult getting the job this year but he seems to be doing well.
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<p>Watching the highlights - Chiefs tries skirted out wide. Tahs tries came up the middle. Both coaches have a shitload of work-ons for defensive drills, that's for sure. Some shitty reads in defence by the Tahs, and if it wasn't for that intercept the Chiefs would have had another one.</p>
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<p>Speaking of which: Folau has never had a lightning top speed, though he's no slouch. Was quite impressed he managed to hold distance on McKenzie, having a couple of metres' head start.</p>
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<p>That try to Hooper just before halftime, there was no Chiefs forward within cooee of the ruck, besides the one who had to tackle Palu. When Skelton got the subsequent offload away, neither Cruden nor McKenzie put enough pressure on Hooper.</p>
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<p>Will watch the replay with interest.</p>
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<p>So are we now off for the next month? Shit that's a long time. All that mojo might just up and disappear.</p> -
<p>Ah, so my thoughts on the game after an ok nights sleep and less pissed off.</p>
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<p>The game got away from the Chiefs in the second half but they looked ok in the first. Their defence let them down badly. So many players who are usually solid on defence were missing pretty easy tackles.</p>
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<p>Not sure the anti Cane stuff going on here, he was in everything at ground level. Put him in a red and black jersey and the circle jerk over him would bring down the Fern. Retallick was into everything as well. Big Bird looked busy as well at ground level although I see some on here are questioning his play.</p>
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<p>Harris spent half the game on the wing (we were joking about it and about a minuter late he scored his try!) Obviously trying to follow the Coles model of career to try and become the number 1 hooker for the ABs. </p>
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<p>It was worrisome that when Weber was replaced the dude who came on was smaller than him. Where the fudge are TKB and Pulu when you need them. Either one of those two would have made a huge difference in defence around the rucks.</p>
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<p>Interesting listening to the talking out there. DMac doesn't do much but Lowe does it constantly, he's like a league fullback, encouraging players and pointing out defensive holes. There was one occasion when he was shouting instructions on holes in the backline when the Tahs broke and he shouted out "Oh fuck" and started tearing up towards Zac - thankfully Zac spilt the ball, but it cracked the crowd up. </p>
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<p>I may have called Zac Judas once or twice (both for NSW and Ta$man).</p>
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<p>The NSW crowd is feral. We were in the fairly good seats and the language was worse than any of the Westie league matches I've been to in the last two years. The touchie on our side took a constant stream of abuse yet most of his decisions favoured the Tahs. There was one Kiwi bloke who was sitting a couple of rows from us who has obviously been over here too long as he managed to keep up with the ferals. There wasn't a Tahs player or match official who he didn't call a woofter, poofter, homo at least once in the game. The crowd did seem to like DMac's smile before the kick though.</p>
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<p>NSW are a pretty thuggish team really, the Chiefs needed Ben T and Liam back to counter it. The Palu yellow was pretty innocuous compared with some of the stuff they were doing at ruck time. It does always amaze me how much more shit you see going on in rucks when at eye level to the ground.</p>
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<p>Peyper let the crowd get to him (not that it had an influence on the result such was the shittiness of the Chiefs) at times although the touchies seemed to stand firm.</p>
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<p>Took along a Brazilian bird to her first ever game of rugby. She loved it, she liked how the game wasn't soft like soccer (her words, although she used football) - she's in the Brazilian version of the FBI so isn't a softy. She actually liked the scrums to and picked up what to do with them straight away. She was bemused at every penalty though. She found it especially difficult to understand foul play, she couldn't understand why a player got penalised for one tackle yet another one that would hurt as well was fine. She jinxed the Chiefs kickers. Everytime she took a photo of them they missed, the couple of times she didn't the kicks went over.</p>
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<p>Caught up with dk before the match for a not beer (we would have had a beer but it was getting too close to match time) so that was good, only took us a year and half of being in the same city to finally catch up. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="583421" data-time="1464392282">
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<p>Speaking of which: Folau has never had a lightning top speed, though he's no slouch. Was quite impressed he managed to hold distance on McKenzie, having a couple of metres' head start.</p>
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<p>Haha, we were impressed that he DMac managed to close the gap and reckon another 10 metres on the field and he would have caught him. </p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="583427" data-time="1464393351">
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<p>Haha, we were impressed that he DMac managed to close the gap and reckon another 10 metres on the field and he would have caught him. </p>
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<p>Would it have mattered if he had caught him? Good chance he'd just have been bounced off.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="SammyC" data-cid="583430" data-time="1464394723">
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<p>Haha, nepia my Mrs is Mexican and scrums are her favourite part of the game also!</p>
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<p>Hilarious. Must be an Americas (South of the US) thing.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Toddy" data-cid="583428" data-time="1464394508">
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<p>Would it have mattered if he had caught him? Good chance he'd just have been bounced off.</p>
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<p>Or tripped over his lace on reaching him. Wasn't really my point though. ;)</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Gunner" data-cid="583412" data-time="1464387473">
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<p>Oh yea, very much so! Possibly my most disliked team.</p>
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<p>Pretty much - though just in the last couple of weeks I've thought I may have misjudged them a little and they might not be completely without redeeming features! :)</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Chris B." data-cid="583434" data-time="1464396932">
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<p>Pretty much - though just in the last couple of weeks I've thought I may have misjudged them a little and <strong>they might not be completely without redeeming features!</strong> :)</p>
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<p>NTA?</p> -
<p>Watching the first half I was pumped that the Chief forwards were matching the Tahs. I hate the Tahs too but do admire their forward power. The Chiefs might have won if they were able to retain the ball a little more in the second half and run the Tahs off their feet. Would have, could have, should have. I guess they finally were worn down. Nothing wrong with Canes game. The Tahs had a few more big bodies who performed more like themselves 2 years ago. I thought Harris played well and disagree in the seagulling claim by Nepia.</p>
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<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="583439" data-time="1464401140">
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<p>NTA?</p>
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<p>Hodor's little brother - Opdor.</p>
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<p>Let's see whether Toddy's men are good enough to walk through.</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Toddy" data-cid="583454" data-time="1464406920"><p>
Better to try and hold the guy on the deck, rather than let him pick his next victim to choke and DDT. 😉</p></blockquote>
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Kind of like a citizens arrest.
