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Mar 11

Refereeing imbalance? Try Kaplan for size

Posted by Gagger
15 Comments

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The public standing down of Super 14 referee Paul “Skid” Marks this week for “imbalance from a management perspective” seems to have marked a new official openness in discussing referee performance. If that’s the case, I’d like like to submit to the SANZAR panel a piece of evidence for long-term referee imbalance that’s far more conclusive than the footage of Kurtley’s knock on last weekend.

In the table below is a summary of Jonathan Kaplan’s Super rugby refereeing history with the Waratahs, together with a few comparisons.

The first thing you’ll notice is that with Kaplan having been in charge of 15 Waratahs Read more »

Mar 11

Super 14 Fantasy Comp – Round 4

Posted by Newb
9 Comments

fantasy 'guru'

Four weeks into the season now and things are still looking good for our group. Our league average is now clear of our closest competition by more than 100 points and looks to be putting on distance each week. Much of that success we owe to our league leader for the 3rd straight week — Steven Hawkin Rugby. The man is still tops overall in FoxSports, with a pretty solid lead over #2. How does he do it? Well leading our league in points for this round after coming 2nd last week is a good start.

This round was a down week in terms of both exciting rugby, and in my opinion fantasy. Several try-fests were expected that didn’t pan out. The Hurricanes started shooting themselves in the foot early this year. The Tahs fizzled again. The Ponies won but in rather blah fashion. And the Reds but a damper on any party the Chiefs were hoping to have (much to my delight). I for one am very thankful to have the Bulls back in action this round. Now let’s get down to business…

Read more »

Mar 10

Super 14 Tipping Comp: Week 5

Posted by Scarfman
6 Comments

The top 10 is starting to settle down a bit with familiar faces at the top of the log. The Crusaders boys are running 1 – 2, followed by our Fantasy captain Newb. Read more »

Mar 10

Video & analysis: Link out-thinks the Chiefs

Posted by Gagger
9 Comments

Despite what our Super 14 round-up says, I believe the real star of the Reds win over the Chiefs last weekend was none other than Ewen “Link” McKenzie.

Even the most rabid Reds supporters had thought that playing the rampaging Chiefs at home while missing a run-on back 3 and three of the teams’ top internationals was a bridge way too far. But while he surely wouldn’t have chosen it, I believe Link must’ve had a secret smile all last week in the lead up to the game for he knew that if this young team could execute his gameplan, there was almost no need for a back three at all.

So what was his master strategy? Well if you’re a long term listener to RuggaMatrix, Read more »

Mar 9

Video: G&GR Super 14 Round 4 Review

Posted by Noddy
18 Comments

Shirley.

Well that was quite the round. Three wins from three games for the Aussie teams. For the first time since SANZAR expanded the Super 12 competition into the Super 14 competition in 2006, all Australian teams playing on the weekend won. Surely you can’t be serious? I am serious and don’t ca….well….you should know the rest. On the face of it, it seems an amazing stat. In reality though? Well in reality the Reds have sucked since then, and the Force haven’t been too crash hot either. But that was then! This…this is now!

It really was an interesting round Read more »

Mar 8

At my signal, unleash hell!

Posted by Noddy
14 Comments

So were the inspirational words spoken by Russel Crowe as Maximus, one of cinema’s greatest ‘Rebels’, in the Oscar winning moving “Gladiator”. Rod McQueen could hardly be confused for Crowe, nor a Gladiator, and it would be unfair to suggest that he had ever planned to ‘unleash hell’ on anything. However, in one week’s time, on Monday 15 March 2010, the Melbourne Rebels are free to do just that. For that is the date the ARU have decreed is ‘Go Time’ for Rebels recruitment. And the Australian Rugby world is holding their collective breath as to what goes down.

As it stands English fly half Danny Cipriani is currently the only player to have actually signed with the franchise. But you get the impression that come next Monday there will be a number of signings announced. Read more »

Mar 8

Video: Tahs vs Sharks controversy exploded

Posted by Gagger
72 Comments

The last two minutes of the Waratahs vs Sharks match have generated more than their share of controversy. First of all, in the 78th minute, faced with a two on one overlap, Kurtley Beale either failed in an intercept, or cynically knocked the ball on (depending on your point of view). You can see it in the video below.

The argument from Sharks supporters and Tah detractors is that Read more »

Mar 7

Barnes v Cooper: The stats tell the story

Posted by Juan Cote
33 Comments

Waving his Wallaby jumper goodbye?

It is interesting to see how the on-field fortunes for these two have panned out after the first quarter of the season. After playing along side each other for the past couple of years, each is now responsible as being the go to man in their respective backlines. But just as Berrick went south for the new season, so has his form.

Which ever way you want to slice these stats, it is clear Cooper is having the more influence on his team’s performance, and having a better season in general.

Where Barnes looks erratic and distracted, Cooper looks assured and comfortable. Each has their own relative strength and weakness but based on the numbers below if you had to choose, it would be Cooper by some margin. Read more »

Mar 7

Broke, Blooming and Bringing Back the Biff

Posted by Lance Free
6 Comments

Sanchez no ken mekim nois blong Kumul

‘Better red than dead’ was the saying in the 1940s when red stood for a socialist dictatorship of the proletariat and consequent violent regime change.

Locally, the revolution over recent weeks has been the Queensland Reds overthrow of the natural order of things. The Super 14 working class heroes against the capitalist ‘running dogs’, or maybe the Tahs and Blues.

Not quite yet the New Deal but the beginning of a winning culture that will help them retain their players from the clasp of the bolshie Vic’s. Read more »

Mar 7

Tahs fans have had enough

Posted by Lee Grant
46 Comments

TPN - a new deity

Waratahs 25 Sharks 21

It was the same old shit different year for Tahs fans as Hickey’s men dished up a crapfest. The Sharks were better but not much – they were on the nose too.

I was chatting to some members as we were lining up for the doors to open and eyeing each other as to who had the pace to race up 3 flights of stairs to get the best seats. (Old Lee had a good run too – walking the dogs every night pays off). Anyhoo, folks were expecting a bit of running rugby. Even though they leaked 6 tries to the Bulls last week, they scored 4 and it was going to be fun to watch them against the Sharks; wasn’t it? Read more »

Mar 6

Video: Van’s victory speech

Posted by Gagger
6 Comments

Here’s Van Humphries’ victory speech after the Reds gutsing out a great win away at the Chiefs on Friday. The eloquence of the man – love it! Check out the smiles on the faces of his team mates when they spot the camera.

EXPLICIT LANGUAGE WARNING

Mar 6

Live score: Tahs vs Shorks

Posted by Gagger
5 Comments

NSW WARATAHS 25 (Tom Carter, Daniel Halangahu, Tatafu Polota-Nau tries Berrick Barnes 2 cons 2 pens) bt SHARKS 21 (Adrian Jacobs, Ryan Kankowski tries Andy Goode con Goode, Ruan Pienaar pens drop goal) at Sydney Football Stadium. Referee: Paul Marks (AUS). Crowd: 20,651. Read more »

Mar 6

The Red tortoise beats the Waikato hare.

Posted by Juan Cote
10 Comments

Aussie Dave saves the day

In a week when there was nothing but bad news for the Reds, a very sizeable rainbow has appeared with their unlikely win over the Chiefs. To say this is the end of the storm clouds for the Reds is an over-statement but it would seem the worst of the foul weather (on-field at least) might now be a thing of the past.

The Reds displayed the kind of resolve reserved only for the best teams and fought their way back from the abyss as the Chiefs skipped merrily to a 15-0 lead after only 20-odd minutes. In fact, the only thing going right for the Reds was that Stephen Donald had a serious case of kicking yips and had missed all three conversions as well as a penalty. Read more »

Mar 6

Video highlights: Reds vs Chiefs

Posted by Gagger
15 Comments

Hands up who tipped this result?

For the second half highlights Read more »

Mar 5

Video: Brumbies slay Lions

Posted by Brumby Jack
19 Comments

The CA Brumbies have fumbled their way to a 24-13 win over the Lions at Canberra Stadium in front of a crowd of 13,177. In an ordinary game that was matched by very ordinary weather, the Lions came to Canberra without a win in their previous games in the Capital but demonstrated they were prepared to throw the ball around in the early stages in a game they were expected to struggle in.