T
TOCC
Guest
subtle comments say enough...
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subtle comments say enough...
Only if you're wearing a chip on each shoulder. I guess the Reds supporters saying the same things about loose aspects of the play are included in your focus?
T
TOCC
Guest
lol, whatever boof, like what has already been said, NSW thrash the Rebels and its a impressive performance, QLD thrash the Rebels and its because of ineptitude...
Im not saying the Reds were a polished performance, but it humors me when NSW forumers who were praising the Tahs a few weeks ago make subtle digs at the Reds this week.
If you believe this isnt you, then dont dont worry about it and move on.
settle TOCC. There were enough people saying how poor the Rebels were after the Tah victory as are after the Reds one. I for one reckon the Tahs looked a whole lot more clinical in their win over the Rebs than we did.
Cat_A
Arch Winning (36)
I've been very reliably informed that he needs 5 games, not the 4 of past years (thanks to the extra team), so hopefully Link will pick him next week too!
Reds V. Rebels Match report
The Family and I went along to Suncorp stadium last night to watch The take on The Melbourne Rebels. We were confident of a win, Gillian known as Redslug on Superbru had picked Queensland to win by 5 and I was a little more confident to the tune of 12 points mainly due to Mark Gerrard's injury which I believed would have a significant effect on Melbourne's game. What follow was a 53 to 3 massacre that seemingly came out of nowhere.
As a Reds fan it would be easy to fall into the trap of praising my side for a comprehensive display. Although I believe they played better than they have in any other game this year. There are still questions to be asked about the scrum and ball security in particular. Not to mention the hole that seems to be opening at out centre that is screaming for someone to fill. Queensland had clearly worked on their structure and have found ways to give Quade Cooper sometime to use his many attacking skills. And it was clear that the "cut them in half" defence we all loved to see last year was back. There will be a few sore old bones in The Rebels camp today.
But the real question is what happened to the Rebels side I watched last week. They started out pretty well. But the only points they registered were off the back of 3 successive Reds penalties effectively pushing them down the field to within kicking distance. After the first 15 minutes they quickly fell away and were continually pushed back in defence and attack. I can't put my finger on the reason. They clearly have gifted players and a world cup winning coach. But they don't seem to have a real plan. Maybe it is their very international flavour that is killing them. You know the Bulls will play Jurassic Rugby, The Crusaders will smother you and the Reds want to run. But what style of Rugby do a bunch of guys from a dozen different countries with different cultures, playing styles and life styles play. The Bulls, Crusaders and any other club team in any competition you care to mention have a collective mentality. They generally have a core of guys that a coming from the same place. And these guys instil a culture into the rest of them. It's like if you think of the Highlanders you immediately think of huge guys, Mullets and Jimmy Cowan. The Bulls, huge guys, Victor and flat track bully Botha. Now think of the Rebels. Keep thinking. That's right. Nothing! There is no group mentality. No chutzpah. Nothing. How do you fix that? How do you melt down 30 individuals and build a dynasty out of them? Don't ask the Sparky from The Gold Coast? He has no idea. If he did he'd be making a lot of money out of it and not spending his Saturday afternoon writing this.
Back to the game. There were a couple of decisions during the game that clearly upset myself and a couple of other people sitting near me. I have reviewed the tape and am willing to apologise to Stuart Dickinson for my criticism. But unfortunately while I reviewed the incidents I noticed your lack of control of the breakdown. Players running full steam into Rucks and using their bodies as flying battering rams clearly doesn't cut it. And while we clearly benefited from you losing this part of your game. I hope you take this small critique on board and take a look at it.
Taking a quick look at the Reds Team there are still clearly issues with the front row. Daly at Loosehead is okay when he hits his bind but he seems to miss it a lot, he also seems to be tight in the hip flexors and this seems to stop him getting lower in the hips than the shoulders. This is a structural problem that would take a lot of work to correct. I unlike others can see little wrong with Fainga'a or Slipper in the Front row.
Adam Wallace-Harrison seems like a very smart buy by Ewen McKenzie. He and to a lesser extent Rob Simmons destroyed the Rebels Linout. Both had strong games around the field.
Beau Robinson continued his strong form. He deserves his contract. Leroy Houston had the strongest game I have seen him play. I wish he would use his bulk more. Higginbotham was everywhere.
Genia and Cooper both made a few mistakes, but you can expect this from players who handle the ball so often. Cooper was the official man of the match and his kicking and passing was pretty much spot on all game.
Anthony Fainga'a had his best game of the season. Ben Tapuai look out of position at 13. Digby Ioane and Rod Davies both ran hard and looked for work and Ben Lucas looks more at home at 15 every game.
Michael Harris had the commentators screaming about his Australian Grandmother but I have never met a born and raised Kiwi yet who had the slightest interest in a wallaby jersey. So I wouldn't be counting on that any time soon. I would still ask though. At 186 cm and 96 kilos he certainly knows how to throw his weight around and his kicking seems inch perfect.
Radike Samo was Radike Samo like. Just love watching him play. So did the 5-year-old 2 rows in front of me who couldn't believe his hair when he came up on the big screen.
I wonder if this game help or hinders the Reds this year. It will certainly help their confidence but I wonder if it is built on a very shaky base. Time will tell.
Well this has been by far my biggest post on GaGR so I think I will leave it right there.
Sully
The Family and I went along to Suncorp stadium last night to watch The take on The Melbourne Rebels. We were confident of a win, Gillian known as Redslug on Superbru had picked Queensland to win by 5 and I was a little more confident to the tune of 12 points mainly due to Mark Gerrard's injury which I believed would have a significant effect on Melbourne's game. What follow was a 53 to 3 massacre that seemingly came out of nowhere.
As a Reds fan it would be easy to fall into the trap of praising my side for a comprehensive display. Although I believe they played better than they have in any other game this year. There are still questions to be asked about the scrum and ball security in particular. Not to mention the hole that seems to be opening at out centre that is screaming for someone to fill. Queensland had clearly worked on their structure and have found ways to give Quade Cooper sometime to use his many attacking skills. And it was clear that the "cut them in half" defence we all loved to see last year was back. There will be a few sore old bones in The Rebels camp today.
But the real question is what happened to the Rebels side I watched last week. They started out pretty well. But the only points they registered were off the back of 3 successive Reds penalties effectively pushing them down the field to within kicking distance. After the first 15 minutes they quickly fell away and were continually pushed back in defence and attack. I can't put my finger on the reason. They clearly have gifted players and a world cup winning coach. But they don't seem to have a real plan. Maybe it is their very international flavour that is killing them. You know the Bulls will play Jurassic Rugby, The Crusaders will smother you and the Reds want to run. But what style of Rugby do a bunch of guys from a dozen different countries with different cultures, playing styles and life styles play. The Bulls, Crusaders and any other club team in any competition you care to mention have a collective mentality. They generally have a core of guys that a coming from the same place. And these guys instil a culture into the rest of them. It's like if you think of the Highlanders you immediately think of huge guys, Mullets and Jimmy Cowan. The Bulls, huge guys, Victor and flat track bully Botha. Now think of the Rebels. Keep thinking. That's right. Nothing! There is no group mentality. No chutzpah. Nothing. How do you fix that? How do you melt down 30 individuals and build a dynasty out of them? Don't ask the Sparky from The Gold Coast? He has no idea. If he did he'd be making a lot of money out of it and not spending his Saturday afternoon writing this.
Back to the game. There were a couple of decisions during the game that clearly upset myself and a couple of other people sitting near me. I have reviewed the tape and am willing to apologise to Stuart Dickinson for my criticism. But unfortunately while I reviewed the incidents I noticed your lack of control of the breakdown. Players running full steam into Rucks and using their bodies as flying battering rams clearly doesn't cut it. And while we clearly benefited from you losing this part of your game. I hope you take this small critique on board and take a look at it.
Taking a quick look at the Reds Team there are still clearly issues with the front row. Daly at Loosehead is okay when he hits his bind but he seems to miss it a lot, he also seems to be tight in the hip flexors and this seems to stop him getting lower in the hips than the shoulders. This is a structural problem that would take a lot of work to correct. I unlike others can see little wrong with Fainga'a or Slipper in the Front row.
Adam Wallace-Harrison seems like a very smart buy by Ewen McKenzie. He and to a lesser extent Rob Simmons destroyed the Rebels Linout. Both had strong games around the field.
Beau Robinson continued his strong form. He deserves his contract. Leroy Houston had the strongest game I have seen him play. I wish he would use his bulk more. Higginbotham was everywhere.
Genia and Cooper both made a few mistakes, but you can expect this from players who handle the ball so often. Cooper was the official man of the match and his kicking and passing was pretty much spot on all game.
Anthony Fainga'a had his best game of the season. Ben Tapuai look out of position at 13. Digby Ioane and Rod Davies both ran hard and looked for work and Ben Lucas looks more at home at 15 every game.
Michael Harris had the commentators screaming about his Australian Grandmother but I have never met a born and raised Kiwi yet who had the slightest interest in a wallaby jersey. So I wouldn't be counting on that any time soon. I would still ask though. At 186 cm and 96 kilos he certainly knows how to throw his weight around and his kicking seems inch perfect.
Radike Samo was Radike Samo like. Just love watching him play. So did the 5-year-old 2 rows in front of me who couldn't believe his hair when he came up on the big screen.
I wonder if this game help or hinders the Reds this year. It will certainly help their confidence but I wonder if it is built on a very shaky base. Time will tell.
Well this has been by far my biggest post on GaGR so I think I will leave it right there.
Sully
Sandpit Fan
Nev Cottrell (35)
Quality report mate, why don't you ask Reg to stick it on the blog?
O
OLDDOG
Guest
The ball looked very greasy. made handling tough. That being said, I still dont think chambers is the answer at 13. ditto lucas at 15. ditto rocket on the wing. all have butterfingers IMHO.
Gnostic
Mark Ella (57)
I enjoyed the game immensely, watching from the stands where I managed not to get assaulted wearing my Tahs Jersey. The beer, wine and company helped greatly as the performance of the Rebels was back to week one.
Their on field structures were poor and the defensive linespeed very slow.
Huxley positions perfectly at fullback but offers ZERO kick return threat, he is so predictable that he is a liability at 15. I do not see what people see in Lachlan Mitchell, he is caught easily in possession and rarely beat the first tackler, his handling is suspect and he is a poor defender.
Compounding all the above was the loss of Lipman which left them fielding Chamberlain who is not IMO a 7 which totally unbalanced their backrow. Delve as a consequence had little to no impact and Robinson had no real problems in dominating the breakdown.
Very good win to the Reds, BUT I can see some issues :-
1) The scrum is shakey
2) Houston is so up and down he really needs to find some consistancy.
3) Higginbum is still playing a very loose game and against a team able to contest the breakdown this could be a problem
4) How long can Link hide Cooper at fullback on defence. Lucas is not a 15 but IMO is getting selected so he can cover the 10 channel in defence. A big potential weakness in the Reds that I am expecting somebody to exploit. It also does Oz Rugby no favours that Cooper is not made to defend at this level. After tonights Tahs game there really is only JOC (James O'Connor) and Cooper as 10 contenders. If the Tahs performance had been an isolated incident it could be written off but too many times similar things have happened.
Their on field structures were poor and the defensive linespeed very slow.
Huxley positions perfectly at fullback but offers ZERO kick return threat, he is so predictable that he is a liability at 15. I do not see what people see in Lachlan Mitchell, he is caught easily in possession and rarely beat the first tackler, his handling is suspect and he is a poor defender.
Compounding all the above was the loss of Lipman which left them fielding Chamberlain who is not IMO a 7 which totally unbalanced their backrow. Delve as a consequence had little to no impact and Robinson had no real problems in dominating the breakdown.
Very good win to the Reds, BUT I can see some issues :-
1) The scrum is shakey
2) Houston is so up and down he really needs to find some consistancy.
3) Higginbum is still playing a very loose game and against a team able to contest the breakdown this could be a problem
4) How long can Link hide Cooper at fullback on defence. Lucas is not a 15 but IMO is getting selected so he can cover the 10 channel in defence. A big potential weakness in the Reds that I am expecting somebody to exploit. It also does Oz Rugby no favours that Cooper is not made to defend at this level. After tonights Tahs game there really is only JOC (James O'Connor) and Cooper as 10 contenders. If the Tahs performance had been an isolated incident it could be written off but too many times similar things have happened.
Finsbury Girl
Trevor Allan (34)
Crickey, something is rotten in Denmark when the enemy can visit the cauldron and not get a beer thrown on them
Gnostic
Mark Ella (57)
Crickey, something is rotten in Denmark when the enemy can visit the cauldron and not get a beer thrown on them
Like I said I was with refined people last night. They wouldn't waste beer like that.
it would be an honour
Sandpit Fan
Nev Cottrell (35)
L
Lachlan
Guest
Steady on there. Mitchel isn't the best back in Australia but he isn't worth that kind of pasting. His handling is fine and his defence is awesome for a little bloke. He doesn't offer much with the ball in hand and should never have been picked at 13 but that isn't his fault. He's a decent Super level winger and thats about that.
If you need hang shit on someone look no further than Chamberlain, who was quite awful, worst on the park IMO. May as well have Dan Palmer wearing the seven, the bloke is an absolute pot plant and got shown up time after time in defence.
Scotty
David Codey (61)
Shaky foundations? I don't think so.
The reds attack was shaky at times but the defense, except for a 10 minute period in the first half was very good and put a lot of pressure on the rebels. The kicking from Cooper was sensational and the reserves are offering plenty.
We just need daly to get his hips lower and to be more clinical in attack and we will start matching it with the best teams.
The depth is looking a lot better than last year which is always a key to getting to the finals of this tournament.
The reds attack was shaky at times but the defense, except for a 10 minute period in the first half was very good and put a lot of pressure on the rebels. The kicking from Cooper was sensational and the reserves are offering plenty.
We just need daly to get his hips lower and to be more clinical in attack and we will start matching it with the best teams.
The depth is looking a lot better than last year which is always a key to getting to the finals of this tournament.
Scotty I wasn't suggesting that the teams base was shaky. I was suggesting that any confidence we gain out of that win needed to be tempered by the fact that the Rebels were bad.
Thanks Tiger for the kind words.
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