I wouldn't be so hard on McKibbin. Yeah it was a bad decision but Kingston and Carter were both outside him SCREAMING for him to kick it.
Campese lost a Lions series with one stupid mistake; so we have to cut McKibbin some slack.
I couldn't work out why he kicked the pill watching it at the ground though, screaming or no screaming. The ref had his arm out for a knock on advantage; it couldn't have been a penalty else he would have called it back. But McKibbin kicked it and advantage was over.
Did the commentators mention that? And did Taf score that "try" or did he lose it? Incidentally the transfer from Kingston looked exactly sideways, in other words: not forward. Haven't seen the replay yet.
B. Foley played well off the bench. We Sydneysiders saw him play for the Junior Tahs and Sydney Uni last year, and tonight he convinced us that his Sevens expertise was transposable to the XV man game. He looked better than AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) at fullback on the night and one wouldn't be surprised if he starts at 15 soon and AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) takes BKH's starting spot on the wing.
Pretorius was very good again. Counting the two trials, that is his 3rd MOTM performance in a row. He earned it differently tonight: it wasn't sniping all the time for tries, well, except once, but just good passing in front of the man and standard stuff. His liaison with Hangers was superior to that of Genia with Harris, but I'll back the Reds' pairing to remedy that. Genia looked underdone.
It was good to see Cliffy back. It usually takes him ages to return to form after injury but he is not far away. 21 y.o. Lopeti was not too shabby when he got his first gig off the bench to replace Cliffy at 8 either.
The Reds best player, Ioane, was terrific as you would expect, but I liked Morahan at fullback also. He's a well-balanced runner and swatted Horne off once like he was an insect. It's the first time I've seen Tapuai start a game at the ground since his school days and you can see he is a better attacker than Ant and why he is starting at 12 - but Ant made some key tackles at 13 through anticipating well, and made his mark on the game.
Higginbotham is an annoying prick of an opponent: always in your face and telling you how ugly you are, and your sister, and he doesn't like your dog either. I love that in a 6. If he can cut down on his mistakes when he wears the gold jersey he could have a long tenure. Liked his lineout work at 2.
It's also my first time seeing Gill at the ground since school. My word: he is hard to shift for a slight lad and he makes himself a very narrow target for those trying to clean him out. He also attacks at the right spot. All these things increase his chances of a poach.
Both sides will have to improve on that. The Tahs restarts and discipline were poor, but on the other hand the Reds passing and handling were keeping the Tahs in the game at one point.
But all the other Super teams I have seen to date looked rusty also.
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