Waratahs vs Force - Super Rugby R7 2013 - Sunday 31st March

[Moono75]

One thing Mafi needs to learn is to run straighter. He doesn't have the speed to run cross field in a parabolic arc. It just says hit me.
He may benefit from adding some more muscle. At 1 and 5 it may be time to tweak the lineup. Some bullk at 13 to compliment Godwin at 12.

 

[The Rant]

3 wins, 3 losses.
Considering the execution issues this is a fair enough start for chiekas mob.

If they can cut out the mistakes they've got the ingredients to be in the fight for 6th spot later in the year.

Glass half full.

 

[Moono75]

Frustrating thing for Force fans is that while we are in evey game and playing a lot better than last year, we may still end up wining less games. It's just the way its looking as we rebuild.

Plenty of opportunities tonight. Too many half breaks made with a support player not there on the shoulder to take the pass. Needed to get the ball out wide to Junior who looked dangerous early. Sias is great from a kicking perspective but I recall the first game against the Rebels where Christie at 10 really pushed the pass wide and seemed to open the field up to run onto the pass. Force need to rediscover that style. I know the right team is there in the squad. It just hasn't quite clicked on the field yet. Couldn't ask anymore of MMM. He has been imeense this year. I would like to see Salesi Manu get a game somehow. If he is on an EPS contract then somone needs to do a hammy for 3 weeks and get him on the field.

 

[mark_s]

Yes, you're spot on. Overall, they can't be pleased with an average crowd of less than 15K to date. Take out the SFS members and there's not many season tickets and casual sales in the crowd. This is perplexing as the Tahs apparently have over 16K in members. Granted some of these aren't full memberships, but it doesn't appear they are turning up.



Next home game is on at the same time as the Swans (vs Geelong) are playing next door at the SCG. No prize for guessing which will have the bigger crowd. Being a Friday night, driving around the Moore Park area will be awful to say the least.

The sharks (NRL) got 20k to their game on sat night. The roosters are playing the eels today at the Sfs, and they will probably draw a bigger crowd. Sydney's a one super rugby team town and should be consistently out drawing all of these other teams. If there are 15k members, where the hell are they? Half or more of the crowds to games so far have been scg gold members. It seems to be a very sick situation to me, in what is supposedly Australia's biggest rugby market.

 

[p.Tah]

^ we've had 3+ more years of the press saying how boring and unimaginative the Tahs are. Fans booing the team and 8 games lost in a row last year. It's going to take a while to turn that around.

I'm enjoying this season. Even though the crowds have been smaller than previous years they understand the game and are very vocal.

 

[Quick Hands]

Great to see the womens 7's at 1/2 time.

.

And the pre-match games of minis (7s and 9s yesterday). I was involved in one of the teams and the boys loved it. Great touch from Cheika, who wandered casually over as the Waratahs were getting ready for their warm up and had a little chat to the boys.

 

[Quick Hands]

[quote="p.Tah, post: 463053, member: 6786

I'm enjoying this season. Even though the crowds have been smaller than previous years they understand the game and are very vocal.[/quote]

It's a pity the refs don't understand the game.

 

[Pfitzy]

I'm enjoying this season. Even though the crowds have been smaller than previous years they understand the game and are very vocal.

This is important. I don't care if the stuffed shirts turn up or not. They add nothing to the atmosphere and actively bum out other patrons.

 

[Quick Hands]

The sharks (NRL) got 20k to their game on sat night. The roosters are playing the eels today at the Sfs, and they will probably draw a bigger crowd. Sydney's a one super rugby team town and should be consistently out drawing all of these other teams. If there are 15k members, where the hell are they? Half or more of the crowds to games so far have been scg gold members. It seems to be a very sick situation to me, in what is supposedly Australia's biggest rugby market.

And one of the things that junior league does is give junior players a pass in to home matches. This gets the parents along, who have to pay for their tickets and buy food/drink etc. It's probably not practical to give every junior player in Sydney/NSW a Waratahs free pass, but giving 50-100 tickets per home match to junior clubs would make sense. (Kids tickets only) I think the SFS holds 42-44,000, that's around 25-30,000 unused seats at the moment.

How many free tickets do you think the AFL are giving away at GWS matches?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Careful Henry some people get riled when you notice that our backs don't pass. One could imply that as a newbie, Folou is simply doing what he has observed other more experienced players in his team doing. It appears to be a rather common trait from our backs.

 

[fatprop]

Not getting all the Izzy love. Sure he made some nice breaks, but he never seems to pass to his support. He'll always try to beat his man one on one and will either lose the ball or be held up. He never bloody passes it.

Well that is just incorrect, is he perfect, no - he still has L plates on, but he does "pass" and pass well.

His problem at the moment appears to be he is going too far, a league disease and OK when you can play the ball.

 

[Richo]

Not getting all the Izzy love. Sure he made some nice breaks, but he never seems to pass to his support. He'll always try to beat his man one on one and will either lose the ball or be held up. He never bloody passes it.

I must have imagined that pass of his that put Mitchell over last week.

As regards Izzy and passing to his support, I think he's still developing on that front and so is the team. He needs runners there with him more than he's getting at the moment.

 

[RugbyReg]

I thought McCalman and Tessman were good contributors for the 4s, as well as the usual MMM, Hodgo and Mafi.

 

[boyo]

Walsh is consistently inconsistent and he was at his confusing best today. Some decisions were as bad as what was served up in Canberra last night. Some scrums took 2 1/2 minutes from whistle to ball out - unbelievable. There is now an audible groan everytime a scrum is awarded. I thought the new calls were supposed to speed things up, but apparently the refs have decided to just use a different set of words. In every game that I have watched this season, there is a direct correlation with the pace of the engagement and the amount of collapses/resets. The longer the refs try to keep 2 x 800-900 kg packs stationary, the more chance of early engagement, loss of balance, instability etc.
Could we please just get the ball in and get on with the game. If IRB types are monitoring, please fix this by directing the refs to do so.

It isn't the referee who decides the choice of words.

 

[D-Box]

For those wondering why Chris Eaton did not play last night, his wife died in a car crash just before the game. It also explains the black armbands

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...t-in-new-zealand/story-e6frfkp9-1226610232243

Condolences to Chris and his family.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Terrible news. Chris loses his best friend, and Layla will never really get to know her mother.

 

[Quick Hands]

It isn't the referee who decides the choice of words.

You've missed the point. We went from crouch-touch-pause-engage to speed up the process and reduce collapse/resets. But in Super rugby the refs are using the different words crouch-touch-set, but the timing hasn't changed.

 

[Richo]

Re-watching the game, the suggestion that Folau doesn't pass is ridiculous. For instance, at the 20 minute mark in the first he makes a line break and offloads to Foley just as the tackler makes contact, allowing the play to continue.

There's lots of things to want to see him improve, but he's not a ball-hog.

 

[Scott Allen]

You've missed the point. We went from crouch-touch-pause-engage to speed up the process and reduce collapse/resets. But in Super rugby the refs are using the different words crouch-touch-set, but the timing hasn't changed.

There is a basic cadence to "crouch, touch" - it's pretty standard between all the referees.

Where the differences come are at "Set". The referees are advising players (I have heard the instructions myself) that they will not proceed to the "Set" call until both packs are still (which shows they are stable). The referees are not varying the length of time before the "Set" call to try and catch teams out.

It makes sense to delay the call until the packs are still because if you call "Set" when either pack is still moving around you increase the possibility of a collapse on impact which produces a reset.

If both packs are still immediately after the touch, the referee can call "Set" immediately and the overall call will be quite quick.

The pack being still is not easy to achieve - it requires practice and discipline but having spent the last couple of months working with packs to get them still, believe me it is achievable.

The stick the referees have been instructed to implement to provide incentive for packs to get still is that if you engage early more than once in a game it becomes a full arm penalty. If a pack is not still (and therefore stable) it is easy for them to overbalance and engage early.

The combination of these two factors (holding until steady and full arms for going early) is a good thing and will lead to better scrums if teams get on board. From my experience if the coach insists on no full arm penalties being given away your pack learns to get stable pretty quickly, which in turn helps to speed up the call.

If the opposition takes too long to get stable, you must be disciplined enough to be able to stay still - again not easy but achievable if practised.

 

[Quick Hands]

There is a basic cadence to "crouch, touch" - it's pretty standard between all the referees.

Where the differences come are at "Set". The referees are advising players (I have heard the instructions myself) that they will not proceed to the "Set" call until both packs are still (which shows they are stable). The referees are not varying the length of time before the "Set" call to try and catch teams out.

It makes sense to delay the call until the packs are still because if you call "Set" when either pack is still moving around you increase the possibility of a collapse on impact which produces a reset.

If both packs are still immediately after the touch, the referee can call "Set" immediately and the overall call will be quite quick.

The pack being still is not easy to achieve - it requires practice and discipline but having spent the last couple of months working with packs to get them still, believe me it is achievable.

The stick the referees have been instructed to implement to provide incentive for packs to get still is that if you engage early more than once in a game it becomes a full arm penalty. If a pack is not still (and therefore stable) it is easy for them to overbalance and engage early.

The combination of these two factors (holding until steady and full arms for going early) is a good thing and will lead to better scrums if teams get on board. From my experience if the coach insists on no full arm penalties being given away your pack learns to get stable pretty quickly, which in turn helps to speed up the call.

If the opposition takes too long to get stable, you must be disciplined enough to be able to stay still - again not easy but achievable if practised.

You may be right, but the new law mentions nothing about the packs being still but being ready. (see below from IRB website) As I've always understood it, the crouch was to obtain good body position and the touch was to establish a safe distance. Once those two things have been established, and both sides are ready - lets's get on with the game.

Certainly in the northern hemisphere matches that I watched in the off-season, the sequence was noticeably quicker than is currently the case in Super rugby. Have a look at a French Top 14 match on Fox Channel 511 if you get the chance and notice the difference.

(g)

The referee will call “crouch” then “touch”. The front rows crouch and, using their outside arm, each prop touches the point of the opposing prop’s outside shoulder. The props then withdraw their arms. Following a pause the referee will then call “set” when the front rows are ready. The front rows may then engage. The “set” call is not a command but an indication that the front rows may come together when ready.​