Hurricanes Vs. Waratahs @ Wellington Round 10

[Hawko]

I've watched about 30 minutes of the Stormers game, and none of this one.

There is something that both shits me, and gives me hope, for this Waratahs team: the inconsistency.

The absolute fucking bashing we handed out against the Ponies seemed to be completely absent against the Stormers, while all reports indicate we found it again on the weekend.

So what the fuck?

Hopefully we can keep it going from here.

I think there are two reasons why we appeared to be inconsistent against the Stormers:

1. The Stormers did get the bounce of the ball that game. It happens sometimes. We nearly lost the final last year when we were the dominant team all game, because sometimes the flow of the game goes the wrong way. Some geek could write a book about the application of random walk theory to rugby game plans, but not me. I failed that section of statistics horribly.
2. The Stormers played really well against us, their best game on tour. The Hurricanes the week before were beaten by them everywhere but on the scoreboard thanks to some refereeing howlers. The Stormers made us look worse than we were.

Taken together, the three games show us to be just about where we were after the Hurricanes game last year and building nicely towards the finals. Despite being a glass half empty guy I am confident we'll top the conference and probably end up second in the normal rounds and really well placed to go back-to-back. If the Final is at the Cake Tin we'll kill it, if its up in the Tron it'll be 50-50.

 

[Pfitzy]

So with the game finished, I have to say that was pretty entertaining.

Hurricanes will draw a lot of benefit from that result, and as Cooper said: younger players will look at their decisions.

Tahs got some confidence back, and would be happy to put some phases together with the rolling bash n barge style that won them the title. Palu had one of his better games in quite a while I thought. Looked fucking angry.

The main thing is the Tahs' pack dominated a lot of contact. The Canes had a good scrum in the first half but that seemed to drop off - and that's odd because the Tahs props aren't rated by those in the know i.e. me. It shows that Skelton is coming on well.

Canes defence was pretty solid but just had times where they couldn't contain guys like Skelton and Potgeiter, particularly toward the back end when I think the Tahs' bench were just that bit better.

It could also have been their early use of replacements too - allowed them to sprinkle in the new guys to build into the game.

 

[Gagger]

For a moment late in the second half the tahs started executing shitty kicks down field and I thought what the hell are they doing?

Did I not say that you must not kuck it to their beck three?

I think they were backing their line speed to keep the Canes in their half, knowing the canes would run it back. Worked (surprisingly)

 

[Pfitzy]

Perhaps not surprisingly - they did it to the Brumbies quite effectively. Deliberately kicked into midfield and dared them to run it back.

Nonu and Milner-Skudder nearly burned us a couple of times but we scrambled well.

 

[Blue]

High risk.

Mildred's the bomb. Kid can play.

 

[Gagger]

Mildred's the bomb. Kid can play.

So much so it gave me intense schadenfreude when his flick pass failed