Back home in the bosom of my family in the beautiful Blue Mountains. That's three years in a row I've been to Canberra to see the Tahs lose.
Firstly, congratulations Brumbies on your win in a brutal, fast-paced game of rugby. I have a sneaking feeling White's departure isn't a bad thing in the bigger picture of the Brumbies' progress: there's no doubt he fixed up the fundamentals, as shown in their set plays on Saturday night and their efficient defence the past two years, but I reckon there's now an added level of sophistication in their attack developed by Larkham. Larkham and Fisher, whom we already knew is an excellent forwards' coach, are proving to be a very good coaching team and are certainly building on the solid style set down by White. There's now a willingness to probe oppositions' backlines with the ball in hand, and to do it patiently and often. Nathan Grey advised Larkham to take up coaching when he retired, looks like Nathan was right!
I can't help thinking the bye came at a bad time for the Tahs, the week before a major game against a fancied opponent. It's difficult to know when there's a good time for a bye (maybe the week after returning from Africa?, or the week before the finals if the Tahs get there?), every team's gotta have two so it's always problematical. I thought the Tahs' timing was off, especially in the first half, the points of attack by the forwards and the numbers in attack, the passing through the hands in the backs and the positioning of the potential recipients all weren't quite there. The Brumbies started at a million miles an hour and before they knew it the Tahs were down 17-6. They just couldn't get into the game in the first 30 minutes; I put it down to the bye. My theory's supported by the fact from that point the Tahs got back on even terms with the Brumbies and closed the margin back to two points with five minutes to go, they won the next 45 minutes 17-8.
The Tahs' set-pieces were attacked by the Brumbies, and were found wanting. The figures may show the Tahs lost one lineout and two scrums but two of those three losses were at crucial junctures in the match. While it didn't look good at the time I wouldn't be overly concerned about these shortcomings. Other teams will have noted this aspect of the Tahs' play, and I'm sure we'll be attacked again here; however, I'm confident the Tahs' coaches can fix these problems back at Moore Park. Getting set-pieces right are a coach's bread-and-butter and should come down to good technique on the training paddock.
The defence from both sides was brutal. I haven't seen so many tacklers drive the ball-carrier backwards as I saw on Saturday night. The Brumbies' defence in the first half was particularly effective and stymied the not-quite-there Tahs' attack. If the Wallabies get their defence anything like these two sides they'll go well.
The referee. I don't think I've watched a game whistled by Peyper when the players and spectators know what he's doing. Watching a game at the ground obviously doesn't give spectators a chance to watch the many slo-moes replayed on TV, and I always say the ref's closer than us, BUT, Peyper's performances look like stuttering, confusing ones to me. There were two instances when he pulled up tackles when it wouldn't've been possible to click my fingers before he whistled an infringement. Brumbies supporters around me were equally confused at the instant infringement called by Jaco. No advantage signalled, straight to the whistle. Scrums took far too long and the halfbacks all fed the ball in askew. I feel for Cheika over that last scrum as it took forever to finish, too long, I was up the other end and couldn't see if the penalty was fair. Beale's tackle: getting things right via the big screen's an improvement by the officials but it begs the question why one of the three of them didn't see it the first time around. It wasn't a good look to have play taken right back to the other end after a long stoppage for injury. If there was a ref's assessor at the game the TJ/AR on that side should get a kick up the clacker.
While I'm on the officials' case, I've called long and loud for TJ/ARs to be much more pro-active adjudicating the offside line, as the two side blokes do so well in soccer. When play was in line with me in the second half it was painfully obvious both sides were offside, the Brumbies more so when the Tahs were getting back into the match, yet the TJ/AR kept silent. Why? Having been a Level 2 touchie I know it's damned simple to stand on the offside line on the open side of play and call it. The officials' comms were working as I watched the bloke on my side call a hands in the ruck to Peyper and he instantly pinged the perpetrator. Not good enough. Something to improve in the game of rugby, iRB.
It's all well and good to criticise the captain after the match (wasn't Eales magnificent continually going for the line before Kefu's try all those years ago) but Dennis should've taken my advice and gone for the points in the second half. Didn't you hear me, Dave? My lovely spare-rib back in the Blue Mountains phoned me at the time and told me to tone it down.....
For me, the standouts for the Brumbies were Fardy and To'omua. The Brumbies pigs hunted well as a pack and Mogg's kicking game was as good as ever (should the Tahs think about restoring Crawford to get some length back into their kicks?). Hooper and Douglas put in excellent performances for the Tahs while TPN never stopped trying.
This was a magnificent game of rugby with great attack and brutal defence fought out by two good rugby sides. Link could fashion a bloody good Wallaby squad out of these two teams, at this stage only Cooper, Cummins, Genia, Higginbotham and Horwill'd be shoo-ins from the others.
PS. It'd be safe to presume Cheika'll give the Tahs a torrid time on the training track this week, especially the pigs and inside backs. I wouldn't like to be the Rebels on Friday night.
