Chiefs v Reds, Rd 11, Sat May 6th, 5;35pm AEST

[Quick Hands]

Whew, for a moment there (over on the 'tahs v Bloos thread to be exact) I was sure Shiggins' G&GR account had been hacked. Clearly it wasn't.

The referee over on the Waratahs thread looked like he was feeling sorry for the Waratahs and they received a few margin calls.

 

[tragic]

The reds desperately need a decent head doctor - when they get the shit calls, they fold in a heap.

They're not the only ones
Maybe they could share

 

[Scrubber2050]

Congrats to the Chiefs.

All our players played really well including our bench in the secondhalf. Am sure some of the boys could have played a little better but am sure there are a multitude of excuses out there which would be well accepted by some.

Suppose a mild criticism could be levelled at Quade but some would say he still is recovering from that injury in 2011 (I think) and his best will be coming. There must also be a reason why his kicking is less than satisfactory (IMHO). Of course, he will get back to his pre 2011 form.

Go the Reds

 

[liquor box]

Well, tbh if I didn't know better I would have thought that Sanzaar had actually appointed one of the Chiefs team mates as the referee.

The reds desperately need a decent head doctor - when they get the shit calls, they fold in a heap.

thats the problem with a coach who blames the referee, the players feel like they can not win.

 

[wamberal]

thats the problem with a coach who blames the referee, the players feel like they can not win.

It also gives them an excuse not to win, which is worse.

 

[The torpedo]

Suppose a mild criticism could be levelled at Quade but some would say he still is recovering from that injury in 2011 (I think) and his best will be coming. There must also be a reason why his kicking is less than satisfactory (IMHO). Of course, he will get back to his pre 2011 form.

His left knee that he injured v the Saders I reckon is holding him back. I won't be surprised if he has surgery on it after the season.

That would make it 6 surgeries since the 2011 Super Rugby season

 

[Scrubber2050]

^^^^^
Suppose it is easy in retrospect to wonder IF he should have been signed at all.

Have to admit, with the performances of McIntyre last year (yeah yeah I know he's a young bloke with little experience) I was all in favour of bringimg Quade back for the next few years.

Trouble is, his play is off, using whatever excuse you (not you personally Torp) want to and his kicking is actually terrible. I would have been happy for one of the 2 to be working well.

 

[RedsHappy]

^^^^^
Suppose it is easy in retrospect to wonder IF he should have been signed at all.

Have to admit, with the performances of McIntyre last year (yeah yeah I know he's a young bloke with little experience) I was all in favour of bringimg Quade back for the next few years.

Trouble is, his play is off, using whatever excuse you (not you personally Torp) want to and his kicking is actually terrible. I would have been happy for one of the 2 to be working well.

The panic-driven re-hiring of QC (Quade Cooper) was in significant part driven by Cordingley (why he continues to hold his job I will never know) and the then 'Head of QRU Rugby Department' Herbert (wholly unqualified for that role) realising just how poor was McIntyre and instead of taking (in my view) the far better medium-term planning risk of properly contracting Greene and/or Mason they did as the QRU has done so often and knee-jerked into the 'we must have new and old prestige players back, they will save the day' modality. (Like all the 'prestige' hires that have contributed so much to the Reds' current status.)

There was zero in QC (Quade Cooper)'s 2015 and 2016 form to _objectively_ encourage the notion that his then-current skills and playing calibre were good enough and stable enough to 'save' the 2017 Reds. He'd been sacked by Toulon FFS for very ordinary, consistently inconsistent standards of play and, particularly, very poor standards of all types of kicking. He had not credibly worked his way back to anywhere near challenging Foley for the 2015 Wallaby 10 slot. His transitional attempt at Olympic 7s was a flop.

So we indulged a wholly sentimental dream, and such was in many ways psychologically the easy option, vs setting a hard-eyed course to genuinely rebuild a new team that could stand a chance to attain a speedier path to some type of Super success.

And now Mason and Greene are gone. I'd argue that Mason played marginally better in a hugely high-pressure debut vs the Crusaders than has been QC (Quade Cooper)'s average standard of 2017 play for the Reds across all 2017's games.