Reds V Rebels- S15 Rd 3

Rebels can take a lot of heart from that performance. They need to work on their lineout it cost them twice for the Reds try and again when they had that chance at the end. Also backline needs to perform as a unit instead of what they look like now which is a very talented bunch of individuals. But all in all this performance is a step in the right direction.

Reds won ugly again which is great but eventually they'll need to hit some real form.

Crusaders, Highlanders and Chiefs would have murdered the Reds tonight. They'll need to make a huge improvement to win in SA.

Think the Reds will go with Lucas at 10. Really mossing someone Finger in the backs to settle down and straighten the attack as well. Also need to start hitting rhe ball with a bit of pace and intensity.

Phew!

We still haven't got our act together. The boys are going to struggle in the Republic if we don't get our shit together. The Rebels have really lifted their game though. The Rebels were actually solid in defence!

What eventually won the game for us was Links' substitutions. The guy that made the most difference off the bench tonight was old man Van. What a champ! he really added starch to the breakdown, tucked the ball under his wing and ran hard and also stabilised the lineout.Once the Reds started generating quick ball in the second half, they looked better. Sanchez seemed to have finally snapped out of his coma in the second half. Hopefully he keeps it rolling.

God we were lucky to get away with that one though.

Van the man nearly got away twice tonight, love the older guys like him & Samo doing that. People discount the older dogs at their own peril.

Congrats Reds, a distance too good for us - second half replacements made all the difference. Still, massive improvement from last week, can't be too unhappy with that.

Happy for the Rabbles, performed well and will go well this season.
Reds, pretty pathetic, i expect so much more from them. It's starting to look like "No Quade, No Chance" especially in the backline.
Daley cannot start in South Africa, and I think Link realised that. Holmes wasn't perfect but produced some dominant scrums.
I thought our backrowers were pretty good, Shatz and Gill were very active and Higginbotham was dominant as always.

If Harris couldnt goal kick then I wouldn't have him in the side. Next week it needs to be 10-Lucas 12-Harris. Not taking anything away from Jono Lance, but Lucas needs to be there.

AS, could not agree more. Van's grit and skill were even more evident from near the sideline, where I watched on with admiration and sentimentality. I always contended that Van was a sort of Brad Thorn example, not as skilled granted, but a similar story of the worth of great experience and precise anger just when needed in play. Credit to Link for keeping him up the team's sleeve.

One worrying sign of poorly managed pressure was the likes of Taps and others starting to contract that toxic habit of aimless mid-field kicks that typically are nothing more than golden gifts to the opposition, and typically get neatly taken by one of the more dangerous opposing backs.

Since the end of the WC the aimless kick tennis of a few years ago seems to have reared it's ugly head again. Hopefully more players willing to run it back will stamp it out again.

Btw: is not the simply massive impact that clearly Muggleton has had on the Rebels' defence (all aspects, including the willingness to tackle relentlessly, etc.) in a very short time, a gob-smacking advertisement for the power of retaining the right specialist coaches. Namely, the really top-notch ones that know what the fuck they're good at and are proven, precise masters of their particular rugby craft.

The right coaches can definitely make a big impact especially if the players are willing to put the work in too. Greg Feek had a huge impact on Leinster's scrum and Anthony Foley has really turned the Munster pack around this year.

Absolutely. The Rebels and their fans can rightly be really proud of that performance at Suncorp vs the 2011 champs. Bloody impressive improvement on 2011's games v Reds, and it was no means all 'Reds playing poorly in 2012'. The gradual upwards improvement curve is everything, witness the coming out of the mists of mediocrity that Link engineered in the early 2010 Reds, each brick of skills, attitude and execution improvement made up the later solid 2011 wall of the many little bricks.

To see the Brumbies and the only-18-month-old Rebels on the obvious path up, is just great for Australian rugby. As we end S15 in 2012, to have had the Rebs, Brumbies and Force at the very bottom of the S15 table would be a damnable disaster and a grievous misrepresentation of the fine rugby skills built in this country. I'm pretty confident that 2012 will see most 'lower ranked' S15 Aus teams move up a grade or two.or three. As of now, the Force is the worry, they seem to have entered 2012 in even worse shape than they were in in 2011.

I know you sympathise with our worrying plight Hawko and I admire your ability to predict the absolutely certain outcome of 'mentally simulated' S15 games. I guess I am just vaguely comforted by a 2012 game line to date of: Reds: 3 played, 0 losses, 3 wins. It's disappointing really. Just a tad up on the equivalent position in 2011.

Annoying game to watch as a reds fan. Rebels are surely going to knock someone over shortly. Rebels could have 5 in the wallabies squad for mine: kingi, Pyle, JOC, Beale and saffy.

I only got bit of this game tonight,
But what i saw it looks like the Reds where Dominate in the Scrums but still got penalized , what was with that Also heard the Ref shocking tonight.
Wait for the replay on Fox

Cheers, I saw 5min 2nd half 20min in.
What for the Reply.

The ref was poor for both sides.