Attention to those of little faith. Last year, people were saying that the Reds couldn't beat anybody, and yet they beat all the 2010 and 2011 finalists (bar the Sharks, who they didn't play). They beat the Crusaders just a few weeks ago, and whilst I know that this doesn't mean history will repeat itself, the confidence boost that will give the boys coming into the final is unmeasurable. Last year, nobody thought the Wallabies could beat the All Blacks as nobody had ever lifted the Bledisloe Cup. Well, they did it- we're currently reigning champions in AUS vs. NZ clashes. Moreover, who were the halves in that match? Oh yeah, Will Genia and Quade Cooper. They've done it before, they've handled the pressure at both Super Rugby level and Test match level, so there's no reason they can't do it again.
Swarley, as a general thrust as you have it above, GO REDS!, I agree with you (except re Aus as 'reigning champs v NZ', we won one dead rubber, offshore exhibition match v ABs in 2010, with Dan C out for half of it, and Donald helpfully doing-a-Donald-under-pressure, but I digress. What was encouraging is that our trend line of losing points margin v ABs declined quite sharply over 2010, as I recall, so let's hope for 2011 3N.).
Based upon a review of the Reds last night and the Cru this morning, I think it's objective to say that (a) the Cru are now/recently playing better overall than when we last met them, and they have more and better players back whom are contributing to that, and (b), it's very debatable as to whether we have improved significantly since that last meeting.
There were serious Reds team blemishes last night, were there not?:
- QC (Quade Cooper)'s awful place kicking lapses which inexplicably occur, what, every 3rd or 4th game. Could if repeated easily cost a close, high pressure match v Cru, and who's our good-enough backup with Harris out;
- S Fainga'a's line throwing accuracy is if anything gradually deteriorating over 2011, and/or our line out as a whole is recently showing exploitable frailties about every 5th or so time;
- The Blues held possession well last night at the breakdown, credit to them, but I felt our forwards were way off their best in gaining possession back and pressuring the Blues' loose forwards;
- I thought many of Genia's kicks from hand and quite a few of QC (Quade Cooper)'s were not well constructed as to timing and placement, and just resulted in a reversal of pressure and possession, with little gain, and if the Blues had not been so obsessed with flinging the ball wide at every turn, they could have made much more of these low-value (for the Reds) kicks in open play;
- Not a problem as such and it's masochistic and paradoxical to say it, but I worry that the team is somehow getting a tad over-dependent upon QC (Quade Cooper) brilliance as 10. Of course that's huge, and he's a massive player etc, but somewhere somehow I'd like to see a few more tries set up and delivered by predominantly excellent forwards play, for example. If QC (Quade Cooper) has an off-night as 10 (as well as with tee), or is injured, well, let's not talk about that now.
Looking at the Cru last night, there were very few if any facets of their play that were not in quite excellent shape. Playing away at Newlands seemed to worry them not one bit, and their execution was of a high order. The Stormers were poor, yes, but if the Cru repeat that standard of execution excellence, composure and consistency, and we do not correct a number of our execution deficiencies by Saturday, we could well lose by 10 or more.
Having said all that: GO REDS! Remember the Name.
