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Waratahs v Crusaders, Friday 12th April, in Sydney

Equalizer

Phil Hardcastle (33)
Nice work Tahs. Just an entertaining game. Glad they did it for the 2014 team watching on and the old fella the Hon. John Howard.
 

Hawko

Tony Shaw (54)
Mark down 2024 as one of the best ever. Beat the Crusaders twice in the normal season rounds. Has any Australian team done that before?

At the game the atmosphere was electric. Neither team played like they were in the bottom four. Two weeks ago the Crusaders beat the Chiefs convincingly and then had the bye to freshen up. Before the game I expected our scrum to crumble. At the game it looked close to break even, maybe a slight points victory Saders. Every time the Crusaders pulled away we managed to pull them back in range. Fair dinkum, I reckon we butchered at least five tries and yet still we were close. And then we pulled level at the end of normal time. OK I thought, the Crusaders will do what they normally do. But no, we chose correctly, kept the play at their end, kept the pressure on and then Harrison became the hero. Finally we had won a close one.

I thought Berry had a poor game. I counted three deliberate knock-downs and Berry had to be talked into carding the last and most obvious one. It looked to me like the Crusaders collapsed the maul that he ruled was held up. There were lots of other things let go that favoured the Crusaders. I'll re-watch the game tomorrow, sometimes at the ground its not easy to see everything.

The front row stood up. I expected a bloodbath and it wasn't. Swinton had a blinder apart from one time when he reacted to a late cleanout. We made some lovely breaks that came to nothing, we need to learn to finish. Perese never passes and opposition teams know it. So they just box him up and shut the movement down. I don't know who our best two centres are, but Walton is one of them. Harrison has to start for the rest of the season, he is a class above Edmed despite a couple of bad kicks tonight.

We are not out of this comp yet, though I doubt we can make the top four. But other teams will fear meeting us if we continue the passion and add some polish.
 

Dan54

Tim Horan (67)
Well have to say Tahs deserved the win, but by christ what a couple of bog standard teams on field. Game was kind of exciting only because of score, defence seemed pretty optional at times. For Crusaders Reece was in full energiser bunny mode but apart from Hannah going well, there were none that stuck up hand and said look how good I can play! For Tahs, Harrison looked good when he came on, but still hard to put finger on why they keep looking so ordinary, look like a team of goodish tradesmenlike players, but sure some of them are better than that.
It certainly looked like a bottom of table clash I thought.
Would add when Canes beat Reds earlier in year, I said I felt for Reds as neither team deserved to lose game, this game I thought neither team deserved to win!!
 

TSR

Mark Ella (57)
Question for everyone - if the Crusaders kicker had just let the shot clock run out, would the game have been over and the Crusaders won?
 

wamberal99

Johnnie Wallace (23)
Question for everyone - if the Crusaders kicker had just let the shot clock run out, would the game have been over and the Crusaders won?
I am pretty sure the kicker was told to kick it. Maybe there was an "or else" as well.
 

Strewthcobber

Mark Ella (57)
Question for everyone - if the Crusaders kicker had just let the shot clock run out, would the game have been over and the Crusaders won?
Try was scored at 78:26 and awarded at 78:28, so right decision was made according to the broadcast clock.

I don't think we know what the shot clock at the ground was saying, but the ref immediately said as he kicked it that he kicked it before time. It must have only been one or two seconds in it
 

Froggy

John Solomon (38)
Considering our injuries, I thought the scrum was excelent, certainly didn't dominate but held their own which was what we needed. Front row were really solid, Heaven is really stepping up to this grade.
Good performances all over the park, but you can't help but wonder at Harrison. Two years missed for injury, comes back, adds spark to the attack, kicks the conversion from the sideline, then the crunch penalty to tie the game. Then takes control in extra time, sets himself for the field goal, telling Grant and the forwards where he wants the breakdown moved to, and then calling for it at the appropriate time and nailing it. You can't teach that level of presence of mind and confidence.
 

KOB1987

Rod McCall (65)
The general feeling was that Harrison was the most talented of that U20s crop which included Lolesio and Donaldson, but he has been forgotten, through no-one's fault as he has been injured. It was also generally considered that he needed time, and he's now had that in spadefuls. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
 

fatprop

George Gregan (70)
Staff member
The general feeling was that Harrison was the most talented of that U20s crop which included Lolesio and Donaldson, but he has been forgotten, through no-one's fault as he has been injured. It was also generally considered that he needed time, and he's now had that in spadefuls. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
I do rate him, but he is 3 games back and needs time to build confidence and get back his game sense
 

Dismal Pillock

Simon Poidevin (60)
FatTony.png

"Hello, Mr Reihana. I represent a Canterbury-based group of, uh, businessmen. It might be in your best interests Sir to please perhaps consider making your way back to Hamilton to continue with the rest of your life. We would like to thank you for your contributions to the Crusader organisation. When should you go? Oh, no hurry. Anytime today would be fine."
 

Crashy

Arch Winning (36)
amazed at how the scrum held up. One positive with all the injuries is that it bloods new players - and blooding front rowers is something we need. Yeah Stringer put a big game in when he needed to. Did he end up playing the whole 80?
 
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