Aus v SA

Anyone watching? A lot of empty seats in the stadium, maybe there were a few thousand just getting in late after the anthems?!

Aus try early on, SA havn't started, thaqt restart was stupid easy

Bit laughable since the try, Aus with a very odd kicking game, SA havn't made 2 passes and kicking everything, and the breakdown, well, is untidy.

Soft penalties from Aus, and a quick tap - intercept?! WTF is going on, it's shambolic!

Wow, great passage from SA, where did that come from?!

Scott Fardy... He is worth 9 points a game defecit to Aus, why isn't Higginbothamin at 6?

You seem a bit lonely on this thread Neutralee!! Just flicked on to this match although I can't watch the whole thing unfortunately. Looks quite tight at 8-11...

Make that 8-14.

Got to love the Aussie commentators

haha ye seem to be chatting to myself lol

Sadly I have to switch off at half time too, and it is a shame because it's getting interesting!

Scrappy, difficult conditions, a lot of silly errors! Highlights how both teams have been playing of late.

kingjohn7 wrote:Got to love the Aussie commentators

Yeah - like a couple of blokes chatting over a pint!

It's hotting up now for sure with a bit of niggle creeping in.

i know the whistle isn't helping, but is this the poorest game between these two ever?

a couple of quality ball in hand plays from each side produced tries, otherwise the lack of precision has been laughable.

The little fight has been the highlight so far - that probably says it all!

kingelderfield wrote:i know the whistle isn't helping, but is this the poorest game between these two ever?

a couple of quality ball in hand plays from each side produced tries, otherwise the lack of precision has been laughable.

You're not alone. I might be in a minority but I also though NZ vs Arg was boring too. NZ vs Aus a couple weeks ago however, was polar opposite.

Games this weekend have been pretty easy to predict, Argentina tried their best to spoil, and front up, did a decent job but came up short.

Aus have made changes, again, new 9,10 combo, centre and winger, and SA look like theyre players have come from all over the world, which a large number have.

Both teams look disjointed, and relying heavily on their kicking game for fluidity.

Not the best spectacle but at some point Aus have to get the shackles off then we could be in for som ereal fun!

Binned huh?

Laughable yellow. Shat reffing

Ridic...

there was far more quality from both sides in the earlier game.....in what appeared for more trying conditions.

as for the new Oz half selections, well thats Mckenzie over playing his hand. he knows better and will have to wear his mistakes.

the Oz 9 is really poor.

Harsh decision on Habana, looked like AAC was dipping into the tackle. But 5 mentres out, AAC doesn't change direction very quickly and Habana could be argued targetted the head to stop him dead.

Harsh though!

kingelderfield wrote:there was far more quality from both sides in the earlier game.....in what appeared for more trying conditions.

as for the new Oz half selections, well thats Mckenzie over playing his hand. he knows better and will have to wear his mistakes.

the Oz 9 is really poor.

Agree, Phipps is looking like a limited player at best. White was in blistering form and well if Genia's breathing he is considered!

the wallabies, your favourite family butcher!

Looks like NZ's championship again.

What a finish! Ludicrous decision to sin bin Habana though

I knew this woulod end well, thats why i stayed lol

Aus were pretty lucky to take that, Beale was on too late, Habana probably shouldn't have gone off.

that was......well played Oz, just.....

will these two learn from this?

little quality, poor execution and thankfully the side who showed the ambition won through.

I expect Oz to improve, but their weaknesses will remain, in the front row especially.

tempo, precision and execution.......the half are still the issue for Oz.

I agree about Habana. To me, not a yellow. Exciting finish, though.

Phipps is pretty poor I agree. What ever happened to Genia? It seems Aus are without a few world class performers, so got to give them credit for the strength in depth they have.

Stopped watching before HT due to the very poor quality of the match so you can imagine my surprise to see the end result. Picked the correct result too in the SB thing... don't ask me how or why.

Much more thrilling sport going on around the country anyway. The AFL EF at the MCG was a thriller and earlier on today I witnessed the mighty Swans overcome Freo. Unfortunately, my beloved Sea Eagles lost up in Townsville in the NRL - but that was expected with too many players out. So they relinquish the JJG Shield to the Chooks and will most likely struggle if they play the Rabbitohs next week.

Back to this game - I agreed 101% in what kia said in his thread and I said basically the same thing after Eden Park. He summed it up perfectly.
This Wallaby side lacks balance, is always prone to poor decision making or is simply out-skilled by the No.1 and 2 teams. Fortunately tonight, SA were also not completely firing and it sounds like they were robbed by the ref in the dying stages. I'll have to watch that 2nd half but from all accounts it wasn't a good spectacle. Got out of jail again by the sounds of it and perhaps didn't deserve the win.

The worst thing for us is that Horne might linger around the team longer. Bugger! We could do with at least 4 or 5 player changes as I've already said and they'll most likely get spanked in the return match in SA. Wouldn't surprise if Argentina win at least one of their games against us either.

So to summarise, I'm almost annoyed that they won tonight if what I read is correct... which it usually is with you blokes. Cue them getting a little ahead of themselves now and forgetting about the complete shellacking they received a fortnight ago at the hands of NZ.

Bilts, where shall I send the stuffed toy dog or would you prefer to deal with that Irish ref directly behind the grandstands? Sorry mate.
You are hammering us in the cricket... but as we know that is more of a nonsense comp which means nothing, right?

To be fair mate they weren't robbed,they won a penalty then missed touch which resulted in the try-which was a beauty.

kingjohn7 wrote:To be fair mate they weren't robbed,they won a penalty then missed touch which resulted in the try-which was a beauty.

Weren't Robbed?

Conceded a penaty for a legitimate tackle. 3 points

COnceded a yellow card, as Jean de Villiers said, the exact same high tackle he received 10 minutes earlier.

This is becoming a trend now, apart from the woeful performance by the Boks we were in control and winning until another refereeing howler.

So F..ing familiar.

And if any of you say we must adapt, Fu..k that, I have had enough of this shyte.

It was a poor yellow, not his wing they scored down though.

The ref didn't miss touch with the penalty, the ref didn't misshit the restart, the ref didn't allow Aus to gather the starting kick of the game, then miss 2 tackles to concede a try early on!

It was one of those games where both teams were literally as rubbish as each other, kicking games were terrible, and neither team got to grips with the refs breakdown view (he was consistent, if not wrong)

Had SA won by 6 I wouldn't have batted an eyelid though.

Not sure why you think refs have it out for SA, one saved your bacon in the summer didn't they?

Neutralee wrote:It was a poor yellow, not his wing they scored down though.

The ref didn't miss touch with the penalty, the ref didn't misshit the restart, the ref didn't allow Aus to gather the starting kick of the game, then miss 2 tackles to concede a try early on!

It was one of those games where both teams were literally as rubbish as each other, kicking games were terrible, and neither team got to grips with the refs breakdown view (he was consistent, if not wrong)

Had SA won by 6 I wouldn't have batted an eyelid though.

Not sure why you think refs have it out for SA, one saved your bacon in the summer didn't they?

Too easy to dismiss the referee, eh?

Blame it on the kick, eh?

We were winning mate, card changed everything. And it doesn't matter on what wing the try is scored, when you go wide to wide the defence drifts and lines up, somewhere there will be an overlap.
But believe whatever you will.

Neutralee wrote:

It was one of those games where both teams were literally as rubbish as each other, kicking games were terrible, and neither team got to grips with the refs breakdown view...

That's it in a nutshell for me and why I switched off.

Mate, the stands were mostly empty because everyone in Perth was glued to the AFL blockbuster elimination final - even though one of their teams lost today... but they get another crack next weekend against Geelong.

So was I. Far, far better sporting product on this occasion.

These f'n ARU blokes have no idea. Would have been better to play the match in Canberra but that would also have clashed with the NRL battle for 8th spot earlier this afternoon. Anyway, they got the date and the venue wrong... and they continue to do it every year because they feel they need to appease a handful of rugby fans in WA. Fk the SA ex-pats living there. Who gives a toss about that? Isn't that a disadvantage to our chaps anyway?

I'm not dismissing the ref, I agreed it was a poor decision, of which there was an equal if not worse, in fact definately worse, in the other game.

If you look at the incident from a neutral view, and I know you won't, none of us do when watching our own team, its the beauty of the sport, there is a case for the yellow, it's a dangerous position, and despite the tackle not being dangerous whatsoever, it was high, and did kill the move a few metres from the try line.

It's a heartbreaking way to lose a match, I feel for you, as I felt for Welsh friends in the summer, and the English v France in the 6N.

But you have to look at stats too, a yellow card is worth 4 points on average? SA conceded 10, meaning no matter what the decision by the ref SA still didn't deal with the 10 minutes as well as they should have.


'We were winning mate, card changed everything.' You could literally apply that to 25% of international games played over the last 3/4 years sadly

For all the talk about Habana's card, that absolutely pales in comparison not to award the try for Argentina against the All Blacks. That was incredible.

Thought Habanas looked like a penalty but not a card, but only saw it once- need to see replays. Boks will be aggrieved and could have/should have won but thats three really poor performances from them in a row in this Championship and they had unbelievable good luck to escape from games against Argentina and Wales with the win. They maybe deserved a win today but this time it was their turn to let the other side out of jail just at the last moment. So I have to think that if there was no card and the Boks did win that would only be papering over the cracks for them.

The Loaded Dog wrote:

Neutralee wrote:

It was one of those games where both teams were literally as rubbish as each other, kicking games were terrible, and neither team got to grips with the refs breakdown view...

That's it in a nutshell for me and why I switched off.

Mate, the stands were mostly empty because everyone in Perth was glued to the AFL blockbuster elimination final - even though one of their teams lost today... but they get another crack next weekend against Geelong.

So was I. Far, far better sporting product on this occasion.

These f'n ARU blokes have no idea. Would have been better to play the match in Canberra but that would also have clashed with the NRL battle for 8th spot earlier this afternoon. Anyway, they got the date and the venue wrong... and they continue to do it every year because they feel they need to appease a handful of rugby fans in WA. Fk the SA ex-pats living there. Who gives a toss about that? Isn't that a disadvantage to our chaps anyway?

I nearly did too, gave myself till half time before having to go out, but amidst the mistakes and lost opportunities there were tiny flashes of brilliance, SA's first try was a cracker! I kept getting the feeling there would be a sting by the way both teams had been playing, I think I said something along the lines of 'Aus have to lose the shackles at some point if they want to win' Habanas yellow was a catalyst for that and the last 10 minutes was truly exciting.

It's a weird game in that it was technically poor, but great to watch, unlike the game before it which was a bit of a given after 20 minutes.

With regards to the stands I thought I was seeing things, it looked like it was half empty during the anthems, I wrote it off to latecomers or traffic problems etc, but half way through the 2nd half there was a shot of an entire block empty!

Biltong wrote:

Too easy to dismiss the referee, eh?

Blame it on the kick, eh?

We were winning mate, card changed everything. And it doesn't matter on what wing the try is scored, when you go wide to wide the defence drifts and lines up, somewhere there will be an overlap.
But believe whatever you will.

I understand your disappointment and you're entitled to comment on the game and the officials decision-making. So in future I'd ask you not be so critical of other fans that also do that. YC was wrong decision, both teams looked average so I can't decide whether it affected the outcome or not. SA however have been looking particularly vulnerable this season. A home win against ABs might paper over the cracks before someone catches you out on the NH tour.

They did have this torrential downpour a couple of hours before kick-off which must have put a dent in the crowd. At HT in the Napier game they showed it - it looked like a monsoon. Diagonal white "stripes" of rain going across the ground. Did you see it?

Still no excuse for diehard rugby fans not to go out to Subiaco and support the national team.

The Loaded Dog wrote:They did have this torrential downpour a couple of hours before kick-off which must have put a dent in the crowd. At HT in the Napier game they showed it - it looked like a monsoon. Diagonal white "stripes" of rain going across the ground. Did you see it?

Still no excuse for diehard rugby fans not to go out to Subi and support the national team.

No didn't see any of that, conditions looked difficult but not that bad. It definately contributed to both teams performances though too.

We had the same here today. Massive downpours until mid-afternoon. Poor turnout at ANZ considering the importance of the game.
They should have also got around 65-70k at least for the Swans match down the road but only 36k turned up. It's actually quite shameful being a Swans fan when you see the 78,500 in Melbourne tonight.

Still, I missed most of the NZ-Arg game because of that.

I've also developed a nasty cough (now that's dedication!)... but that could also be due to the dust in my roofspace from yesterday.

Bilt I said staight away I thought the yellow was wrong. However my point is that if you had made touch with that pen its pretty much game over and u win even with that harsh card.

kingjohn7 wrote:Bilt I said staight away I thought the yellow was wrong. However my point is that if you had made touch with that pen its pretty much game over and u win even with that harsh card.

I agree, Morne Steyn has done this a few times and cost us a few games.

The point is when you defend with fourteen men the job is much tougher than it needs to be, it also applies to a legitimate tackle by Duane Vermeulen being penalised.

the same thing happened last year in New Zealand when Bismarck du PLessis made a legitimate tackle on Carter.

What is it with referees and South Africans in dominant tackles?

It is a shame that the RC has been marred by poor officiating. I didn't care too much for Peyper's performance at Sydney, there were two enormous gaffes in the Argentina game and then I can't confess to be surprised by Clancy's clangers.

We had Owens officiating an incredible game last year and we need to look at why that match was so well reffed and why others refs did not have good games. To me transparency and communication are the key. When important decisions are made like yellow card offences, there shouldn't be any haste to make those decisions and it should be made clear as to why those decisions are being made. Consult the TMO and confirm what you saw. These decisions can affect the outcome of the games.

The match was really contest between who made more errors.

As it turned out: Bok errors + ref errors > Aus errors

Having just watched the match in slippery conditions especially first half too much kicking
much badly.
Australia should have started Horwill,Higginbotham and Beale from the start and played
more ball in hand.
Boks looked to have reverted to old style game Steyn given the chance will kill you.
When first saw the Habana incident thought it was for a stiff arm tackle at first way the
man went down.Reviewing it shouldn't have been a yellow but a kickable penalty.
BUT the Boks didn't defend it well the AB`s conceded 6 points in 35 minutes defending
Yellow Cards 2 at least weren't not to mention the drawing penalty in first Bledisloe
which wasn't.
Have the Scrum Laws been changed?

both sides Flankers had there hands on the ground
at EVERY Scrum[never understood it being illegal but it is].Or Scrum wheeled 45 degrees plus
Scrum reset.Or Props diving in to collapse Scrums to milk penalties?
Neither side is what it was in 2013 when Boks were strong and OZ a broken rabble squabbling
amongst themselves.
Refs make mistakes its up to teams to compensate.
Next week SA will have a real chance Messam and Whitelock out no real Lock cover you
should have a fielday.At Scrum.lineout ,and maul and if it`s down to goal kicking on
todays form SA by plenty.

kiakahaaotearoa wrote:It is a shame that the RC has been marred by poor officiating. I didn't care too much for Peyper's performance at Sydney, there were two enormous gaffes in the Argentina game and then I can't confess to be surprised by Clancy's clangers.

We had Owens officiating an incredible game last year and we need to look at why that match was so well reffed and why others refs did not have good games. To me transparency and communication are the key. When important decisions are made like yellow card offences, there shouldn't be any haste to make those decisions and it should be made clear as to why those decisions are being made. Consult the TMO and confirm what you saw. These decisions can affect the outcome of the games.

Owens makes a game, I can honestly say that I will watch and enjoy any game he officiates, despite teams abilities. Again in Glasgow he was superb, plenty of contraversy in the game but he just uses common sense and communicates it so everyone knows what and why he's doing it. He should be kept for any international rugby, and the RC should try to retain him every year!

My only issue with Owens is he does love the sound of his voice. You hardly hear the other chaps either during play or once the whistle has gone.

He does control a match well though.

That's probably why they're not as good as him then. Let the players know what you're seeing and let them know what they're being pinged for. Communication is the key and if that means yapping away the whole game then so be it.