Rugby 2017 Discussion

Mitchell Nicholas said:
I had written them off at 22-3 and was of the view that not playing a New Zealand side had cost them in the long run. Game swung on that try right on half time - Hurricanes were cruising at that point. Next week's final is a toss of the coin for me.
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Crusaders have been there and done it all.

Altitude wont bother them.

Best team in the competition too. I'd think they are favourites.
 
Traub said:
Going to try go to the final, I hope we can pull it off!
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Shame Ellis Park was less than half full. Surely they'll get a bumper crowd next week. For the match itself, the start will define the game. Lions must start well if they're to win. Crusaders won't let a 22-3 lead or something similar slip like the Canes did.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
Shame Ellis Park was less than half full. Surely they'll get a bumper crowd next week. For the match itself, the start will define the game. Lions must start well if they're to win. Crusaders won't let a 22-3 lead or something similar slip like the Canes did.
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Agreed, was quite surprised by the crowd. I'm on the ticket site now but waiting in the queue.
 
So, Jaco Peyper will referee the Super Rugby final this weekend at Ellis Park. Let's just hope that if the Lions win, the refereeing doesn't end up being a talking point. For the sake of perception, it couldn't have been that hard to appoint a neutral ref.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
So, Jaco Peyper will referee the Super Rugby final this weekend at Ellis Park. Let's just hope that if the Lions win, the refereeing doesn't end up being a talking point. For the sake of perception, it couldn't have been that hard to appoint a neutral ref.
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Local press here are already making a big deal of it. SANZAR think he is the best ref but if the Crusaders lose and its close then our press will go mental.
 
Stack said:
Local press here are already making a big deal of it. SANZAR think he is the best ref but if the Crusaders lose and its close then our press will go mental.
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Read the match report after the Hurricanes match on Stuff and they basically blamed the referee for the defeat.

Credit to the people who commented though who largely called them out on it.
 
K2K said:
Read the match report after the Hurricanes match on Stuff and they basically blamed the referee for the defeat.

Credit to the people who commented though who largely called them out on it.
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Its a real problem here, our press has become increasingly nationalistic and one eyed, its getting worse.
 
Stack said:
Its a real problem here, our press has become increasingly nationalistic and one eyed, its getting worse.
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It's hard to believe for me that refs are biased. They have bad days and inconsistent days but usually they are bad for both sides.
 
Some context behind Peyper's appointment even if i still disagree with the appointment.

 
Teams for the Super Rugby final:

Lions: 15 Andries Coetzee, 14 Ruan Combrinck, 13 Lionel Mapoe, 12 Harold Vorster, 11 Courtnall Skosan, 10 Elton Jantjies, 9 Ross Cronje, 8 Ruan Ackermann, 7 Kwagga Smith, 6 Jaco Kriel (captain), 5 Franco Mostert, 4 Andries Ferreira, 3 Ruan Dreyer, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Jacques van Rooyen. Substitutes: 16 Akker van der Merwe, 17 Corne Fourie, 18 Johannes Jonker, 19 Lourens Erasmus, 20 Cyle Brink, 21 Faf de Klerk, 22 Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 23 Sylvian Mahuza

Crusaders: 15 David Havili, 14 Israel Dagg, 13 Jack Goodhue, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Seta Tamanivalu, 10 Richie Mo'unga, 9 Bryn Hall, 8 Kieran Read, 7 Matt Todd, 6 Jordan Taufua, 5 Sam Whitelock (captain), 4 Scott Barrett, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Joe Moody. Substitutes: 16 Ben Funnell, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Mike Alaalatoa, 19 Luke Romano, 20 Pete Samu, 21 Mitchell Drummond, 22 Mitchell Hunt, 23 George Bridge
 
The Super Rugby final should be a cracker starting 3pm UK time. If the Lions win, i think they'll win by 7-15 points. If the Crusaders win, i think it'll be by less than 7. I hope the Lions win, just not brave enough to pick them.
 
Lions are suffering from either stage fright or their tendency for bad first halves in the finals in continuing.
 
Kwagga Smith red carded, Lions down to 14, Crusaders champions barring a miracle.
 
Can't be any arguments that was red. He misjudged his run, should've pulled up, once the other player got in the air, there was nothing he could do.
 
Ironic thing about the red card, which was correct, is that this is the same ref who tried to talk Jerome Garces out of sending SBW of in Wellington but had no problem sending off a player from a South African team vs an overseas team in a Super Rugby final.
 
Ruan Dreyer will have to work on not conceding scrum penalties between now and his next match.
 
They'll run out of time but the Lions have done well to ensure this didn't get really ugly.
 
Feel for the Lions. Can't say they would definitely have won without the red card which as i said earlier was correct but it has proven decisive. Congratulations to the Crusaders, many in Australasia will see them winning the competition as justice.
 
Today I've seen Jeremy Paul and Bob Skinstad mention some accidental offside missed by the officials in the lead up to the Crusaders first try. I didn't spot it live, so i'm not going to crank on the officials for missing it, nor claim it was the definitive reason the Crusaders won, just felt it was worth pointing out. Read's tackle on Jantjies was probably just about OK but i felt it may have been close to a tip tackle.

 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
Today I've seen Jeremy Paul and Bob Skinstad mention some accidental offside missed by the officials in the lead up to the Crusaders first try. I didn't spot it live, so i'm not going to crank on the officials for missing it, nor claim it was the definitive reason the Crusaders won, just felt it was worth pointing out. Read's tackle on Jantjies was probably just about OK but i felt it may have been close to a tip tackle.

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Oof, I'm kinda half and half on that tackle. On the one hand, he definitely landed on back/shoulders rather than head so it probably is fine... but on the other, Read definitely did not show the necessary duty of care to bring the tackled player back down to the ground - there is a moment where both his feet are up and he's horizontal, neither player in control of how he's going to land, he could have easily come down on his neck. If a penalty had been given, he couldn't have complained really.
 
Meh that tackle is borderline. Def accidental offside tho, should have come back for the scrum. It's hard to say the officials impacted the outcome, it was prob the fair result all things considered. A lot of people this side of the world have been complaining about NZ sides getting all the ref decisions again but the Crusaders were just better. Too many handling errors and ill discipline cost the Lions.
 
The ARU has axed the Western Force from Super Rugby. I'm not a Force fan but to put it mildly and politely, the decision by the ARU to axe the Force is simply disgraceful.
 
unchanged_lineup said:
So is Super Rugby down three teams now? Seems severe.
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Yeah, the plan was to go from 18 down to 15 teams. Two from South Africa and one from Australia were required to be cut. I agree with the decision to cut an Aussie team as there isn't the depth for five competitive teams but they've cut the wrong team. The Rebels were noncompetitive at times during the season winning 1 game, losing 13 and drawing 1. Of those 13 losses, 7 were by conceding more than 40 points. and not a single losing bonus point in those 7 games. The Force for their part were more competitive, winning the same amount of games as the Brumbies only missing out on finals due to bonus points. There's far more interest in Rugby in Western Australia than there is in Victoria however i shudder to think about what the crowd will look like when the Wallabies play the Springboks in Perth on September 9. It'll either be small or full of Springboks supporters.
 
Mitchell Nicholas said:
Yeah, the plan was to go from 18 down to 15 teams. Two from South Africa and one from Australia were required to be cut. I agree with the decision to cut an Aussie team as there isn't the depth for five competitive teams but they've cut the wrong team. The Rebels were noncompetitive at times during the season winning 1 game, losing 13 and drawing 1. Of those 13 losses, 7 were by conceding more than 40 points. and not a single losing bonus point in those 7 games. The Force for their part were more competitive, winning the same amount of games as the Brumbies only missing out on finals due to bonus points. There's far more interest in Rugby in Western Australia than there is in Victoria however i shudder to think about what the crowd will look like when the Wallabies play the Springboks in Perth on September 9. It'll either be small or full of Springboks supporters.
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If the tickets are cheap enough, the expats will probably be out in full force given the recent turnaround against Les Bleus.
 
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