Comments on: The new Jerry Collins

By: fillbee

fillbee — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:21:55 +0000

Inky,
On one hand you say that Matt Goddard and the two TJ’s spoiled the ELV’s as a spectacle and then in the next paragraph you say that the game was “frantic stuff, largely error-free with every phase hotly contested”. This tells me that the game was very well handled by the officials. Interestingly there were 15 penalties in the game and 10 of those were for discipline. High shots, tackling players without the ball, tackling players in the air, the stuff that is a blight on the game. If the players are involved in that stuff then they need to be punished. Matt Goddard had no choice.
Had it not been for the poor discipline there would have been 10 less stoppages. Even with those 10 transgressions there were only 71 stoppages in the game. Some 10 fewer than the previous week.
You made the remark that Matt Goddard was not keeping up with the pace, had he not been keeping up there would not have been the fine spectacle that was what is on offer.
Well done to Matt Goddard and his TJ’s.

By: Terry

Terry — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:21:16 +0000

A good article, spoiled only by the false statement that Burger felled Williams with a high shot. He didn’t. Take those all-black glasses off and watch it again and you’ll see that they clashed heads as Burger went in for the tackle — when they collided, Burger’s arms were out waiting to grab Williams in a bear-hug. Ironically, it was, as you suggest, almost a mirror image of the incident when Williams fractured his jaw while attempting to tackle Chabal. On both occasions, Williams paid the price for poor technique.

Ambassadors? Brad Thorn? What planet are you on?

As for the rest, I have great respect for Jerry Collins, both as a player and as a person. New Zealand’s loss is Toulon’s gain, and, fortunately, for me at least, Toulon is a heck of a lot closer than Wellington!

By: Ben from Pretoria

Ben from Pretoria — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 10:28:56 +0000

I can tell you as SA spectators we have nothing but respect for Jerry, a hard tough and generaly very clean player. He comes from a rare breed of player as does Burger.

Was it on the Grand Slam tour of 2005 when Jerome Kaino burst onto the scene? When I saw him I realy thought we had problems but he became injured or something. Very similar to Pierre Spies, another player who is on his way back, Jeremy Guscott called him the most unbelievable athlete to play rugby.1.94m, 105kg, very fast.Just hope he gets managed back appropriately.

I guess the question is: Which players are feared by the spectators? Lomu, Collins,Burger,Willie O,Finnegan. What company to keep.

By: True Tah

True Tah — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:00:07 +0000

Tricky Trindall,

‘What the Wallabies need to do is…let Horwill go out there and intimidate’

Horwill went in to “intimidate” the French, received a black eye for his efforts and then had the gall to whinge to the ref about getting punched.

I hope Horwill stays in the Wallaby side for a long time, but he’s not a hard man – anyway, rugby doesn’t need these sort of neanderthrals running around anyway on our paddocks meting out justice…why do we always bemoan we need a hard man??

By: mudskipper

mudskipper — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:21:23 +0000

Tricky agreed…The Brumbies need Finegan and Young to fire up the forwards. There’s a good young line up with Mitchell Chapman, Ben Alexander, Stephen Moore, Pete Kimlin, Huia Edmonds, Salesi Ma’afu, Ben Hand and new signing Sitaleki Timani for next season.

Further more the old forward pack needs a good kick-start as well. George Smith can’t do it all the work. The forward pack were behaving a like the Brumbies Gentlemen’s Club last season. Brumbies rookie half Josh Holmes got smacked more times than Rocky Baldoa behind the ruck.

I’m hoping also Andy Friend fires up the backs and make them compete for a starting jersey just as Coach Deans has done…thus far…Last season the Brumbies were running out of guys weekly to put on the field let alone make them compete.

The “ Finegan Young Connection” should work wonders…. Also Julian Huxley is returning as Kicking coach.

By: Tricky Trindall

Tricky Trindall — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:18:11 +0000

Terrific article Inky. Congratulations.

The Saffies showed the physical aggression and attitude that make champions. They won the battle of the breakdown and hence the game.

Let’s hope to see McCaw back soon, as well as Somerville in the front row.

Dexter, Finegan is coaching down at the Brumbies next season with Bill Young, to hopefully restore some pride and passion into the Brumbies forward play. What the Wallabies need is to fire Cliffy Palu up, and let Horwill go out there and intimidate. That will leave George Smith or Phil Waugh to do their job at the breakdown. If Palu and Horwill don’t get us on the front foot, it will be a nice introduction to Tri Nations rugby for Luke Burgess…

By: ohtani's jacket

ohtani's jacket — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:26:51 +0000

BRING BACK BUCK!

The shots of McCaw and Thorn in the stands and Williams on the sideline were a constant reminder of what we were missing in terms of physicality, but it’s not the end of the world. If that’s the best South Africa can muster with a dominant performance, then in no way did they put the fear of God into the All Blacks or Wallabies.

Hell, I’d argue that they dominated the game, but didn’t dominate our baby pack. They played with a lot more structure than the week before, which I think took Henry off guard.

By: Dexter William

Dexter William — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:43:47 +0000

Good read Inky.

If you think that the ABs are depleted of hard man with Mongrel, then the Wallabies are in deep Sh*t here – which I think we are.

Bring back someone like Finegan and Harrison.

Many here misses what you saw last week. I reckon rugby has gone a bit soft lately except for the likes of Bakkies Botha, Burger and Pierre Spies – all from SA.

Masoe is the hardest AB now. Can’t name one Wallaby except Waugh who I think is only marginal.