Rebels lose again despite improved performance

Time saved is time not available to defence. Speed is everything. Schoolboy phenomenon? Most great halves do this as first option. Burgess has little spin and throws looped passes too often, he is not crisp and therefore a marginal half at this level. Spiro once suggested he try in the centres, some merit in that. Maybe Tamati, or Shota could have a crack at it, both do well at the base of rucks.

Vey interesting Rowan, thanks.

Kurt, world class player perhaps, so he deserves to be in the field, but his skills as a halfback are flawed still. Which is a problem because there are no other positions fir him. He was a big improvement on Stirzacker though in this game

Sorry sixo,but I can't agree with you regarding Luke Burgess' passing.The secret to breaking down the Chief's defence,as with a lot of teams with big packs, is rapid ball movement from the breakdown,side to side while progessing forward with each carry,until you can isolate their big man against your faster man,close to the breakdown. You wont beat the Chiefs on the outside. This involves rapid short passing one or two players wide of the breakdown and selection of the correct receiver(as for Hori's try).At senior,Super and Test level this is the halfback's most important skill in attack.It involves a quick,short accurate pass,not the pass from the ground that we all love to watch. The short quick passing alluded to also usually occurs after the halfback has had to battle in the breakdown for possession or to avoid an opponent's attempts to slap at the ball or to avoid an increasingly occurring phenomenon,this season,of the referee getting in the halfback's passing line. A long,quick and accurate pass from the ground is necessary very infrequently in games at these levels.Usually only to clear to a kicker.Luke Burgess does this very effectively. Other skills of the halfback are much more important at Super and Test level than a pass from the ground. Organisation of defence,defence itself,ball control at the breakdown,vision for opportunities and keeping the opposition focussed on the halback in order to give other players opportunities out wider are much more important. Watching Aaron Smith pass this way is a thing of beauty.Like watching Adam Scott swing a driver.However,it only occurs when the pack is going forward and ball presentation is good.Australian packs often struggle with this aspect of play and it limits possibilities for the half. The flowing pass from the ground is a schoolboy phenomenon,where defences are less organised and players are unsure of rules and where getting speedier players on the ouside of the opposition is a much more significant key to success.

Can't pass in a single movement from the ruck base. Still throws poor passes under pressure.

"Burgess was an improvement but", but nothing. It was light and day. It was so lucky the rebels were able to get burgess on so early, the result would have been significantly in the chiefs favor if not. How McGahan can't realize he has a world class half on the bench is beyond me.

The try act is completed when the whistle is blown. The player was the Rebels fullback and Rettalick had every right to throw himself into that play to add forward momentum to ensure his teammate was over the try line. There was nothing late about it, as i said the whistle determines what is late in that situation, and there was no clear indication to Rettalick or anyone else that the ball was grounded before that hit so you assume it's still in play and you carry on. There is nothing defenseless about a player trying to stop a try being scored and the fact he was facing the opposite direction means absolutely nothing, otherwise we would see players running backward to the tryline untouched. It may have been unnecessary in hindsight but they don't have that luxury in the heat of battle.

A question for those who are more in touch with the rules surrounding the ruck; Is it illegal for two opposing players to 'clean out' a ruck area by lifting the opposing player off the ground and take him back 3-4 m away from the ruck? I know Gregor Paul the NZ Herald rugby writer highlighted both the Crusaders and Chiefs for illegal play around the rucks http://www.nzherald.co.nz/gregor-paul/news/article.cfm?a_id=196&objectid=11230968 which seems to have fallen on deaf ears however as all sides do it to an extent, the fore mentioned teams are far more blatant than others though what was new to me was the carry lift clean out. If legal a great move but I would think it isn't?

I promised myself I would avoid negative highlights as I eased myself back into the Roar, lasted two weeks. Brodie Retallicks dangerous, late and with a hint of malice hit on the Rebels hooker as the Chiefs scored their try was poor. Plain as day and seen by the TMO, Ref and his eagle eyed assistants repeatedly as they viewed replay after replay but not one of them thought to to raise the question "looks a bit poor that hit eh fellas?" Now whether you wear a one eye patch for your team, your country these late hits are dangerous and can inflict potentially serious injuries. Remember this wasn't a ruck but a defenseless player getting hammered from behind in the in goal as the try act was completed. Different referee a different outcome maybe but with blatant cases like this even the most under performing refs we have at present in the Super 15 should get the right outcome with poor hits like that?

Once again the scrumhalf's poor service at the beginning of the game cost them. Sorry Nic, at this level you are not yet ready. Burgess was an improvement but... he still cannot pass off his bootlaces and that is the no 1 skill needed in the position. I hope the team is proud of that effort, first time ever they held a Kiwi side to less than 30 pts, bonus point loss to the current two-time champions... Very nearly the ShackleDraggers came close to winning all their games