Reds rue referee calls in loss to Waratahs

I think the Ref got it right with the knees. Foley dropped that pill. Gill was blocked. Nevertheless, Schatz should have grassed Holloway. In any case, that game was won by Tahs fair and square.

Well Vince, you've just confirmed your lack of journalistic skills by playing the tired hackneyed old "refs decisions cost game" card. Read your claims in paragraphs 3 and 4, and both are subjective at best. Try focusing on the real issues, not inventing minor ones. Report card: Vince needs to try harder.

Positives for the Reds - not forgetting a bit of drive and aggression - ok it may have to be directed a bit but these are the essential building blocks of any decent pack - I did not expect much from the Reds this year but I like the heart this team is showing. Get a pack and then everything else gets a wee bit easier - ask the Crusaders - we've been living off ours for the history of the tournament.

Surely your wrong , if your right wouldn't it mean geese would go backwards when they paddle and every time they tried to dive their bum would sink and head shoot up . Would make throwing them bread fun to watch though !

should have been a penalty the moment that player hit the deck. The referee is to blame for not blowing the whistle then the player wouldn't have been placed in that dangerous position to begin with.

One hand one bounce isn't it? ;-)

#12, Hooper stopped and asked the ref, as he didn't want to draw a penalty. You can see and hear him, plus the commentators mentioned it. The referee called it out so Hooper grabbed it and ran. Smart play as (a) he didn't get penalised and (b) he had enough time to ask and act on it. I would be yelping more that the Reds players stood around discussing macrame this weekend rather than jump on the ball or Hooper and stop him.

But picked it up on the first bounce so all good. Interesting that the highlights package above failed to include that passage of play but did show Foley calmly slotting the penalty. The "ice-man".

The first knee appeared accidental to me. In reality if New South Wales hadn't collapsed it wouldn't have happened. The second knee however should have resulted in someone getting sent off. Both teams were fairly ordinary with NSW lucky not to be punished more for their poor scrums but you couldn't say Queensland deserved to win

Line out is not as strong, but having lost their two of their three best players for stealing line out ball, as well as their best throwing hooker, and having their second best throwing hooker injured, it's not unreasonable to expect a slight regression. It's where they go from here that counts. The set piece isn't the sole job of the forwards, but it's a damn good chunk. We are probably one strong runner short, and a bit slow in our ruck work. But at the same point, the backs have repeatedly killed any quick ball through slow clearance from the 9 or poor work out wide so it's not making their job easy in that regard. Last year Genia was exactly the same. Any time a forward had a good run and got over the gain line he'd stand at the ruck ponderously, seemingly waiting for the defenders to get on-site and ready before we played the next phase. I think the same players would be more effective being directed around the park by Phipps and Foley than they are by anybody Graham coached.

twas.. lineout average this year.. so going backwards if comparing to last year.. hanson big loss.. as said before, holmes will be an even bigger loss next year.. as for forward play.. u seem to know a bit about the game.. so you know that there is a heck of a lot more to forward play than just set pieces.. our breakdown work the past couple of years has been very ordinary (especially when gill is not there), our mauling, no structure nor idea of how to do it appears.. go forward, next to nothing and too much one man stuff out with bad body height, size wise our guys are no smaller than any other team, so obvioiusly technique is an issue.. linking with backline, non-exisitent, how many times this year has a piggie been standing at first five and then not known what to do and just shoveled it along or gone to ground isolated.. basic handling skills of our forwards is not pretty, let alone moving onto something like offloading which seems to be something that hasn't yet made it to the training ground.. i know richard was responsible for the team and it was his call for the forwards coach these oast years.. so he needs to take the blame for this position we are in.. but stiles has not covered himself in glory with our forward play.. when i ask a department head what we need, he gives me the numbers and the reasoning and then we get what are we missing, if within reason and possible obviously.. that is what the department heads are there for.. for stiles to be teflon like over these difficult past two years is a bit disingenuous.. as for the backs the less said about o'connor the better..

But it's not so unlikely. It's very likely.

I'd be questioning their upbringing probably, based on their parent's naming them that.

it is clearly possible?.. perhaps... but so unlikely it should be punished as the thuggery it clearly was

So a player's guilt is solely judged by previous actions, none of which he's been cited or charged for, without considering the merit of the incident? Sound reasonable. I assume if you have a criminal history you'll have no problem being convicted of a crime, regardless of the merit of the case, solely because of your past? I think the real story here is that Andrew Ready has to be the wallaby hooker for his scrummaging. Any player who can have such control of his height and direction despite being fully bound to his props, and have the flexibility to manoeuvre his legs in such a manner surely would be a massive weapon in an international scrum.

"Didn’t think Foley knocked on." Nah he just taped the ball then dropped it forward onto the ground......

Well it is relevant, because you can be accidentally kneed in the head if you do it, or stomped. Ready's comment was probably made in that manner. That he didn't intentionally make contact, and only did because his head was where it shouldn't be. Not that he got his head in the wrong position, that he illegally collapsed to get his head there.

And when they collapse, how often do they not take the other front row down with them? Hard to drive over the top of somebody when your face is rammed into the ground with a mouthful of turf...

A yellow for collapses is irrelevant. It doesn't matter why the head was there or who collapsed it if you deliberately knee someone in the head. You get punished. It was a silly comment from Ready. That was my (pretty obvious) point.

Agree, I think he was generally decent.