Canberra Vikings vs Perth Spirit: NRC semi-final highlights, live scores, blog

EGC, Twiggy will rescue us from the mud, 2018 is a write off, maybe that's enough time to get the bad taste out of our mouths and actually start caring about the state of the Game in a National sense.

And so endenth my involvement in Rugby. There may be a local game or two left in me, but 2017 has just left such a bad taste in my mouth. There are major benefits to all of this. I now have less need for a Fox subscription (to be cancelled now that the NRC has ended) as I can see all the sports I want by other means, including paying to see them live. It also means that I will have time to turn my attention more fully to other sports and, you never know, I may even start to give a toss about League (actually, I doubt that). So goodbye Rugby. Goodbye to the Swamp Wallabies and the Eastern Australia Rugby Union. Thank you for the memories, and as a reflection of the loyalty you have shown me, I just want to affirm that I really really really couldn't give a toss about your future until you actually become a truly National sport once again.

By the way I have been a Canberran

By the way I have been a Canberran

Oh you don’t remember the western reds Wes cop our fair share

......'Eastern states'. How many players in the Spirit cut their teeth on the code in the East - plenty I expect. Please secede and spare us the unrelenting parochial hypberole...........

.........well now you know how its feels to be a Canberran since we are expedient in respect of all sporting codes including those where the pedigree is significant i.e. Union. There was little compassion coming out of the west or anywhere else for that matter, with calls to relocate the Brumbies since the inception of the club, on the contrary, this was actually being encouraged by many in Perth. It was the ACTRU that supported the Force from day dot despite the poaching of our players and Qld's to create the illusion of a Union DNA in the west, so while I empathise with your pain I also believe there to be some poetic justice in this as well.........

If you are able to be pulled down onto the ruck, you aren't adequately supporting your own weight. You go for the pilfer, you take the risk.

That was a great game, down to the wire!

So now the season is over and WA have fought on bravely through near on rugby genocide in the west. To be dismantled so brutally and with little compassion from those at rugby head quarters is like a knife driven into the heart. 12years I’ve dedicated myself to watching every game at home as well as some away buying tickets to fly east. I as a fan feel discriminated against because of where I live. I can’t just hop in a car and drive to a super rugby game which I was investing $450 approx a year to sit in my seat and watch my team win lose or draw. Buy the program which was $5, enjoy the company of fellow fans and even the friendly niggle and banter with the opposition. To see a game now I’d have to sit in front of an idiot box to watch a team who does not represent me in any form. Some and not all I am aware will tell me to suck it up, but to those you have not lost your team, your thrill of getting kitted up as a supporter and joining others as we march to the gates with the anticipation that maybe we will win this one, knowing our team will give their all in their attempt to do so! I hope the IPRC does come to something because without it I will invest my hard earned else where AFL is not far away here and I grew up on it -I’ve never hated it. It never abandoned me like Union has the 1991 wc inspired me to love the game yet some men in shirts and suit pants make me loathe the direction they have taken the sport. They have no idea the hurt and overall distrust we have for them.

Thanks guys. Another great game all round

What a game! Both teams should be applauded for no-holds tough rugby. Both forward packs belted each other and pretty much scored a draw, the difference being my MotM Rob Valetini. I guess if R.Arnold had scored that 4th try, he may have got all the accolades The Vikings speed in the backline stole two tries at the end to win the match. Whoever takes on Vikings in next week's Final will have to play out of their skins next week to have any chance. Perth Spirit came back from 27 points down against Queensland Country last week and won on the bell and today they almost stole the biscuits again with a late burst. The really sad thing is what Ritchie Arnold is saying post match, with no Force next year then the Spirit have been gutted of most of their top players who will turn out for the Rising or Vikings next year. Lastly, many thanks to Nick who has done a great job in the blog. Hope he runs off and sips a quality beer for his efforts. :)

Oh, I don't know. Perhaps I'm biased as a Vikings fan (I obviously am) and I'm sure you're right and some of those penalties weren't deserved even though I didn't notice a lot of what you're saying. That said I had thought that he should have gone to the pocket earlier and give the Spirit boys a YC and awarded the Vikings a penalty try during that period we got 3-4 scrum penalties 5m out. As I said, however, I am biased on this issue :) Anyway, ignoring all of that I was really impressed with, as you say, the intent and intensity of the players. That lost multi-phase play by the Spirit in which they went the length of the field and almost scored was incredible. Vikings lucky to get away with the win after that and the poor line out at the end. Still, happy with the result.

To me that was the worst game I've seen all year. I'm seething now. Why? Because it was decided by a poor referee who ended the match with 15 vs 14. And why? Because the referee made a bunch of marginal decisions, some of which were simply wrong. The Spirit player penalised for diving over in the penalty before the yellow card was in fact dragged down by the Vikings player. So based on an incorrect assumption the referee sends a player off the field for 10 minutes. So what should have been one of the best games of the year, in terms of intent from all the players, becomes the worst game based on the fact it was decided by the referee not the players. What an incredible shame and indictment on our sport that the so called laws of the game allow referees to be so damn influential.

Huge effort from the boys. Buggered they couldn't go the distance. Almost showed up the eastern states with 14 men. I'm sure Rugby Eastern Australia will be happy now they don't have to worry about the spirit next year. Sad end to WA rugby unless the IPRC gets up.

That was a great game of rugby. Relieved about the result :)

Rob Valetini saves the game holding up Isi N 3 m from his line and causing a collapsed maul. What a finish!