Except for the last five to ten minutes, a great and entertaining game, well worth my money and my time. I frequently find these NRC games more fun to watch than most SR games, and fifteen tries in a match is great to watch.

As someone noted, the big difference was in the centres. The Rams centres were fine on attack (although they seemed more like forwards), but on defence they were no match to the QLD pair (which played well).

Shame as at 31 to 38 with ten to go I thought we could sneak it in, but instead they blew out the score with two intercept tries and a lucky one.

I thought the forwards battle was really tight, very even. Sometimes the Rams carrying the ball were without support, which shouldn’t happen, gave away some turnovers due to that. Roach and Jeb had good games, kudos to both (except for Jeb kicking a dead ball after a penalty which resulted in an extra ten against us, unnecessary).

Nick Phipps was very sharp in the passing, very good. Scored an opportunistic try which was very nice.

Mack indeed had an off game, he played much better in previous Rams matches. His kicking was poor too.

I was happier with Takele this game. He’s always dangerous on attack, but this time his defensive positioning was much better, he made many good tackles too. Hope he keeps improving these two aspects. Needs to improve his control in the finishing of his runs – when he gets tackled, he’s often alone, needs to control the tackle until support comes or offload better; at least three times QLD turned over his balls.

Only other player I know by name is the other winger, John, thought he had a good match. Hope he gets a SR contract, is deserving it.

Thought that from the performance in the first games we were going to classify for the finals for the first time, looking unlikely now. Shame, it’s not a bad team, just some deficiencies to correct.

Shame also the crowd was so small. I know it was a drizzly day, but not heavy rain. It’s great rugby to watch, worth attending.

I’ve only seen Mason play a few minutes for the Tahs, and last week and this week for the Rams.

Last week he was very good, orchestrated the victory. Disagree his in-game kicking is poor, from last week and this week it looked pretty good (better than Foley, but that’s not saying much) . Defensively he put in the tackles as well, even on the big guys. Didn’t see him making big line breaks, he mostly distributed or went into contact, so no opinion.

I was at all these games, it may look different on TV (didn’t watch the recordings), but he seemed pretty good to me. Only 20, still in good time to develop.

It was a great game, really enjoyed it. Helped that the sun was out, beautiful weather for rugby.

Rams won it on the strength of their forwards, with Jed and Hugh having great games.

Mack Mason wasn’t as sharp as last week, but still good. I liked the Rams 14 as well, he looks like a hot prospect.

Agree regarding Taquele, but he was better this week than last week.

What’s up with the Rams defence positioning? The Ray’s managed more than nine clear line breaks (7 in the first half alone). Fortunately they got few points out of them, but still this needs to be corrected.

Happy to have attended, just disappointed with the crowd. It’s great rugby, of a high standard, more entertaining than Super Rugby. Really worth going to see.

Média is ignoring it, which is sad. Not a word in SMH and other majors, and it’s quiet even on the Roar.

I saw Latu play for the Rams last week at TG Millner, not surprised he’s omitted. He looked out of form.

I think he played well for the Waratahs this year, great ruck work. Using my light blue tinted glasses, best Aussie hooked in action.

But he does look out of shape.

BTW, it was a great game of rugby. Mack Mason played an excellent game, as did Jed Halloway. Going to the Ram vs Rays tomorrow on the back of that game, should be another great entertainer.

Looking forward to this, some great rugby in the past editions.

Piru, still doesn’t work – Folau made 49 tackels, DHP 23. I can’t remember if DHP missed a lot of games, but if not it looks like Folau was there more frequently than DHP.

Woeful, but only a reflection of the season. Nothing has changed – terrible defence, bad start to games, inability to score even when camped for long stretches at the opposition 10, multiple ball handling errors.

I’m glad Gray is going (but sad about to where).

Gibson has to go too, irrespective of him being a good or bad coach he clearly doesn’t have the group – players played with no heart, no want, no passion.

Hopper is our best player (even better than Folau), but I’m not convinced in him as the captain. Team makes many poor decisions with him, can’t change pace. Let him focus on playing his heart out, give the capitancy to someone with a cooler head on.

At least it was nice to watch the Jaguares play well (they are my second team). If they had played like this the rest of the season, they would be making the finals (in the SA conference). Kudos to them for finally getting it right, hope they continue to.

Just could have done with the artistic fall that led to Hannigan’s yellow. Ref should have yellow carded both players, one for the stupid strike back, the other for the silly artistics.

BTW, stadium wasn’t empty at all, despite the cold and the AB game just before. Fair-weather fans didn’t attend, but the core supporters were there. Lots of kids too, which was nice (were they counted, or was the 10k just the paying attendance?).

Was there when we won it, will be there today.

Beautiful day, hoping for a good game.

Hope “Los hermanos” play well 🙂

Congratulations

Jeznez, agree that the focus now needs to be in building for next year.

Locks is indeed the place to start, getting the young guns game ready. I also wonder what is going to come out of either Rebels or Force, both have good locks, it’s where I’d be focusing if I was the Tahs recruiter.

I though the scrum was fine while the starters were on, won a couple of scrum penalties. Issues started when the subs came on.

Discipline has been an issue all year, that’s not just the coaching but Hooper’s leadership on field. I think he is a fantastic player, but not yet fully convinced of his leadership.

Kicking is also an ongoing concern. Interesting that two of our best and key players, Foley and Folau, have weak in game kicking. What makes it worst is that we push this, kicking to ball to kiwi sides that love to have ball in hand; nothing like playing to the adversary’s strengths. This should be coachable, but it’s not a new issue.

Another “less than 80 mins” performance. I would give it 65 mins this time, which is an evolution from previous games (except for last week’s) but still not enough to face strong teams.

I disagree with those that say Mumm was unlucky – it was a clear high tackle by the definition of the law, and if there wasn’t a second Tahs player helping with the landing it could have been a red. Mumm gives away too many penalties and gets into too many fights.

My beef is that in the ten minutes without him, it wasn’t just the numerical disadvantage or that the Landers lifted – to me the Waratahs wilted ?. Yes, it’s tough to play a good team when numerically down, but even harder when you hang your head and don’t try quite as hard. Without those ten minutes the score was 30×28, which I think was a fair reflection of the match. Good teams rise in adversity, the Tahs didn’t.

I think we also let ourselves down at the end of the game, gave away some easy tries. Not saying we would have won, it was an entertaining and relatively even match (the ten minutes not included), but if we had been stronger in the end it could have gone our way.

Clearly the Landers bench was stronger than ours, particularly in the forwards. Need to lose both sub-props urgently.

Agree the ref and TMO made some bad decisions, I think two Landers tries should have been disallowed (the first, clear offside; the one next to the try line, knock on before the scorer dived over the ruck – is that even allowed? ). But there were mistakes against the Landers as well.

OK, this is a learning year and I didn’t expect us to win, just hoped we would play well. It was clearly better than most of the season, but still not good enough.

Against the Chiefs, again, expectation is that we play well, hopefully for 80 mins. Win or lose at this point doesn’t matter. But play well.

I find the distance between the two cities highly irrelevant in this case.

No two major cities in Australia are really driving distance from each other. The closest is Sydney – Canberra, which I’ve driven multiple times, but wouldn’t face the 3.5hs to go and watch a match. Canberra to Melbourne is a 7hr drive.

That means that any fan wanting to watch a match outside of their city will fly. I’ve flow the four hours to Perth more than once for work. It’s more expensive than a hop between Canberra and Melbourne but the assumption is that most people (vast majority) don’t fly to watch their team. They will watch the home matches only, unless they have other reasons to be in the other city. For those few that will travel, the price difference wouldn’t be significant.

Where the team trains on a day to day basis also makes low difference to the fans. I’ve been to Tahs open training in Sydney a few times. Realistically it was quite empty, except for a few die-hards like me. You would want to do promotions in both cities, which shouldn’t be a problem if properly planned.

It’s more relevant for the lower divisions, so they can get exposure to the higher level during training and show themselves to the coaching staff; you’d need to find a balance between the two locations to ensure you are developing talent in both.

In terms of synergy between the cities, don’t think there is any between the three, not really a factor.

Realistically what I’m proposing is to reduce the offer (ie home matches) to the two smaller markets by 50%. Everything else effectively stays mostly the same.

It retains the development structures in both locations (and the natural pathway for developing players).

I’m not a Brumbies fan, but accept they have been the most successful Aussie team. They have a loyal entrenched fan base which keeps them rolling (notwithstanding poor management at times). No sense in messing them.

More sense to adjust the two others (mind you, I’d prefer to keep both). My suggestion keeps some rugby for both, instead of killing off one for a generation.

Don’t think it would be easy or pretty. Just better than the alternative.

First Tahs game this year where I enjoyed watching the whole game (even the moments when the Rebels had the upper hand). It wasn’t perfect (few games are) but it was entertaining.

I hope they can keep up the standard in the coming weeks. The two games in New Zealand will be very difficult, but winning or losing, if we play well I’ll be happy.

Thanks Adrian, agree that there needs to be more and better marketing.

Niche sports abound, rugby is number 1 only in a handful of countries. It just needs to be big and strong enough to sustain itself and provide entertainment to fans like you and me. It was very small in Brazil and USA where I played. Much bigger in England, where I coached.

In Brazil you had to support a football club (at least for males), people found you odd if you didn’t. I “found” rugby because I though football was a bit boring (and really was bad at playing it :-). Was open to a niche, just loved it when I found it.

There certainly will be sufficient NSWelch, Queenslanders, Kiwis, Safas, PIs and others living in Vic and WA to sustain rugby, plus the local converted. Question is if they can grow it enough to sustain a team each. Hopefully in the future.

It’s a shame that it comes down to reduce a team, but professional sport needs to face commercial reality. I think the argument that the player base is too deluded is poor (you only grow the players by exposing them to the highest level), but if the revenues are not enough to sustain the expansion then change needs to happen. The ARU needs to use the revenue to feed the grassroots, not to support professional teams.

Forced mergers are hard to succeed, but given the circumstances it’s the Rebel Force combination that makes more sense to me.

Play some games in each emerging market (Melbourne and Perth), to retain a toehold in each. (Crusaders and Chiefs play in more than one city, although recognisably close by; so do the Sunwolves – Tokyo, HK, Singapore).

Wallabies don’t play in Sydney multiple times a year, but I still go to the one they do and watch the others on TV. Tickets for that one game are expensive too, and stadium normally full.

Some fans in each city would be lost, but at least not all the fans in one city.

Use the two NRC teams as the the feeders. Keep the academies in each state, allow both to serve as pathway to Super Rugby (more competitive, yes, but coming from smaller club bases). QLD and NSW have multiple NRC feeder teams, ACT as well as they hire players from the NSW NRC teams.

The combined player base would hopefully create a stronger team (but not my biggest concern). The other three teams can get the ‘leftovers’.

Harder to decide where the training base would be (and families would live), but perhaps the week before a game in the other city could mean training there (giving exposure to the feeder teams and local fans). Infrastructure would already be present.

Make the resulting team a JV between Cox and the WA government (?). ARU owns the Force, so easier to resolve the equity. If the combined entity has a greater chance to be profitable, then it’s in Cox’s interest to make a deal.

Would the combined team have a chance to be profitable? Perhaps. With less games per year in each city, stadiums might be a bit fuller. Combined fan base between the two cities might buy more merchandise, provide higher TV ratings. Perhaps. At least, it’s one less mouth for the ARU to feed.

It’s a shame that it comes down to reduce a team, but professional sport needs to face commercial reality. I think the argument that the player base is too deluded is poor (you only grow the players by exposing them), but if the revenues are not enough to sustain the expansion then change needs to happen.

Agree that forced mergers are hard to succeed, but given the circumstances it’s the Rebel Force that makes more sense to me.

Play some games in each emerging market, to retain a toehold in each. (Crusaders and Chiefs play in more than one city, although recognisably close by; so do the Sunwolves – Tokyo and HK).

Use the two NRC teams as the the feeders. Keep the academies in each state, allow both to serve as pathway to Super Rugby (more competitive, yes, but coming from smaller club bases). QLD and NSW have multiple NRC feeder teams, ACT as well as they hire players from the NSW NRC teams.

The combined player base would hopefully create a stronger team. Other three teams can get the ‘leftovers’.

Make the resulting team a JV between the private owner and the WA government. ARU owns the Force, so easier to resolve the equity.

Harder to decide where the training base would be (and families would live), but perhaps the week before a game in the other city could mean training there (giving exposure to the feeder teams and local fans).

I think it’s funny those that rally against the “greed” of the ARU. Professional sport need to be self-sustaining, money doesn’t grow on trees. The ARU should use the profits to invest in the grassroots, not use the revenues to sustain unprofitable teams. I’m left leaning, but don’t believe in handouts. No rich benefactor has come forth, wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for one.

Realistically, few professional teams around the world are highly profitable. The Reals and Manchesters are the exception, in general professional teams marginally survive, trying to balance between player salaries and revenues. But the Force and Rebels seem to have been unprofitable for too long, with no sign of turning it around.

Would the combined team have a chance to be profitable? Perhaps. With less games per year in each city, stadiums might be a bit fuller. Combined fan base between the two cities might buy more merchandise, provide higher TV ratings. Perhaps. At least, it’s one less mouth for the ARU to feed.

Don’t think the ARU has handled the situation well, but realistically it is a hard situation and some people will be left unhappy.

I was at the stadium and bore witness. IT WAS WOEFUL.

At least against the Rebels, Crusaders and Hurricanes we played well for long patches (40-60mins in each game), I enjoyed watching that. Tonight? I can’t think of a stretch of this game where I was enjoying myself.

Our first three tries were against run of play, the last two across field, lucky steals when the King’s were at our try line. Backs showed some skill in them, but where we’re they the rest of the game?

The Tahs need to urgently regrow a backbone, as it was missing tonight.

I’m a thought and through rugby fan and a die-hard Tahs supporter. But a performance like tonight shakes me to my roots.

I’ve never before left a rugby game angry. Disappointed with a loss at times, but not angry.

Good grief!

Good summary Digger. I’m sad to have read it before watching some of the recordings.

Re Easter Monday, it’s not observed everywhere. It is in AU, UK, NZ, it isn’t in USA, Argentina, Brazil, Japan (don’t know other countries). You’d have to see where the broadcaster’s audience is to see if they would get eyeballs (which drives dates and times more than people being able to go to the stadiums).

I would simply make it 20, four groups of five – NZ, AU, SA and others (2 Arg, 1 JP, 1 Pacific, 1 North America). Eight games in the group, nine outside (three from each other group). 1st and 2nd in each group go to finals (top overall vs lowest, etc).

Local derbies and finals bring highest revenue, there would be plenty for all groups.

Agree

Last week the Tahs played well for 60 minutes, this week for 40. Can’t win like that.

I’m pinning this on the coaching at this point. Defence on the first half was just ludicrous, completely disjointed and lacking discipline. Kicking possession away to a team that thrives on possession is just ridiculous. Attitudes were poor as well, no heart, heads down. That first half was hard to watch and we were lucky not to be punished even harder.

Second half shows we can get it right if we focus. Same thing as in the middle of the ‘Saders game, second half of the Rebels game. Play with confidence and maximising our capabilities, score. Not saying we would have won both games, but it would at least have been an even contest.

Many defensive errors, but the award winner this time was Mumm, followed by Niayavoravoro. But almost everyone else missed a tackle.

What happened to the scrum? Last week they played well against the Crusaders (which are no push overs), this week they were destroyed. Tom, get well soon. At least we held our lineouts.

We played well 40 mins, 30 of which under Phipps. I like Gordon, think it’s great the two of them battle for the position, will make both lift their games.

Seven of the fifteen starters are on their first or second season at this level, as most of the bench also. Last year and this year are not our years, my expectations were never high. But the inconsistency and the errors are below par, I am disappointed. Hope they take the bie week to very closely review the errors, but also the good bits to boost the confidence that we can do it right when we focus.

That’s a good summary Thugby, just wrote something in similar lines on the other game article before reading yours. I thought we did well against though opposition for 60 minutes, but the first 10 and last 10 cost us dearly, and it’s where the failings above were exacerbated (although present throughout the game).

Being there and watching, the first ten and last ten minutes were hard to watch, but the sixty minutes in between were a great, even contest. The points the Crusaders scored before we woke up hurt, and the fade in the last ten minutes blew the score out to not reflect the actual game. I was at the edge of my seat at ~70mins, when it was 22×29 and we had all the momentum, really thought we were going to tie it.

Disagree with someone’s comment about the lineouts, I think we did pretty well on our throw, and held the scrums and driving mauls really well. Our problem wasn’t the set pieces, it was the loose game and particularly the defence.

I lost count of the missed tackles, particularly in the bad 20 mins. It’s as if the Tahs players had lost the will to live during those moments. I never disliked Reece and have really warmed up to him this season, but two tries were his direct missed tackles.

Can we please stop with the useless box-kicks? Jake did half a dozen, Nick a few more, can’t remember a single one that generated an advantage for us. We just gave the ball away to a team that is very dangerous with ball in hand. Wasteful. Coaches, turn it off!

Too many mistakes as well, missed dropped passes, positioning, etc. This has been a constant problem in the last two years, doesn’t seem to be getting better.

Hard to judge the rucks when at the stadium, not sure how we did there. Ref did ping us many times, wonder if he was being harsh or we were trying too hard.

Jake is making a name for himself, he got a deserved man of the match from the stadium crowd (and I’m a Phipps supporter). I liked Mack’s debut as well, he lacked the experience to hold the team together during the crucial moments, but it was his first cap against fabulous opposition, quite a good start.

I think Folau had a poor game. At one point he was walking around when we had a great attacking opportunity (a kick forward), I thought he was even hurt (a medic came on field to talk to him), but he continued on.

Overall, I think we did ok in patches, but that there is something missing. It’s as if the team isn’t clicking, lacks confidence. Darryl, this isn’t your first season anymore, need to give the team some pattern and a boost in confidence. I know it’s still a young team, many players in their second or first season, but it doesn’t feel like it’s the cattle that’s missing.

Finally, lets remember that this was the Crusaders, who are at the top of the championship. Merritt to them.

An article that isn’t saying the sky is falling on our heads! Blafemous, off with his head!

Agree DK, AU rugby fans are in desperate need of lightening up. After the second place in the RWC, it felt almost as if we had been eliminated in the first round, not England. I’ve been in Oz for almost a decade now, and it’s always doom and gloom. I actually wonder if this isn’t RL paying media consultants to be in rugby discussions sharing bad thoughts.

I do agree with someone’s comment, though, on atmosphere in the stadiums. I go to Tahs and Wallabies games when they are in Sydney, they are always so sombre and quiet (no matter the result). Going to the Stoop to watch the Harlequins or to Twickenham to watch any international was loud and passionate (and less than in Wales or Ireland). The Tahs final against the Crusaders felt closest to electric, but still no match.

Finally, also agree with many that have spoken about the grass roots. The performance at the top level is only a reflection of what’s coming up. If the ARU wants Oz rugby to be strong, they need to invest in the kids.

Brett, thank you for digging into this. It looked wrong, smelt wrong, glad you clarified.

Carlos’ explanation is spot on, and add to it ‘who was it that commissioned the survey and with what purpose’. Not too hard to skew the questions to get to the answer you want, if you are not looking for an impartial result.

Finally, poor of Roy Morgan when anyone can do a back of the envelope to see the results are wrong. They should have done this back of the envelope before releasing to avoid the egg on their face.