Roar Pro
Joined February 2014
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A footy fan who mostly watches the rugby codes, and is very opinionated about all things sport.
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In Monday's Australian, Bret Harris quoted an unnamed Australian rugby CEO saying the ARU had to be prepared let South Africa and New Zealand…
I am big fan of Super Rugby, but if there is one thing about it which annoys me - apart from the home town…
I had a busy weekend at the Sydney Football Stadium, attending the World Club Challenge on Saturday night before heading straight back the following…
Well the NRL must be pleased they blocked his return right about now.
Folau is really just now an unemployed lunatic, so we ought to start ignoring him like we would a man raving on a street corner about the end of the world.
That said, I also think at this point all the people that donated money to this buffoon should be asking for it back so they can redirect it to the families that have been devastated by the fires.
Israel Folau links bushfire crisis and drought to same-sex marriage and abortion
Definitely not, and not just because Australia were abysmal. The Japanese were a fantastic host country and definitely deserve points for putting on such a great tournament from an organisational and hosting standpoint, but on the pitch the World Cup was an absolute mess until the quarter finals.
During the pool stages I witnessed possibly the most inconsistent and incompetent displays of officiating I’ve seen in any football code, with the role of the TMO in particular being extremely disruptive and often excessive pedantic.
Then, once the finals began, a switch appeared to be flicked where yellow and red cards were suddenly reversed back to their prior status as tools for obvious foul play and the TMO was less inclined to butt in on every occasion to call back plays from earlier in the half.
All in all, the tournament gets a pass having it’s marks split across a clear success in hosting and a clear failure in officiating the actual games.
Was this the best ever Rugby World Cup?
The irony is that the best side in Europe – England – seems to borrow even more League thinking than Cheika ever did.
Eddie has Craig Bellamy and Ricky Stuart in his set up at various points in the last couple seasons leading into this World Cup and used the Storm’s tackling coach through their WC campaign.
Perhaps the problem with Australia is that we’re not as good at utilizing the talents of our other codes as other countries are at using our people.
VOTE: Who should be the next Wallabies coach?
Is a lack of outside backs the Wallabies main issue? I really don’t think so.
Rugby Australia target Suliasi Vunivalu for 2023 World Cup
I think you could have just started with 5 and left it at that.
Five things we learned from the Wallabies' win over Georgia
God this was a depressing performance. The Wallabies always look like a side that is confused and thinks it’s playing sevens rugby… the ball is constantly and mindlessly just flung side to side, with no really clear game plan set for different conditions or opponents with different skill sets. It’s always the same high tempo style, and every time they do it they show they don’t have the skills or cohesion to pull it off!
Scoreboard flatters Wallabies in 27-8 win over Georgia
I think the point of the article is the same one you’re making…
Chooks won. They were better. The end.
I’m not a Roosters or Raiders fan, yet I don’t see how there’s an asterisk on this win. End of the day the Raiders had their chances and the 6 again call happened when the scores were locked at 8-8 with 9 minutes still left. Sure, they had to hand over possession when they got confused by the call change, but it was absolutely within their power to still win the game with the Roosters camped on their 10 metre line. The Roosters just had more polish and that 90 metre effort showed the difference between the two sides.
Chooks won. They were better. The end.
” ref all games the same. Duh. No other sport has such lubile rules. Even rugby fairs better usually. Commentators don’t help.”
Trust me mate, us Rugby fans most definitely do not fair better. Not remotely… if you’d been watching the refereeing calamity that has taken place in Union over the past couple years you’d appreciate that things in Rugby League could be MUCH worse.
Chooks won. They were better. The end.
I agree with the “enough rope” analogy, but frankly that’s what he’s doing. It’s not the responsibility for RA to heighten his platform, and at the end of the day we live in a country where the High Court recently upheld the sacking of a public servant for making criticisms of government policy from an anonymous twitter account.
So let’s not pretend this only happens to religious people. It’s just that they’re under the impression that they should have more rights than the rest of us.
How the loss of Israel Folau has improved the Wallabies backfield
Beale at full back is a much better option for kicking than Folau ever was. He’s also a great broken field runner
How the loss of Israel Folau has improved the Wallabies backfield
Agreed. Ultimately, what the outrage brigade seem to have trouble with was that the none of the controversial decisions of the night actually had a direct bearing on whether or not to award points, like say the controversy of the Cricket World Cup.
I get people are passionate about their sport, but it shows a real lack of perspective for people not to see that all the tries scored were clear and in themselves had no controversy at all and so all the points were down to defensive errors or impressive play.
The last try of the game in particular was absolutely beautiful to watch and was as deserving a score as you could imagine.
Chooks won. They were better. The end.
I agree with Birthday suit – it’s really only a small set of very loud people that are making these things out to be bigger than they were. As a union neutral, I just saw this as a game where one team weathered adversity better than their opposition.
The Roosters were given a harsh sin bin and lost a key player 13 minutes in that apparently is responsible for organising a lot of their defence. Yet they held on against a Raiders side that never lost a player to injury or sin bin and had almost 70 percent of possession. It was an incredible effort by a champion side
Chooks won. They were better. The end.
The NRL have to back their officials though, and this is a uniform position in all sports. In Union we’ve seen an avalanche of awful decisions marring games to the point that World Rugby has admitted that their referees have not been up to standard. A quite incredible step for such a large organisation. But look at what the result has been – just more outrage being now compounded by further criticism that WR have admitted their own incompetence and that no result can now be considered fair.
The calls the NRL are defending are relatively minor ones compared to the contest destroying flicking out of red cards like confetti that genuinely destroy contests and lack any sort of common sense or consistency. Yet the vitriol that has been leveled at the NRL referees all year has been worse than what their union counterparts have copped. With that in mind it’s little wonder they’re doing what they can to try calm things down.
Chooks won. They were better. The end.
Folau was a full back with no kicking game… the team had to make a lot of adjustments tactically to accommodate this and I agree with Nick that the new structure looks more dynamic.
How the loss of Israel Folau has improved the Wallabies backfield
Very well put Matt. Like I’ve said elsewhere, coming at this from a Union perspective I frankly didn’t think any of the refereeing decisions rose to the level of “match defining”. At most, they amounted to providing or denying one side an opportunity to attack on a few occasions. The Roosters took their opportunities and rallied on the ones they lost, whilst the Raiders didn’t take their opportunities and seemed to fall apart on the ones they lost.
Chooks won. They were better. The end.
@My Little Pony – yes absolutely. In fact there’s footage of a similar tackle early in the season resulting in a send off for an attack on Cam Munster.
Ben Cummins is a good man and a great referee – so lay off him!
Yes, the trainer rule clearly is a dumb rule. I agree with that and it’s likely it will change in the off season. But it was a freak occurrence and ultimately it overshadowed what would most likely have been a penalty to the Roosters.
Ben Cummins is a good man and a great referee – so lay off him!
I think it’s clear you don’t have a real question Peter. You just want to rant and deflect any responsibility for the Raiders loss on then
The NRL knew the risks for years about on-field trainers and did nothing
I think at this point we can safely say you’re not seeing straight on this match Peter. It’s hard when your team loses a big game, and it’s always easier to try and pin the blame on anything but their performance so you don’t have to admit that they had any responsibility for the result, but I think you need to try to move on and just be proud of the effort they made.
Ben Cummins is a good man and a great referee – so lay off him!
Peter, you need to watch the replay… if you’re honestly arguing Soliola didn’t make contact with Keary’s legs late and whilst he’s in mid air, then you’re either blind or too one eyed to see reality on this issue.
Ben Cummins is a good man and a great referee – so lay off him!
Like I say above, I’d have a look at Soliola dangerously charging into Keary’s legs late and whilst he’s in mid air before making that claim.
Ben Cummins is a good man and a great referee – so lay off him!
I’ve written this elsewhere, but as a Union fan this claim amuses me the most. In rugby Soliola would have been yellow carded for running shoulders first into a player in mid air late. In rugby league that’s still a penalty but in Union it’d have been more damaging to the Raiders.
The great and amazing irony of the trainer situation was that it distracted from that clear penalty. Ultimately the result was a partial advantage to the Roosters through a scrum feed as opposed to a full penalty, which it should have been. Had the trainer not been there, the bunker likely would have gone back to check on sides and would have seen this dangerous tackle.
Ben Cummins is a good man and a great referee – so lay off him!
The problem with this line of thinking is that the full sermon doesn’t really make anything better. The nasty and petty minded central claim that god is punishing people with fire because of a few laws that the church doesn’t approve of is no less ridiculous for the inclusion of some more benign language earlier in the sermon.
In essence you and the ACL’s argument amounts to “look at all the time in the longer sermon Folau spent not being a hate mongering lunatic”.
It’s not terribly compelling, and if it’s the best the ACL have got, then I’d suggest they close shop…
Israel Folau links bushfire crisis and drought to same-sex marriage and abortion