Chiefs vs Queensland Reds: Super Rugby Pacific live scores, blog

The Reds can beat any team and probably will tip a top team out of the play offs . The Rebs and the Tahs will gift two sides advancement .

“Williams has a history of siding with NZ sides just like BOK.” “This is not saying NZ ref’s are inheritantly biased…” For me, those two statements are mutually exclusive, but that’s how I read them I guess. All refs make mistakes, and in general they balance out. Decisions in NZs favour tend to be noticed more as they tend to make more out of them than Aus sides, and they also tend to win. The thread during the game was rife with complaints. But the Reds won, so now no one really minds. If the Reds had lost, these threads would be going off line they always do after a close loss.

You mean the one that Williams pulled up as the chiefs player was not in a position to compete? I think most have glossed over the decisions because the Reds won, but to me these decisions are important because they give NZ sides an edge every now and then. This is not saying NZ ref's are inheritantly biased but Williams and BOK have made some huge head scratching decisions. To show that it doesn't just run one way Nick Berry has had his moments too with Ozzie sides.

Dunedin and ChCh crowds to bloody cold to do anything but shiver ???? Being in the islands for a Drua or MP game would be awesome. I’ve taken Hong Kong sevens off the bucket list and replaced it with that :stoked:

I’ve been to a few games in Canberra, they are up there with Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton. Doesn’t seem to be such an issue with Christchurch and Dunedin. I’m busting to go to a Drua match in Fiji, just for the atmosphere.

Pretty poor from the crowd. Seen it all season from all crowds, except I think in the islands. Aus and NZ crowds are both embarrassing.

Kispiracy strikes again… you saw through it though, well done.

Yea, happy that it did though, advantages are pretty inconsistent these days. You can go 25m up field and then be ruled no advantage. Chiefs needed to use it, like a cross field kick (another one) or something else to force the advantage. Just hitting it up was silly. And to dive over in a potentially ‘held up’ situation was dumb Rugby. Good on the Reds.

Pretty biased kiwi here, but even I was cheering them on at the end. Would have been too cruel for them to lose it at the last after that defensive effort. They deserved that win. They should be well proud of that.

Don’t down play. Might be some players not there, but that’s still the chiefs, it’s still a win. There are no asterisks on the points table.

Or the penalty for ‘playing in the air’ in the last 5mins or so when it was just a clear contest. Oh wait, that went against the Chiefs, carry on then, we don’t talk about that one. As for the calls on the dar side of scrums, might have been from ARs, you don’t know one way or the other. The ref didn’t decide this game, just as they don’t decide almost any other game. Reds wanted it more, stuck to their plan and managed to hold tight for an extraordinary amount of phases at the end. To the point the Chiefs didn’t know what to do and panicked. Why do we always have to bring up ref decisions and be like, ‘oh these were match defining calls’, ‘oh, he’s always bias’. None of that is interesting or constructive.

West, you know better. If they lose it’s all because of Thorn. If they win, it’s got nothing to do with him. At least according to some…

Thank you Francis. Tate has a great running game. And tonight his running was game changing. But test rugby also requires dependable, accurate passing, running, kicking and thinking. For mine, White has more balance in those regards. Jones explained his logic in that first squad. For all we know he was just looking at players to see how they handled the pressure of the squad. He was likely drawing lines through players names watching them inncamp. He didn’t ‘thumb his nose’ at Tate. He just didn’t invite him to one camp. Judging by tonight, his ploy make have worked. Tate had a blinder. His passing looked good too. May he continue in such fine form.

Tate made the diiference for the Reds tonight. Tate’s overall style of play as halfback is reminiscent of Will Genia, Aaron Smith and Justin Marshall. It is about the mindset during the 80 mins. Tate’s presence is quick a loose scrum is firmed and is fast at delivery at set scrums. Nic White seems slower at both. Age? Improved passing technique can be taught and trained. He still has time on his side. Nic White had an advantage of being in one of the most consistent teams in Aus rugby with reliable forwards in almost every game. The Reds cannot be said as so in recent times. Nic White came back from his Northern experience and he has a big boot and strong hands for passing and a strong mouth to also take on the ref. The real test for Nic White’s skills will be when he plays for the Force, if that comes to pass. BTW, I am a huge big fan of Brumbies since Gregan’s days.. and a harsh critic of the team when it plays dumb rugby.

Contra - If the Reds are capable of defending that well (and reducing their errors/penalties), why haven't the coaches been able to get that out of them until now?

Great job lads.

Agreed. I'm sick of this kind of talk. It was a chiefs home game.

It doesn't end in a draw. It's golden point in super rugby now.

I thought the ref (Paul Williams) had some poor and potentially biased calls. For example the scrum where he couldn't see the opposite side and a chiefs player went down first- at least reset scrum. Example 2: The high tackle close to the end of the game was shoulder high, not above. 3: Where Reds scrum had obvious dominance at the end of the game and the ref mid decision changed his mind. These were all potentially match altering calls with 5-10mins to go. Not mind blowing decisions but they are they type that generally allow enough room for NZ teams to win. Williams has a history of siding with NZ sides just like BOK.

I wonder if this will be repeated more often. How many games do we hear "and they were able to score just before the half time siren." insofacto bring on fresh legs earlier and stop the fatigue enabling tries.