NSW Waratahs vs Highlanders: Super Rugby Pacific live scores and blog

I was surprised at 13k, thought it was more. But you are right the crowd was noisy and into the game, especially compared to the Moana game last season, which was a pretty dead atmosphere. Bit of a concern with 13k & they couldn’t get the bars working efficiently, getting a drink was a disaster. But on reflection we were healthier .

Rugby Australia website (5 things we learnt from NSW ...) says crowd was 13,533. It looked more than that but there you go.

After all the over the top hooplah last week that Edmed was the real deal (after 1 good game) from writers on here - yeah naaaa he's not. Sounds cruel but if you're the kicker...you're meant to kick that. Also did nothing all game. No idea why but our 10's crumble under pressure and can't kick - Carter, edmed, donaldson missed the sitter for the wallabies away a few years ago. In a few years maybe Lynagh. He just keeps kicking them and adding up the points. Keeps the Reds in every game. He also leads them around the field pretty well, great kick down the field, and once in a while makes a few run breaks. Only negs i can see is he needs to add 5kg and we have to listen to Horan every game quote the exact same lines "i saw his dad michael and mum Isobel"

Fair enough too. My bad, too snippy

His head went down when he was told he was to kick it.

Because I was at touch football with the youngest. Missed all but the last 20.

Two daytime games tomorrow. In Fiji and Canberra.

I just hope the Reds step it up a notch. They have some good players across the park. I would love to see a good game where the Chiefs need to pull our all the stops to win a close one.

It's a fair call, Fakatava not even having the decency to look his interviewer in the eye.. de groot giving up on the interview.. i don't blame education though, i blame attitude.. it looks like the highlanders (with their dropkick home crowd, if i remember correctly?) have a grubby attitude about being the worst kiwi team..

I get what you’re saying. But I didn’t expect them to win much at all this year. Last week tipped the needle a bit, but not so far that I’m going into games expecting to walk away with the chocolates so much that tonight was a let down.

Shows how much attention I paid...

The Tahs left about 17 points on the field in the first half hour, it seemed to me.. journeys into the 22 with momentum that they coughed up.. came back to bite them – with the exception of maybe 5 minutes after the Highlander’s bomb squad came on I thought the Tahs were in the ascendancy… unfortunately Hannigan was guilty of about 3 turnovers during that opening period if I remember correctly.. he ended up doing some good things but, argh, losing the ball in contact, putting his hands in front of the ball (to be fair it looked harsh) and catching that kick offside might have been momentum killers.. Parese had a great game, but he looked bushed Very early, it’ll take a bit for him to sharpen up I guess.. Edmed came back to earth with kicking but his play was alright… Jorgensen looks a good as folks thought, but happily the coverage wasn’t trying to hype him up like last season, I prefer that.. quiet excellence, like Kellaway at the Rebels.. Tahs have wins in them, just weren’t ruthless enough especially early on || Edit: i should add that the Highlanders were really not ruthless, they looked like an Aussie team with all the unforced errors, if i say the tahs let the highlanders stay in touch i can equally say the same of the kiwis lol

I hated that Wilson only got 3 minutes. He needs to be let loose at tiring defenders. Think we missed a trick there

Generally that's so true. Very rarely is the short throw pulled up.

Hugh, I couldn't make tonight's game but have been to plenty of Tahs' matches at the SFS and off the tv that crowd looked at least 15k plus. And they were enthusiastic! I went to see M.Hooper's last match in Sydney Final round SRP2323. The game was against Moana Pasifika. Apart from moans of frustration, the 21k crowd that night was quiet as a mouse for most of the game as the wheels fell off the February Champs. The only real cheers were the after-match awards and speeches from Hoops. Tonight's crowd were far louder and showing animation and fan love to the Tahs. Good to see. :happy:

We have a roof these days, now to to make some walls....

:laughing: Wouldn’t you have home ground advantage there OM?

And yet later on in the match the Stan ex-player commentary experts wanted to talk up how good Ned is now he's all grown up. The biggest problem with SRP as a 'media product' is the consistently poor standard of commentary, both in Australia and in NZ.

:laughing:

Defence was good I think both sides struggled to break down the opposing sides defence.