Waratahs vs Brumbies: Super Rugby AU live scores, blog

Gardner had a hell of lot more of a clue than you. His decisions at scrum were clear, accurate and decisive. The fact that you (& others) think it’s a lottery reflects more on your lack of knowledge than his.

Brumbies lineout has lost its three main targets from last year's starting pack - Carter and Arnold as well as McCaffrey (now on the bench). I thought Swain looked strong in the NRC as a lineout operator but hasn't seemed to translate that to SR yet. It shows how vital locks are to scrum cohesiveness, too. Carter was very underrated as a scrum lock. Neville has looked strong in this area too and needs to come back into the XV as soon as fit again.

I am a big rugby/brumbies supporter and have held season tickets to the brumbies for 20 years. I always try and be optimistic when watching games and can say the Waratahs displayed some improvement but the brumbies where horrible. My first question is did kuradrani miss the bus to Sydney? From my perspective I can’t remember him having a significant carry until at least 70 mins. Hooper is the biggest myth in rugby. He made zero impact for the entire game and spends all of his time whinging at the ref only to be praised week after week by the commentators. I still think scrums are poorly packed by Australian teams trying to go to low but on most occasions the wrong team is being penalised by referees taking a “guess” at who they perceive as dominant. Where are the lonergan brothers? Fines did a good job scoring the match winner but Ryan lonergan has been the the form halfback above Powell this year and Lachlan is miles ahead mcinnerny in my opinion. Not sure who steps up to fly half ( kuenzle did an ok job when he came on) now but would like to see wright at 13 when Kata is back and Muirhead maintains his spot.

My apologies OOP. I will watch his next commentary effort closely and respond then, I have watched enough of last night's game. Very interesting though, following the blog while watching in delay, but won't fall for it again. I am disappointed at the constant criticism of Kearns. Apart from the colour bits he often makes some very shrewd observations about the game and its momentum. I will see if next week brings some of those in, or otherwise he makes a fool of himself and me at the same time.

Correct. I never use uninterested so note to self

You might need to check how many SR games he played before being included in Wallaby squads. From memory I am not even sure he was the starter at Melbourne

Good question

You do realise it was given by the video ref? We had the same view he did.

I saw a grounding but short of the line.

The Tahs gave it to them.

Simon's put on some shots and the Waratahs line out was solid until Abel came on. Like the look of Horton

I thought so at the time actually that it was a big call. Not that Donaldson played badly, but his impact at 15 was better for the u20s/rays in NRC and that showed tonight. The 10-12 axis of harrison and hunt was effective at distributing the ball and made the tahs make good metres all night. I think the disruption to that definitely affected the management of the last 15 minutes, too much kicking when we were making solid metres on the flanks. In saying all this though, I'm glad that Donaldson was given a shot and was backed to do the job, he will, as the whole team will, grow from this game.

Yeah, don't rely on recording with Foxtel unless you add 30 minutes. Foxtel frequently manages to cut a game short, particularly NZ ones, this weekend silly beggar me missed the last three minutes of Canes v Blues, kind of spoil things. Fox couldn't organise sex in house of ill repute.

Point of pedantry: "disinterested" means impartial; "uninterested" means bored. I'm sure you meant the later.

I’m with you Mitch, for a game played under excellent conditions (according to Rod Kafer) it was a litany of errors and poor decision making (from both sides), exacerbated by a lot of whistle blowing. For me hard to watch even though it ended up very close. Oh and the scrums and mauls were awful.

My advice? Never watch Rugby with cinque. Life's too short.

Absolutely agree when you're looking at it from the Brumbies pov but I also think, without any fault of their own, complacent. The Tahs were a different beast last night and it kinda caught them off guard. In the end though champion teams win whether by a single point or a thousand. Don't worry Aus rugby will improve gradually and if NZR run it alone they'll return to a very different Wallabies in 22.

His defence is my biggest worry. Too often he is way too high and just tries to grab their jersey with his arms like Quade tended to do. But I still think he brings a lot of positives.