We absolutely want to win by being average. /s

Handle9:

 

We absolutely want to win by being average. /s

 

Do we? Ok. 

A win is a win as they say

Dingbatt:

 

dfnt: What a f’d up game, never seen anything like that

Really surprised Swain didn’t get a red for targeting that knee

 

Yeah, I think we can expect the RWC next year to have games like this. There is to much variability in the way the games are officiated. I uttered an expletive when I saw who was reffing, and my opinion hasn’t changed.

 

Without dissecting the game too much, some key moments;

 

The Havilli/Cane headclash. Replacements disrupted both the forwards and backs rhythm.

 

Swain’s yellow card for deliberately injuring Tupaea. Thuggery deserves a red. And he had just done a shoulder to the head in the same ruck to try and clean out Tupaea. Left the Wallabies with 13 players on the field.

 

Mo’unga putting the kickoff out on the full. Ritchie had a good game but that one mistake meant instead of playing in the Aussie 22, it gifted the Wallabies possession on halfway that, after a couple of penalties, led to a Wallabies try.

 

And of course, the final sequence. From what I remember, that was the third time during the game that the ref had called “time off” for the Wallabies time wasting to try and run the clock down. On each occasion he warned them.

 

Other observations;

 

Nick Whyte was lucky to not be yellow carded for going off at the ref after he awarded that final scrum. And it will be interesting to see if he gets sanctioned for abusing the officials after the final whistle.

 

Beauden Barrett looked lost when he first came on to replace Tupaea. Only looked comfortable after halftime when the positions were rejigged.

 

Pete Samu is a beast that the ABs will need to figure out how to neutralise.

 

Taukei’ahoe is clearly the best hooker we have.

 

any comments on the rule of 35 seconds to take a penalty and getting a scrum against you? never seen that before!

* by the way his team mate heard the ref and was yelling his head off telling Foley to rid the ball but Foley didn't care/hear

maybe a what goes round comes around moment for hurting AB in what should have been a red card. i've seen Red given for much less.

Batman:

 

any comments on the rule of 35 seconds to take a penalty and getting a scrum against you? never seen that before!

 

* by the way his team mate heard the ref and was yelling his head off telling Foley to rid the ball but Foley didn't care/hear

 

It was technically correct and farcical at the same time. It should never have been given in that situation, there is so much time wasting that never gets penalised and this fundamentally impacted the game.

I absolutely support penalising teams for wasting time, the huddles and robotic organisation kill the flow of the game but this wasn't the time or place to do that.

Swain has been cited. The hearing is on Monday.

Mid range entry point for law 9.11 is 6 weeks, I guess he'll get 4 weeks.

Handle9:

Swain has been cited. The hearing is on Monday.

Mid range entry point for law 9.11 is 6 weeks, I guess he'll get 4 weeks.

dfnt:

Handle9:

Swain has been cited. The hearing is on Monday.

Mid range entry point for law 9.11 is 6 weeks, I guess he'll get 4 weeks.

Better than nothing, but good nonetheless

Handle9: Bernard Foley fronted up on the Between Two Posts show on Stan today. I can’t imagine an All Blacks player fronting up on a talk show the next day after a loss like that.

What did he say? 

Not sure, but I imagine press appearances for AB's are controlled by NZR in some capacity or another, so it's less about players being unwilling and more about NZR being unwilling?

Handle9:

 

It was technically correct and farcical at the same time. It should never have been given in that situation, there is so much time wasting that never gets penalised and this fundamentally impacted the game.

 

I absolutely support penalising teams for wasting time, the huddles and robotic organisation kill the flow of the game but this wasn't the time or place to do that.

 

AU was given multiple warnings throughout the game and Foley was given plenty of warnings. He was absolutely time-wasting intentionally whether he admits it or not. Do you think for 1 second that he would have taken that much time to kick the ball out if AU were behind on the scoreboard? No chance. That's the acid test in my view. 

SA and Ireland did it the whole series, SA were so bad in the second test in SA, when the pace of the game was high and their forwards couldn't keep up. 

Would I have been upset in the reverse, yes, probably, but it was technically correct and the time-wasting thing has bothered me for ages. I hope they really tighten up on it.

One thing that is *noticeably* better is how long it takes to form up for a lineout. It used to take an age, I used to be able to FFWD to it, now you can't really do that.

If the game had been policed properly Swain would have been off for Red and if Gordon hadn't gotten Yellow then Tom Wright would have been Yellowed for his action in the later part of that same movement, and that would have been upgraded to Red. AU with 13 for that period of time wouldn't have been in the fight and the scrum at the end wouldn't have mattered one bit. In the end of the right result was gotten.

Having said that, I don't think we played that well. at 31-13 it really could have been quite the shutout. Our defence was pretty average, but I would say some of that was due to the forced changes due to injury and HIA etc. We *really* missed Cane. Those who rubbish him should really pay attention to Saturdays game vs the prior games where he played. Papalili is a fine player, but he wasn't a patch on Cane.  Credit for AU for not letting the lip drop and getting themselves back into the game multiple times. 

Swain is unlikely to receive consideration in his punishment because a) it looked pretty intentional, and b) Because he already got it for his citation for the headbutt incident earlier in the year against the English.

To that I say.... *Fantastic*. Grubby behaviour like this has no place in our game. Tupea will be out for months and I'd like to see Swain out for the same period. (not in the rules so it can't happen).

networkn:

Handle9:

It was technically correct and farcical at the same time. It should never have been given in that situation, there is so much time wasting that never gets penalised and this fundamentally impacted the game.

I absolutely support penalising teams for wasting time, the huddles and robotic organisation kill the flow of the game but this wasn't the time or place to do that.

AU was given multiple warnings throughout the game and Foley was given plenty of warnings. He was absolutely time-wasting intentionally whether he admits it or not. Do you think for 1 second that he would have taken that much time to kick the ball out if AU were behind on the scoreboard? No chance. That's the acid test in my view. 

SA and Ireland did it the whole series, SA were so bad in the second test in SA, when the pace of the game was high and their forwards couldn't keep up. 

Would I have been upset in the reverse, yes, probably, but it was technically correct and the time-wasting thing has bothered me for ages. I hope they really tighten up on it.

One thing that is *noticeably* better is how long it takes to form up for a lineout. It used to take an age, I used to be able to FFWD to it, now you can't really do that.

If the game had been policed properly Swain would have been off for Red and if Gordon hadn't gotten Yellow then Tom Wright would have been Yellowed for his action in the later part of that same movement, and that would have been upgraded to Red. AU with 13 for that period of time wouldn't have been in the fight and the scrum at the end wouldn't have mattered one bit. In the end of the right result was gotten.

Having said that, I don't think we played that well. at 31-13 it really could have been quite the shutout. Our defence was pretty average, but I would say some of that was due to the forced changes due to injury and HIA etc. We *really* missed Cane. Those who rubbish him should really pay attention to Saturdays game vs the prior games where he played. Papalili is a fine player, but he wasn't a patch on Cane.  Credit for AU for not letting the lip drop and getting themselves back into the game multiple times. 

networkn:

Swain is unlikely to receive consideration in his punishment because a) it looked pretty intentional, and b) Because he already got it for his citation for the headbutt incident earlier in the year against the English.

If the situation was reversed, it would have been identical. AB's coach says unfair, AUS coach, says its fair

Fine to have a bias, but it leads to a media/fan frenzy of bias, not sport