Ramage says...

Oh dear is this a case of an Australian coach (a Queenslander to boot) having a whinge. Ii can remember a post on here by Trinuts having a go at Jake White for daring to criticise the Australian set up and saying you never hear the Austrlian coaches whinging they just get on with the job. If one looks at why penalties were given it was obvious the refs have been ionstructed to be hareder on the killing of the ball in ruck and maul situations and the players have not adapted to these changes in the first game which is to be expected. However, Trinuts, is this not a case of an Australian coach having a whinge? However we are well used tot Trinuts lack of facts in his posts. Recently in reply to a post I made about a lack of Australian referees in Super 15 he tried to claim it was Paddy's fault. C'mon I know Paddy is used as a scapegoat for everything that can be found in rugby but it is not Paddy who is in control of Sanzar referees as he along with a panel from the IRB appoints the International referees. Once again Trinuts is caught out peddling untruths in his posts but we all know how he is very economical with the truth in his quest to prove his conspiracy theories.

I must say I rose cheered and congratulated the Reds in their good win over the Waratahs and much as I would like to see the Force win on Sat last week's effort by them was worse than watching paint dry and unless they pick up their effort the team will become one of the also rans. Whether their coach is up to it will be shown by their results this year. Yeah Trinuts poor referees have been punished as 3 referees are no longer refereeing Super Rugby and have been banished to the assistant roles where eventually they will eventually disappear. Legote SA Munro NZ and Pearce Australia have been demoted this year following further demotions in the past of Marks and Leckie Australia and Meuwesen SA.

Posted 02:08 03rd March 2012

melkdave says...

Well McKenzie seems to be having a bit of a laugh here .The present conferance system is mostly for the benifit of the Australian teams at the urging of the ARU.To put bums on seats for whitch you need derby games, now his saying it will stop them playing expansive rugby ??Surly to put said bums on said seats it would behoove the teams to play expansive exciting rugby .As to the reds having an easy ride last year of course they did compared to the NZ and SA conferances as 3 of the Australian teams where just starting out or in choas last year.

Posted 21:25 01st March 2012

startledwombat says...

@ Jasonharrison

agreed.

Also, the first few matches of the year are always scrappy affairs. There's a simple method for reducing the penalty count: don't give away penalties!

It's the same with Test matches - every June the experts talk about high-scoring games etc but the combinations haven't settled in against opposition on the field of play. Practice matches can only take you so far. So the first Tests of teh season are scrappy and the match stats show a high error count.

Also, Blues vs Reds both teams seem to go into the game aiming for a bit of biffo.

Bray's comments are fair enough, and he was gentlemanly enough to not comment about the biffo attitude.

Posted 10:50 01st March 2012