2017 Season Discussion

TRF Mr Fish · Sep 28, 2017

Absolute joke of a red card in tonight's match.

Jumping needs to be banned if it's going to result in situations like we saw tonight.

Caitlyn Jenner · Sep 28, 2017

TRF Mr Fish said:
Absolute joke of a red card in tonight's match.

Jumping needs to be banned if it's going to result in situations like we saw tonight.

It was unfortunate but tbh I think the ref was right in both instances. Obviously there wasn't any intent in either case, but it's the defenders responsibility to protect the guy in the air. Of course people are going to jump to catch a high ball, so the other player needs to either jump and compete too or wait till the guy jumping lands to make contact - not just stand in his jumping path. In the first one I think he was really unlucky as it was a late jump from Tamanivalu and he wouldn't have been expecting the jump. But in the 2nd one he should definitely have expected the jump and not put himself in that position.

On a side note... Stephen Perofeta is looking really good. I think the Blues may have finally found themselves a genuinely quality long term 10.

Caitlyn Jenner · Oct 6, 2017

Last night's Shield match was one of the best games of rugby I have ever seen! Incredible match. Hyped for the Naki, but even more excited for the Turbos having a dig at the Shield next week!

Zapphod · Oct 7, 2017

Caitlyn Jenner said:
It was unfortunate but tbh I think the ref was right in both instances. Obviously there wasn't any intent in either case, but it's the defenders responsibility to protect the guy in the air. Of course people are going to jump to catch a high ball, so the other player needs to either jump and compete too or wait till the guy jumping lands to make contact - not just stand in his jumping path. In the first one I think he was really unlucky as it was a late jump from Tamanivalu and he wouldn't have been expecting the jump. But in the 2nd one he should definitely have expected the jump and not put himself in that position.

On a side note... Stephen Perofeta is looking really good. I think the Blues may have finally found themselves a genuinely quality long term 10.

There are a couple of rules in rugby that genuinely annoy me enough to turn off a game, one is the repetitive scrum penalties from having a dominant forward pack and the other is this jumping nonsense.

The side with a significantly weaker scrum is always going to fall apart and give away penalties to the point of someone being binned and then it gets worse, once this is obvious there should not be the option to reset the scrum.

As for jumping, I have yet to see an instance where the non-jumper has deliberately tried to up end the jumper (I have no doubt there are instances where this has happened though) for the most part the person being carded has abandoned going for the ball and is trying to get out of the way, which in my opinion should never be penalised.
On the other had the jumper is the guy taking the risk and poses significant risk to both himself and the other player therefore he is the guy that should be penalised in my opinion, this would discourage jumping in "traffic" which removes the risk to everyone.

Big_Grumper · Oct 8, 2017

That Wellington side are pretty useful. The way they took apart the Stags was impressive.

Are they the best side in the NPC this season?

Caitlyn Jenner · Oct 8, 2017

Big_Grumper said:
That Wellington side are pretty useful. The way they took apart the Stags was impressive.

Are they the best side in the NPC this season?

Based on results you'd have to say yes... them and Canterbury are the powerhouses, North Harbour and Taranaki have been equally impressive. The thing with Wellington though is that they're in the championship, not the premiership, so they play weaker teams more often that the other 3. That being said, they have been great in their cross-over matches and thumped Canterbury who were the top team going into the match.
So... I'd say Wellington are the best team in the NPC. Not much between those 4 though.