Seaton
First XV
I wonder what SavageLez will have to say? thank God it wasn't Scotland anyway
I wonder what he would say if Scotland were to beat SA at the end of this year.
Or, should I say when B)
I wonder what SavageLez will have to say? thank God it wasn't Scotland anyway
Brilliant try - execution was top class. But we were thinking truck & trailer. If Matfield passed directly to Steenkamp, then the players in front of him were offside and obstructing. Couldn't see in the replay, and it wasn't analysed after the match - maybe the ball went to the fair haired player with his back to the line, who then gave it to Steenkamp as he came charging in.
I thought it was interesting that the Australia commentators did not like the idea of having a northern hemisphere referee, they actually said 'can't there just be no northern hemisphere referees' or something around those lines. I think that it would make more sense to have southern hemisphere referees in the Tri-Nations and northern hemisphere referees in the Six Nations. Though that may leave difficult interpretation of the game come World Cup times when we both see northern and southern referees together.
I thought it was interesting that the Australia commentators did not like the idea of having a northern hemisphere referee, they actually said 'can't there just be no northern hemisphere referees' or something around those lines. I think that it would make more sense to have southern hemisphere referees in the Tri-Nations and northern hemisphere referees in the Six Nations. Though that may leave difficult interpretation of the game come World Cup times when we both see northern and southern referees together.
What do you think that would achieve? Let me tell you, it would isolate the referees in their own hemisphere based competitions, and widen the gap in interpretations between them. Sooner or later, we have to end up with NH and SH referees at the world cup, and we already have big enough differences now, without making it worse.
What really needs to happen is, not only to have NH referees in the 3N and SH referees in the 6N, but there should also be NH referees in the Super 14, ITM Cup, Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup, and SH referees in the Aviva Premiership, Magners League and Heineken Cup. If they had an exchange system set up so that, say, 10 referees from each hemisphere exchanged places each season, it wouldn't be very long before it wouldn't matter where referees came from because they would all end up singing from the same hymn sheet.
When Wayne Barnes came out to NZ last year, he refereed an Air NZ Cup match between Wellington and Southland. He reckoned he learned more about how the game is played here from controlling that match than in any test match.
Good. Not sure if that could have been defended except by spoiling Matfield - the maul formation was lightning quick. Strange that SA were so ponderous in the rest of their game.Actually Matfield passed off to Burger who ended up facing backwards. Then Steenkamp came driving in behind, grabbed the ball and drove over. The Maul was legit, and so was the try.
Quade Cooper is getting a two Test-ban for his tackle on his Morne Steyn. Unless Matt Giteau has an extremely good game at flyhalf for the next two game against the All Blacks I can see them losing by around 30 points both games.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/u...oper-banned-for-two-tests-20100725-10q53.html