Super 15: THE GRAND FINAL! Reds v. Crusaders @ Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane (09-07-2011)

[Sam Owen]

Did anyone see Digby do the dougie (dance move, for those who dont know) after his try. That guy is just awesome, I wish he played for Samoa.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Did anyone see Digby do the dougie (dance move, for those who dont know) after his try. That guy is just awesome, I wish he played for Samoa.

I saw it, I was down on the field at that stage Albert Anae was like "You gotta do the full set Dig, you promised."

 

[Sam Owen]

I saw it, I was down on the field at that stage Albert Anae was like "You gotta do the full set Dig, you promised."

Haha he probably would've had his team not embraced him. He's the peoples champ, a crowd favourite especially at home. Even if you dont like Digby, his try scoring celebrations will get your attention.

Theres some tutorial videos on youtube on how to dougie. I might check it out lol...

 

[AfakasiAssasin]

Haha he probably would've had his team not embraced him. He's the peoples champ, a crowd favourite especially at home. Even if you dont like Digby, his try scoring celebrations will get your attention.

Theres some tutorial videos on youtube on how to dougie. I might check it out lol...

Def a crowd pleaser and a big shame hes a wallaby and not with the Manu Samoa. As happy as I am with our current wingers (Alesana, Sailosi and Lemi), What a tandem David Smith and Digby Ioane could've made for us if they were available.

 

[Ninja]

Can't believe we lost!

Too many mistakes by the Crusaders.

Congrats to the Reds though.

 

[Larksea]

yeah bit of a shock, crusaders just didn't look themselves. Pretty obvious playing in NZ then SA then AUS in 3 weekends on the trot took it's tole. last 25min in particular Crusaders just looked out of it but the dropped ball and mistakes, crusaders done so well dispite all the travel but this was one week and one strong opposition too many. Both the Reds trys though very impressive I wouldn't expect a fresh crusaders side to let those in. The main difference between the two was really the fact the reds have been at home the last 3 weeks and only had two games where the saders have gone from home to SA then to AUS.

The Refing was pretty good but I have to say Stewart dickenson showed his colors again. 3+ crusaders lineouts called not straight and letting two very similar reds throws go in the 2nd half one would have been a fantastic position for the Crusaders. And I'm pretty sure dick was the one calling them.

Well done to the reds, been a great year. Backs are scary good.

Crusaders won't be happy with themselves. lineout was a shocker, Cory flynns throwing seemed to be a big problem not just the crook ones but many others missed their target. In such close games no team can expect to give away ball at 6 or more lineouts like the crusaders did and still win. McCaw looked very rusty and slow. Some basic mistakes - obviously still has a lot of work to do recovering from that injury.

Elis showed good vision with his kicks and really got involved but his clearance was woefully slow! Does anyone else see it? He pulls the ball out and stands with it then looks around and passes in that extra second he wastes the opposition defense advances and getting the ball past 2nd 5 becomes impossible! kahn fotuali'i comes on and passes straight out of the scrum/ruck without wasting time and all of a sudden the backline has some room to move. It's a fundamental issue with Elis's game and it scares the crap out of me that he's been selected for the AB's today. All Blacks backlines have struggled with slow ball from Elis in the past and will do so again when he gets his shot.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

yeah bit of a shock, crusaders just didn't look themselves. Pretty obvious playing in NZ then SA then AUS in 3 weekends on the trot took it's tole. last 25min in particular Crusaders just looked out of it but the dropped ball and mistakes, crusaders done so well dispite all the travel but this was one week and one strong opposition too many. Both the Reds trys though very impressive I wouldn't expect a fresh crusaders side to let those in. The main difference between the two was really the fact the reds have been at home the last 3 weeks and only had two games where the saders have gone from home to SA then to AUS.

The Refing was pretty good but I have to say Stewart dickenson showed his colors again. 3+ crusaders lineouts called not straight and letting two very similar reds throws go in the 2nd half one would have been a fantastic position for the Crusaders. And I'm pretty sure dick was the one calling them.

Well done to the reds, been a great year. Backs are scary good.

Crusaders won't be happy with themselves. lineout was a shocker, Cory flynns throwing seemed to be a big problem not just the crook ones but many others missed their target. In such close games no team can expect to give away ball at 6 or more lineouts like the crusaders did and still win. McCaw looked very rusty and slow. Some basic mistakes - obviously still has a lot of work to do recovering from that injury.

Elis showed good vision with his kicks and really got involved but his clearance was woefully slow! Does anyone else see it? He pulls the ball out and stands with it then looks around and passes in that extra second he wastes the opposition defense advances and getting the ball past 2nd 5 becomes impossible! kahn fotuali'i comes on and passes straight out of the scrum/ruck without wasting time and all of a sudden the backline has some room to move. It's a fundamental issue with Elis's game and it scares the crap out of me that he's been selected for the AB's today. All Blacks backlines have struggled with slow ball from Elis in the past and will do so again when he gets his shot.

If you think that was good officiating, god help us.

 

[staph.glorious]

If you think that was good officiating, god help us.

Yeah, Larksea!! Time to quit...the...day job??

:huh:

 

[Devv11]

I still as an unbiased on looker from the UK believe that the Crusaders are the better team but made far too many mistakes and it ultimately cost them. Also, a few crusaders most notably mccaw had absolute shockers. I thought horwill and tapuai had stormers and also for the crusaders the lock pairing of thorn and whitelock got through a hell of a lot of work. But as i mentioned earlier the crusaders made far too many mistakes and it ultimately cost them.

 

[Darwin]

All I'm going to say is Zac Guildford confirmed why he is an average winger. Never hit the line with any pace, didn't throw a single good pass, got fended by a lock and beated to the try line from 40-50m out and missed crucial tackles.

I agree Guildford had a poor game - he himself is the first to admit that too. His game wasn't quite as bad as many have suggested: I certainly didn't remember him missing any crucial tackles, indeed I thought he had a very strong defensive game. He only missed two tackles during the match, the one on Horwill (which was a bad miss), and could have been crucial had the whistle not been blown a few seconds before, and one when Quade Cooper stepped him when he chased through too quickly after a kick. He actually made a number of crucial tackles throughout the game; game stats (www.foxsports.com.au) suggest he made 6 tackles and missed only 1 (I'm assume the one on Cooper, as the Horwill missed tackle wouldn't have been included). Compared to some of the other Crusaders outside backs (Fruean made 5, missed 5; Maitland made 2, missed 3) it makes Guildford look pretty good! Guildford also saved the Crusaders a couple of times under pressure in the right hand corner after kicks through by the Reds - on one occasion he put in a huge touch finder from inside his 22 that went out <10m from the Reds goal-line. Again I'm not suggesting he had anything other than a poor game, but playing a poor game in the final does not take much away from the outstanding season he has had.

Onto the game itself. Congrats to the Reds - I felt they thoroughly deserved the win. As expected they struggled at the scrum, but did well to negate the Crusaders dominance for a lot of the match by getting the ball quickly out the back of the scrum, though they struggled more as the match went on. I thought Ben Daley and Saia Faingaa both were very strong around the field. The Reds dominated he lineout (though this was helped by Flynn's poor throwing), Horwill in particular stood out. The loose-trio again had strong games. Higginbotham has some fantastic skills for a loose-forward; it will be interesting to see whether Deans finds a place for him in the Wallaby 22.

Genia scored a brilliant individual try, but struggled to distribute behind a pack going backwards. I also thought he box-kicked far too often on turnover ball, as at times it looked like the Crusaders would have been stretched had the ball been spread wide. Cooper was reasonably quiet, but I thought the centre pairing of Tapuai and Faingaa probably got the best of SBW and Fruean, largely due to their strong defense. I thought Tapaui looked particularly dangerous with the ball in hand too, at times I thought it was Ioane was with the ball such was the danger he was posing! Davies looked good in space, but he did lose the ball in contact a couple of times, and missed a few tackles. I very impressed with Lance, particularly his strong physical running. Ioane had a very mixed game; he looked great with the ball in hand and scored a great individual try, but he looked very shaky under the high ball, and collecting the loose-ball - I'm Henry and co. will have taken notice of this....

Flynn had a bit of a shocker for the Crusaders at lineout time, which was strange as he's actually been pretty accurate all year. The Crusaders props again had strong games, but neither of the locks stood-out in this game. I felt Thorn blew a try too when he went himself despite having about a 5 on 1 overlap outside him. McCaw's lack of form still worries me - he was largely ineffective at the breakdown, and his handling let him down a number of times. Hopefully it is just a lack of gametime that McCaw is suffering from. Keiran Read was the pick of the loose-trio, though even he wasn't as effective as he has been in recent weeks. Ellis and Carter were ok, as was SBW, though again I think he forced the offloads far too often. Fruean again showed why he is not ready for the AB's, continously running out of the line and missing tackles or leaving huge gaps in the Crusaders defence. As mentioned before Guildford was poor, but Maitland was equally poor; he struggled to tackle Ioane, knocked on (an admittedly difficult) pass with the try line open, and failing to prevent Genia from scoring despite Genia clearly being his man.

 

[Larksea]

I dont read too much into the result because of the travel factor. The crusaders errors and drop in performance in the last 20-25 min were very characteristic of a team that has put in too much travel. The reds on the other hand looked very fresh as they should after being at home for over three weeks and even having a weekend off.

The worst part is that if the crusaders had been 4th on the table instead of 3rd they would have played the reds the week prior in place of the blues. Without that trip to South Africa and back I think they would have beaten the Reds.

If you think that was good officiating, god help us.

Honestly compared to the cup final that Barnes did yes I think it was "pretty good" which is not quite "good" on the grand scale of things, but ok. As I said the one major issue I saw was that the touchies who called the lineouts not straight were not consistant for the two teams in a couple of instances. One being I think a critical call (or no call) in the game. Flynn's throwing was shocking and they weren't straight but the reds got away with a critical throw that wasn't straight in the 2nd half.

The ref let the players dictate things and only stopped play when needed and played long advantages. In that final I watched barnes dictated the whole game. Infact the 30min highlights of the game I saw at one stage was almost entirely Barnes blowing his whistle.

 

[nickdnz]

Personally I think this match should have gone to Craig Joubert. He is the best referee in the world at the moment and he is from neither Australia or New Zealand.

 

[Hulk Hogan]

Leroy Houston has been released from his contract with the Reds :\

 

[madflyhalf]

I'm sorry... I'm just happy...

but

You gotta love the 10 seconds of silence after Ioane's break!

 

[smartcooky]

If you think that was good officiating, god help us.

First, let me say that the Reds thoroughly deserved the win; and they DID win it (it wasn't a case of the Crusaders losing it). It was a match too far for the Crusaders, and even though their players and staff won't make excuses, playing in three different time zones around the world on three consecutive weekends had to take its toll, especially as the opposition had a week off at home to lay in wait.

I don't have any real concerns about specific refereeing decisions in the match either, except that there might have been some obstruction in the lead up to Genia's try (but very marginal). However, I was singularly unimpressed with Bryce Lawrence, and thought he had another poor game. While his performance did not affect who won the match, he followed on from his below average performance in the Crusaders v Sharks qualifier in Nelson a couple of weeks back, continuing to miss knock-ons, forward passes, side entries at tackles and offside play by the pillars at ruck & maul; stuff that referees like Craig Joubert and Mark Lawrence don't miss. For example, see the position of Quade Cooper in the lead up to Brad Thorn's non try.

Of particular concern to me is that he seems incapable of keeping players onside in the backlines, and this leads to a stifling of back-play as the team with the ball has its time cut severely, resulting in them having little option but to kick. Whether its because he is too focused on other things, or just doesn't see the offside players because of poor positioning and/or peripheral vision is hard to say, but one thing is for sure; if I were coach of a team whose primary defensive tactic was the "rush" defence, I would want Bryce refereeing my lads every weekend.

All I can say is, thank heavens IRB regulations preclude him refereeing us during the Tri-Nations and the RWC. If were a supporter of England, Australia, South Africa etc, I would be afraid....very afraid!!!

 

[madflyhalf]

He missed a helluva offsides, from both teams!
You spotted right on Cooper's one!! He was behind the last foot... of Crusaders side!!!

Scrummaging have been referred poorly, sometimes he conceded turnover when, to me, looked like a forced wheeling by 'Saders!
Also look at Rod Davies tackle without the ball of Freuan, the phase before Thorn non-try!! Ok maybe SBW wouldn't be able to offload anyway...

And the breakdown: Lawrence allowed everything (and this suited best Crusaders style!), a lot of confusion around the rucks... anything could happen there!

 

[TRF_Cymro]

I dont read too much into the result because of the travel factor. The crusaders errors and drop in performance in the last 20-25 min were very characteristic of a team that has put in too much travel. The reds on the other hand looked very fresh as they should after being at home for over three weeks and even having a weekend off.

The worst part is that if the crusaders had been 4th on the table instead of 3rd they would have played the reds the week prior in place of the blues. Without that trip to South Africa and back I think they would have beaten the Reds.



Honestly compared to the cup final that Barnes did yes I think it was "pretty good" which is not quite "good" on the grand scale of things, but ok. As I said the one major issue I saw was that the touchies who called the lineouts not straight were not consistant for the two teams in a couple of instances. One being I think a critical call (or no call) in the game. Flynn's throwing was shocking and they weren't straight but the reds got away with a critical throw that wasn't straight in the 2nd half.

The ref let the players dictate things and only stopped play when needed and played long advantages. In that final I watched barnes dictated the whole game. Infact the 30min highlights of the game I saw at one stage was almost entirely Barnes blowing his whistle.

Urm ... what has Barnes got to do with this argument? Pretty weak in doing so.

Face the facts, Bryce was dire as was his assistants. It seemed one rule for one team and another rule for the other. The game for me was spoiled by Bryce and at times he took away the spectacle of the final by missing calls and allowing the rucks to become a free for all.

Reds won the game as they were the better side.

 

[big ginger 8]

If you think refs are bad in the southern hemisphere look at ours Rolland is probably the best and we can't get him. Would gladly kill Poite and am not a fan of Pearson.

 

[staph.glorious]

They're bringing the wrong Lawrence to the World Cup, I'm near sure that's the explanation.

look at ours Rolland is probably the best

I'd raise you Wayne Barnes without hesitation.

Ireland do get Craig Joubert for two pool games....aaaaagainst the US and Russia. <_<

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Barnes and Owens are the best NH refs

 

[TRF_Ezequiel]

I will see your Wayne Barnes and raise you Steve Walsh!!!

 

[staph.glorious]

I will see your Wayne Barnes and raise you Steve Walsh!!!

He's bluffing! What a ridiculous dummy.

 

[cyRil]

Barnes and Owens are the best NH refs

Thus sayeth the Lord!