Smithy on TV

[frenchkiwi]

7:10pm NZT in reds crusaders game - Smithy on his feet cheering in full voice. (no cigar visible)

Cheering for the winner - Stuy Dickinson who handed another game to the reds. His missing fwd passes and knockons and inventing penalties got comical at the end. No wonder he's not selected for the world cup!

Anyway good to see you boys supporting the rugby!

[laficion]

7:10pm NZT in reds crusaders game - Smithy on his feet cheering in full voice. (no cigar visible)

Someone once said," It's not important if you win or loose, It's how good you look on TV "

Bravo Smithy

[Ken Gargett]

7:10pm NZT in reds crusaders game - Smithy on his feet cheering in full voice. (no cigar visible)

Cheering for the winner - Stuy Dickinson who handed another game to the reds. His missing fwd passes and knockons and inventing penalties got comical at the end. No wonder he's not selected for the world cup!

Anyway good to see you boys supporting the rugby!

i was about to post that very thing - smithy was just down from me and if you want to see, and highlights of the glorious reds -

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/sports...6-1226065313480

and 40,000 qlders there would agree with you re dickinson. he is a shocking shocking ref and being dumped from the world cup was justice. qld has long know that if we have that idiot, we are in for a tough day (trust me, for is, a nsw ref is not an independent one, especially that incompetent moron). i know mccaw was pissed at him but qld was livid. i assume your comments applied both ways? stuff he let mccaw and others get away with was disgraceful but the touchie on my side was certainly to blame as well. there were some blatant horrendous things going on (including a knock on by us at the death) and he kept ignoring them.

all that said, it was one of the most enjoyable games for ages. carter showed that while he might not have all the magician's tricks that cooper conjures, things like field position and actually kicking your goals is rather important.

i heard one man of match award went to cooper and another to genia - i would have given it to carter.

[Ken Gargett]

ps - the video you want for smithy is the 'reds do it at the death' one, not surprising ]ly it is not the UFC one.

[asmith]

How good was that me on TV.

I felt the ref was fine

[Ken Gargett]

How good was that me on TV.

I felt the ref was fine

smithy, you are a crawler and must sit with kiwis.

if he'd come anywhere near where i was, i reckon the queue to string him up would have been a mile long (and that was the conservative, old folks section). seriously, even one of the old dears who sits near by and is nicer than most grandmothers was screaming abuse.

both sides had cause to be pissed at dickinson.

i cannot honestly recall so many people so pissed at a ref at a qld game since, oh since probably wayne erickson (or that imbecile gartside, i think - from the days when a home side would suggest three names for a touring test team and they would pick one, so the refs picked would, if they were scum, show a strong bias to the touring team in the lead-up games, to try and get picked by them - gartside blew qld to pieces in the game v ireland in '79 {yes, i never forgive} and we lost 18-15 on six ollie campbell penalties. the disgrace of losing to ireland!).

there is a yarpie, can't recall his name and definitely not kaplan, who has done a number of super 15 games this year and i reckon he is the best young ref i have seen for years.

dickenson is apparently taking a rugby tour to the world cup in nz now that he has been dumped, and i know he has been hassling rugby agents and authorities and so on, to try and get support for it. which has apparently deservedly been close to zero.

last thing i was told - from usually a good source - that he was trying to organise a boat for accomodation. but it sounds like he won't need much more than a small dinghy.

he may well be a nice guy - never heard anything to the contrary - but he is not a ref at the world cup because he is bloody hopeless. poms hate him (he was the video ref in the last final), kiwis hate him (have you ever seen mccaw argue quite so much), we hate him.

he almost ruined a terrific game yesterday.

[frenchkiwi]

can't see the vid sorry - must be restricted to Oz IP addresses.

As for The DickInson, we've all come to expect this from him, but his touchies as well? He did ruin the game by becoming the most important player.

I'm no crusaders supporter, and he did miss a few things both ways, but all of the crucial calls were against Crusaders. He penalised the crusaders to death for contesting rucks quite legally (which he has been doing a lot this season to any team who dares to compete at rucktime!). Helps the reds who don't turn up at rucks just fan out. But the biggest shockers were Genia's two metre forward pass for the first reds try, where the try scorer is looking back at ref in disbelief (am i really allowed to score ref? you sure?) - comical stuff - the obvious knock on by ioane at the death which bounced along 5m, the scrum before Genia's 2nd try where the crusaders had won the ball, the last penalty when the ball is out and has been driven over... need i continue.

Crusaders dropped ball 3 times with try line open though, should have pushed for a penalty try on scrum at end rather than taking the points (enjoyed that scrum - almost the first pushover scrum try in 10 years and actually worthy of a penalty try). Their second-string halfback and fullback were terrible. But it's hard to win a tight game playing against the ref, even when you dominate.

Always enjoy the Reds at home - their ground is twice as wide as any other which suits Quade "touch rugby genius" Cooper (he truly is Carlos Spencer minus the tackling ability) and Genia's great wide passing. But if they don't have home advantage in finals they will lose. If they play the Crusaders again anywhere without Dickinson - they will lose. Their half-arsed scrum and poor ruck defence will keep getting them in trouble against non-australian teams. Fortunately apart from the crusaders at full-strength there are no great teams in the competition this year ... in fact i'm less than impressed with the standard of rugby, expansion has diluted teams further. Bring back Super 12.

As for my dear hurricanes well only the brumbies can claim to be bettering them in terms of coaching rifts and self-destruction. That's what happens when you hand wellington reins to a bloody cantabrian ;-)

[asmith]

smithy, you are a crawler and must sit with kiwis.

Ken I am agreeing with you. The ref was terrible heaps of bad calls for both sides, I was just making the point that anytime the ref makes a decision that allows us to win the game in the last minute has done a good job.

[El Presidente]

Always enjoy the Reds at home - their ground is twice as wide as any other which suits Quade "touch rugby genius" Cooper (he truly is Carlos Spencer minus the tackling ability) and Genia's great wide passing. But if they don't have home advantage in finals they will lose. If they play the Crusaders again anywhere without Dickinson - they will lose. Their half-arsed scrum and poor ruck defence will keep getting them in trouble against non-australian teams. Fortunately apart from the crusaders at full-strength there are no great teams in the competition this year ... in fact i'm less than impressed with the standard of rugby, expansion has diluted teams further. Bring back Super 12.

1. Suncorp Stadium ....surprisingly to some...is actually the size a Rugby field should be

2. Have actually beaten Bulls and Stormers away from home.

3. Lineout is poor. Scrum was actually solid against Crusaders.

4. McCaw has been personally caned 12 penalties in his last 3 games. Coming in through the gate could be a concept he may have to come to grips with or he will cost the Crusaders the final.

Both teams blew 20 points in the game. Should be a great final.

[Ken Gargett]

can't see the vid sorry - must be restricted to Oz IP addresses.

As for The DickInson, we've all come to expect this from him, but his touchies as well? He did ruin the game by becoming the most important player.

I'm no crusaders supporter, and he did miss a few things both ways, but all of the crucial calls were against Crusaders. He penalised the crusaders to death for contesting rucks quite legally (which he has been doing a lot this season to any team who dares to compete at rucktime!). Helps the reds who don't turn up at rucks just fan out. But the biggest shockers were Genia's two metre forward pass for the first reds try, where the try scorer is looking back at ref in disbelief (am i really allowed to score ref? you sure?) - comical stuff - the obvious knock on by ioane at the death which bounced along 5m, the scrum before Genia's 2nd try where the crusaders had won the ball, the last penalty when the ball is out and has been driven over... need i continue.

Crusaders dropped ball 3 times with try line open though, should have pushed for a penalty try on scrum at end rather than taking the points (enjoyed that scrum - almost the first pushover scrum try in 10 years and actually worthy of a penalty try). Their second-string halfback and fullback were terrible. But it's hard to win a tight game playing against the ref, even when you dominate.

Always enjoy the Reds at home - their ground is twice as wide as any other which suits Quade "touch rugby genius" Cooper (he truly is Carlos Spencer minus the tackling ability) and Genia's great wide passing. But if they don't have home advantage in finals they will lose. If they play the Crusaders again anywhere without Dickinson - they will lose. Their half-arsed scrum and poor ruck defence will keep getting them in trouble against non-australian teams. Fortunately apart from the crusaders at full-strength there are no great teams in the competition this year ... in fact i'm less than impressed with the standard of rugby, expansion has diluted teams further. Bring back Super 12.

As for my dear hurricanes well only the brumbies can claim to be bettering them in terms of coaching rifts and self-destruction. That's what happens when you hand wellington reins to a bloody cantabrian ;-)

we are agreed re refs who take it upon themselves to become the most important player on the field - in their myopic vision at least. dickinson a shocker, kaplan worse. clive norling the ultimate in the old days.

we are far from agreed re all the crucial calls going one way yesterday - does show that two people can watch the same game and see very different things. perhaps qld made the best of the ones that went their way but it was a disgrace that several crusaders didn't spend regular stints in the bin. that would have changed things considerably. mccaw copmpletely conned the idiot ref - tyerrific if you can get away with it but don't ***** if you don't - so when he finally got pinged, it is a bit rich to whinge (and normally mccaw has the good grace not to, to his credit).

i liked the way the 'australian' (not always a cheerleader for qld) put it - "If the Reds' overall defence was outstanding, it needed to be because the Crusaders were taking all sorts of liberties".

there may have been occasions when the crusaders competed legally, there were plenty of times they got away with blue murder.

genia's pass was not the best and qld did score from it, but there were a number of others - some that had the touchie dead in line - by the crusaders, that were ignored. that they didn't score is hardly qld's fault.

the reds tactics re rucks are something that they finally twigged to after watching kiwi sides, not least the all blacks. it is effective and the blacks do it better than anyone, when circumstances suit. up to the opposition to counter it.

as for winning the whole thing, it will be a massive advantage to every team to have home advantage, not just the reds, and the reward for a long hard season. if they are not at home, it will be very tough. but same for all.

and remember that for the crusaders failings re dropped ball, if cooper had kicked as accurately as he normally does, we would have been a long way in front. the crusaders only try came from that shocker that hit the posts from almost in front. it goers through and there would have been a big difference.

as fopr getting in trouble against non aussie sides with their defence, they beat every south african side they played - here and there. they've beaten the blues and crusaders and lost by a point to the canes i think, which was largely down to a short period of lord knows what where they may as well been off the field they were so dodgy. if that is trouble, i think most teams will take it.

in recent weeks, the crusaders, waratahs, bulls and stormers (two at home and two away) have managed a total of 4 tries against the reds defence, three of them to the bulls. i'll take that every year.

i would also argue that this so called defence is as good as the crusaders. the two teams have taken the field the same number of times and they average a 1/2 point difference.

[frenchkiwi]

Euan Mckenzies got the Reds playing great, intelligent, rugby when on paper they certainly don't have the biggest names across the park - but they still going missing sometimes. Only Jamie Joseph has managed to get so much out of his team this year. (and cheetahs coach is catching up!)

To concede a pushover scrum on your own goalline is very rare nowadays and shows up whoever was in the front row at that point (one or 2 replacement players it must be said). shameful.

also if they keep relying on the ref to blow in their favour at rucktime rather than cleaning out themselves they will pay. The reds got dominated there and Dicky kept em in game - the next ref wont be so generous. The highlanders have set the pace this season at competing at the ruck, despite an average side it has enabled them to be more than competitive. Every side that has played the highlanders has learnt a bit from it, pity the reds won't play them.

reds are one step up from last year but have had a gentle draw (played bulls at suncorp Pres ;-) with only one game in NZ (which they lost to a woeful canes side) and only one big win away from home (stormers - although a few other sides did it too). they will need to step up another gear to win the comp, even playing at home - do they have it?

thanks to my constructive criticism they might develop it ;-)

[Ken Gargett]

Euan Mckenzies got the Reds playing great, intelligent, rugby when on paper they certainly don't have the biggest names across the park - but they still going missing sometimes. Only Jamie Joseph has managed to get so much out of his team this year. (and cheetahs coach is catching up!)

To concede a pushover scrum on your own goalline is very rare nowadays and shows up whoever was in the front row at that point (one or 2 replacement players it must be said). shameful.

also if they keep relying on the ref to blow in their favour at rucktime rather than cleaning out themselves they will pay. The reds got dominated there and Dicky kept em in game - the next ref wont be so generous. The highlanders have set the pace this season at competing at the ruck, despite an average side it has enabled them to be more than competitive. Every side that has played the highlanders has learnt a bit from it, pity the reds won't play them.

reds are one step up from last year but have had a gentle draw (played bulls at suncorp Pres ;-) with only one game in NZ (which they lost to a woeful canes side) and only one big win away from home (stormers - although a few other sides did it too). they will need to step up another gear to win the comp, even playing at home - do they have it?

thanks to my constructive criticism they might develop it ;-)

no disrespect but how is the oxygen supply over there?

gentle draw? under this system, sides play their own conference and then four of the five sides in each of the others. the two sides the reds missed were the highlanders and sharks. when the draw was established, based on 2010 positions, the highlanders finished 2nd last and the sharks 9th. hardly being given any favours.

the gentle draw saw them up against the waratahs when they were top (which they lost); up against the stormers when they were top; up against the blues when they were top; up against the crusaders when they were close. and so on. hate to see a tough draw?

the blues don't play the bulls at all, i believe. they dodge the best team of the last couple of years. so how would you describe their draw?

if you checked, every non nz side plays two in nz and two at home. every one. same for non aussie sides - two each. there are still a number of games to go.

and as for away games, they won both in south africa. crusaders didn't. blues didn't. hurricanes didn't. highlanders didn't. waratahs didn't. actually i think the reds are the only side to manage it.

and as for your assistance to the reds, no doubt mckenzie is eternally grateful.

[frenchkiwi]

no disrespect but how is the oxygen supply over there?

good but you are depleting it from the other side of the tasman by huffing and puffing!

gentle draw was - play good teams at home, lesser teams away and playing mighty rebels, force and brumbies twice... a dream for sure.

and i revise my earlier comment - the ground is thrice as wide, not just twice, i can see it from my telly when i press the widescreen button!!

i will have to come over and investigate the pitch myself some day. and then advise mckenzie on it. preferably at an NZ-Aus fixture.

[Warren]

All this talk about the game is fine and dandy but there is one question that simply has to be asked.

Smithy, why is the guy to your right dressed exactly the same as you?

Is he a long lost non identical twin or just a stalker.

Or have you started your own fashion label.

Pause the video at .58 and check it out.

[frenchkiwi]

Still can't see that vid - damn fox sports and their ip filtering.

Anyway re: Stu Dickinson having a ripper of a game for the reds

[Ken Gargett]

Still can't see that vid - damn fox sports and their ip filtering.

Anyway re: Stu Dickinson having a ripper of a game for the reds

not that i would ever accuse kiwis of being bitter, twisted, hypocritical people or suggest that the best thing that ever happened to them was the underarm bowling because by giving them something to bleat about every single day of their sad lives, it help drag them from their sheep-infested 50's lifestyle (even if every kiwi loss seems to be followed by endless moaning about preceived injustices by referees), even if one should, but to the list in that article, one could add cruden's forward pass for the penultimate try to beat the force on the weekend. there are endless examples.

if the mccaw grab - i was at the ground so don't get to hear the ref's comments but i understand that he told mccaw to leave it and mccaw ignored him so right or wrong, it was a braindead thing to do - happened mid first half, along with so many other poor decisions, no one would be bleating about it. there were many decisions that impacted on that game and, either you didn't see the game or with the greatest respect, don't have a clue about rugby, qld copped its fair share of duds.

everyone i know believes that we should have independent refs. no excuse not to. and i would rather have a kiwi ref than dickinson any day - he has a long history of shafting us.

quite simply, poor ref decisions are part of the game unless you want to bring in endless video reviews. we got stuffed by a yarpie ref in the game against nsw last year with two shocker misses in the last few minutes. as a result, we missed the finals.

so get over it or share the bleating with other kiwis who might be interested.

[frenchkiwi]

so get over it or share the bleating with other kiwis who might be interested.

sorry that article was written by a fellow australian in the Australian.

i admit i am baiting you quite faecetiously. i will stop.

as for the neutral vs non-neutral refs argument, i'm all for competent refs first and foremost. the problem is perceived bias and perception is almost as important as reality. E.g. In our NPC, Steve Walsh has robbed wellington of 2 ranfurly shields against canterbury, even though as a whole he is an OK ref wellingtonians will always question his performances refereeing wellington games forever. So why appoint him and cause trouble on and off the field? Same with that cricket umpire (Hair?) and the Pakistanis. etc

one of my favourite refs was peter marshall (?) australian guy, 15 years ago. Ref'd in the spirit of the law not to the letter of it, at test level. Unlike, say, Kaplan.

[Ken Gargett]

sorry that article was written by a fellow australian in the Australian.

i admit i am baiting you quite faecetiously. i will stop.

as for the neutral vs non-neutral refs argument, i'm all for competent refs first and foremost. the problem is perceived bias and perception is almost as important as reality. E.g. In our NPC, Steve Walsh has robbed wellington of 2 ranfurly shields against canterbury, even though as a whole he is an OK ref wellingtonians will always question his performances refereeing wellington games forever. So why appoint him and cause trouble on and off the field? Same with that cricket umpire (Hair?) and the Pakistanis. etc

one of my favourite refs was peter marshall (?) australian guy, 15 years ago. Ref'd in the spirit of the law not to the letter of it, at test level. Unlike, say, Kaplan.

i do realise that there was a degree of winding up.

we are, and have been since the beginning, in close agreement re competent/independent refs. and yes, re the perception.

as, i believe, is wayne smith (for the record, he was also the author of the article mentioned above with the crusaders taking liberties etc - the point being he acknowledges that poor decisions were made in both directions).

marshall was actually highly unpopular north of the border as well - but he was a fave with nsw fans.

i differ re kaplan in that for me, his highest priority is making certain the focus is on kaplan. then rugby (and what he did to the irish in the 6 nations was all about him being above following the laws, spirit or otherwise).

i would differ re the comments for someone like hair or avoiding refs because of potential problems (the home team bias aside). otherwise, you do end up with the players controlling the game.