Almost enough to make one wear a white jersey.

[Ken Gargett]

So the southern scum have picked the wallaby team to play England. Beating England is in every Aussie’s DNA but I have already heard from guys who have been rusted-on wallaby supporters for fifty years and they have had enough. Rugby has now lost them.

It never ends.

Fifteen starters and 8 on the bench. The Reds manage one player on the bench. That is it. It is unimaginable but I will be just a bit pleased if England win – which they almost certainly will. Sure, the Reds struggled at the end of the season when they had about 90% of the team injured, and half the replacements injured as well. But for the first section of the season when the Aussie teams play each other, we won 7 out of 8 and only lost the 8^th on the bell to a truly awful refereeing decision. Not to mention winning the entire competition last year. We have beaten the brumbies four out of the last five games (and only lost that one to a shocker piece of refereeing). And yet while we have one lone sod on the bench, they have seven starters and five on the bench. Putin has held elections that have been less outrageously biased.

And yet those players are not good enough to even make the reserves for the Wallabies? The one bloke who did make the reserves spent most of that game where we were dudded, injured, if memory serves.

I guess one might think that perhaps we have a brilliant coaching team to get such great results from such dud players – and we do – but even then, one moron at the ARU has already said that Thorn can forget coaching the wallabies. The crime of not being born in swill state.

In fact, the more I think about all this, the angrier I get and the more I want to see England not just win, but thrash us. What makes it even worse is that means a win for that toxic hobbit coaching England. I'd have given you a million to one against, that I'd ever support a team he coached, let alone a team playing us.

This is one of the most disgraceful selections I can recall, and there have been many of them over the years.

Still, the broncos are playing the cowboys in the local league competition and even though they have about as much chance of winning as the wallabies, for the first time in forty years, I’ll be watching the league. Rugby can shove it. Might tape the wallabies and fast forward through it later just in case it is worth watching but I would not hold my breath. And that also enables me to miss the 65 minutes of standing around repacking scrums, endless video ref replays to make certain that they enforce the most convoluted absurd rules, wasted time while they decide on yellow cards for dropping intercepts and other useless nonsense.

I have agreed to go to the test in Brisbane and I am deeply regretting that. Even while typing this I have had two more emails from mates as pissed as I am (and they are far from the first), both also saying that they won’t bother watching. These are all guys who have been unquestioningly loyal to rugby for decades. Good luck surviving when you lose those supporters. Still, nothing less than they deserve.

Through gritted teeth, go the poms.

 

[Fuzz]

I think Ken is upset, but I'm not completely sure.

[Ken Gargett]

9 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

I think Ken is upset, but I'm not completely sure.

sorry for sitting on the fence, fuzz. way beyond upset. perhaps resigned to the endless crap humanity serves up is closer to it.

just got told by one of my mates, to whom i sent the same thoughts, that he had kindly shared it with the president of Rugby Australia (he told me after doing so). so i may not be going to the second test anyway (that would be a blessing). mind you, just another southerner and as culpable as the lot of them.

no doubt part of this is to convince reds players to take up overseas contracts because there is no future for them here. and then the filth and the brumbies might have a shot at beating us. 

[JohnS]

Well, that turned out to be one of, if not, the very best wins I've seen the Wallabies achieve. So okay, winning the Bledisloe Cup in 1986 in New Zealand and the World Cups in 1991 and 1999 were better. But hey, to beat England like this with 14 players and multiple players injured during the game...wow!

 

[Ken Gargett]

morning john. any win, especially against england you take (notwithstanding my ranting earlier in the week). For me, that first half? 

That was the most boring 40 minutes of sport since they invented synchronised swimming. A penalty every two minutes. Every scrum repacked time after time. About three minutes of play. No one looking in any danger of scoring a try. A ref’s conference to find yet more obscure rules to send those blokes off. The highlight being when one six foot eight bloke pulled the hair of another six foot eight bloke. So far, league and AFL the only winners.

And quade is out for ‘calf acknowledgement’? seriously?

That was a tedious bore fest.

And can anyone tell me that had O’Connor, Tate, harry and McReight been starting that would not have been at least a little bit more interesting.

Plus the introduction on tv was an eight year old lecturing us about his rugby career. Who comes up with this crap? I really hope that bit was not shown overseas. How embarrassing. At least it was a good rendition of the anthem.

John, i heard from a number of mates at half time. No one was impressed. One of my longest rugby loving mates from Sydney was so disgusted by the quality of that first half that he switches to the tennis. 

The 2nd half much better. Good to see Australia hang in and then wear them down for a very good win. 

But that said, that is the worst team england have put on a rugby field since last century. I had no idea that they were this bad. If they lose this series, every chance that will be the end of the toxic hobbit. A good result for everyone. 

The problem a game like that gives us is that everyone gets excited by the win. But if we were playing the ABs, they'd put 40 points on us. Love to be proven wrong but this is not some turning of the corner or coming of age. We are still a mile behind the top teams. 

You mention the great teams of 86, 91, 99. Do we have anyone playing today who would make any of those teams? Koribete, I think, ahead of egerton in 91. Perhaps Hooper on the bench for any of them. kerevi on the bench ahead of nathan grey in 99. Can't think of anyone else in any of those teams. 

But none of that takes away from a good win last night and with luck, wrapping it all up next week. 

[JohnS]

Yes, there's no way that players on both teams come close to comparing to the great players we had that played the game in the 1990s. I wish we had players of the calibre of Phil Kearns, John Eales, George Gregan, Stephen Larkham, Jason Little, Tim Horan, David Campese, Michael Lynagh, Nick Farr-Jones, Simon Poidevin et.al in our team again.

As they say, 'a win is a win' but I'd like to see how both teams play in the next test.

[99call]

Congrats to Aussie on a win.   A bit like the doldrums France or SA went through not so long ago, it reaches a point whereby even the most ardent adversaries actually want to see the resurgence of a once great rugby nation. 

I had to endure watching Wales get absolutely robbed by SA.   2x clear as day, horseshit yellow cards for not releasing. According to this ref you have to transition from tackle to jackal at a speed even Clark Kent couldn't summon in a phone box.     Out of all the nations (including New Zealand). I can't think of a more openly corrupt rugby nation. 

Can't wait to see what artistic licence with the rules will occur in the next test.    

[JustDave]

Epic recovery by the wallabies, but it struck me that the English played just really awfully.  Not the form I expected to see at all.  

I managed to catch a big chunk of IRE/NZL and the Irish did about as well as I expected them to do against that kind of dynamic play.  

Looking forward to the championship this year.

[Ken Gargett]

On 7/3/2022 at 11:54 PM, 99call said:

Congrats to Aussie on a win.   A bit like the doldrums France or SA went through not so long ago, it reaches a point whereby even the most ardent adversaries actually want to see the resurgence of a once great rugby nation. 

I had to endure watching Wales get absolutely robbed by SA.   2x clear as day, horseshit yellow cards for not releasing. According to this ref you have to transition from tackle to jackal at a speed even Clark Kent couldn't summon in a phone box.     Out of all the nations (including New Zealand). I can't think of a more openly corrupt rugby nation. 

Can't wait to see what artistic licence with the rules will occur in the next test.    

the ref was from georgia? not sure you can blame south africa for that. 

actually the problem is the administrators and the ever increasingly stupid rules. rugby is so less interesting than it used to be. 

[99call]

21 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

the ref was from georgia? not sure you can blame south africa for that. 

actually the problem is the administrators and the ever increasingly stupid rules. rugby is so less interesting than it used to be. 

Ken I can definitely agree that refs are increasingly asked to give judgments on ever tiny/marginal infractions,  at the same time they are heavily criticised for having to use the eye in the sky to do so.     Rugby somehow needs to hit upon a version of the game, which is safe for the players, but also allows for a hard fought, free flowing rugby. 

As for the South Africa/Wales game,  for me it doesn't really matter where the ref is from, it's more about how experienced they are.  It's been proven in the stats (I cant remember where of the top of my head) that, refs will give the benefit of the doubt to A, historically superior rugby nations, and B, Teams that physically dominant.   So whilst I can agree that in an individual incident, it's likely the dominant/attacking team, 'may' have the upper hand, and a greater degree of likelihood to be in the right,  but it's just not good enough that certain refs, just go on autopilot, and sanction the defending team to death on the basis of perceptions, and not actually whats happening.  If a defending tackler, legally jackals the ball on their own try line, thats something to be celebrated, not yellow carded.   

I'm not sure if you recall the Miracle in Brighton, with Japan beating SA. Japan were well worth the win, but critically the officials were doing a great job of letting the game run without a predetermined ideas of who should be in ascension.   You only have to look at the nonsense of how few All Blacks have been red carded over history to realise certain teams are given the benefit of the doubt. 

It's not sour grapes, I'm not bothered getting beaten by SA, (lord knows it's happened many many times), It's more about correctly appreciating aspects of the game equally. A try saving tackle can be as beautiful as a try, and the best games are forged when when both defence and attack are equally rewarded. 

Teams like SA, don't need help from the ref waving them on, but more importantly it ruins the game for the impartial spectator. 

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, 99call said:

Ken I can definitely agree that refs are increasingly asked to give judgments on ever tiny/marginal infractions,  at the same time they are heavily criticised for having to use the eye in the sky to do so.     Rugby somehow needs to hit upon a version of the game, which is safe for the players, but also allows for a hard fought, free flowing rugby. 

As for the South Africa/Wales game,  for me it doesn't really matter where the ref is from, it's more about how experienced they are.  It's been proven in the stats (I cant remember where of the top of my head) that, refs will give the benefit of the doubt to A, historically superior rugby nations, and B, Teams that physically dominant.   So whilst I can agree that in an individual incident, it's likely the dominant/attacking team, 'may' have the upper hand, and a greater degree of likelihood to be in the right,  but it's just not good enough that certain refs, just go on autopilot, and sanction the defending team to death on the basis of perceptions, and not actually whats happening.  If a defending tackler, legally jackals the ball on their own try line, thats something to be celebrated, not yellow carded.   

I'm not sure if you recall the Miracle in Brighton, with Japan beating SA. Japan were well worth the win, but critically the officials were doing a great job of letting the game run without a predetermined ideas of who should be in ascension.   You only have to look at the nonsense of how few All Blacks have been red carded over history to realise certain teams are given the benefit of the doubt. 

It's not sour grapes, I'm not bothered getting beaten by SA, (lord knows it's happened many many times), It's more about correctly appreciating aspects of the game equally. A try saving tackle can be as beautiful as a try, and the best games are forged when when both defence and attack are equally rewarded. 

Teams like SA, don't need help from the ref waving them on, but more importantly it ruins the game for the impartial spectator. 

understand what you are saying and south african refs can be a touch off at times, but there have been some very good ones as well. some shockers. i remember one reds game in south africa where the penalty count was 24-2 (or perhaps we didn't even get two). whether he'd put his house on the game or simply just forgot two teams playing or was truly incompetent, who knows. but they have so many fiddly rules and ridiculous stuff. we had swain sent off for the most innocuous head nudge ever and he has been suspended for the rest of the series. a farce. the bloke who attacked his head (well pulled his hair - nothing. well a yellow card at the time). in the old days, the ref would have told them to grow up and everyone would have got on with the game, no harm done. 

now, it is killing the game. the rules are simply beyond almost all refs and then we have the video idiots who think they can overrule refs and intrude on a game whenever they like.

i no longer watch rugby live. i tape it and then use the fast forward button (avoiding the score, of course). never more than about 15 minutes play so i save a lot of time. if that is not the death knell for a sport, what is?  

[99call]

On 7/7/2022 at 10:11 AM, Ken Gargett said:

some shockers

Nearly lost the 2nd test to the same one eyed nonsense,  AWJ given a yellow for literally nothing,  The ref didn't quite know what he was sending him off for, refused to talk to the players, refused to go to the 4th official.   Beyond a joke. 

Completely agree that the blend of the rules is completely off at the moment.   One of the major problems is backs wanting to do upright 'soak up' tackles.   They want to stay in the game and recycle themselves as quickly as possible into the back line. They take the oncoming player stood up, get bounced off, but are able to either stay on their feet or at the very least don't get trapped in the ruck.   The negative side affect is, loads and loads of head clashes.  and loads of yellows/reds. 

Crooked feeds into the scrum need to be addressed, as the hooker competition is non existent, the competing packs, are.......not competing!, they are instead focusing on all sorts of dark arts, that collapse, wheel, endlessly reset the scrums.     If they had to compete, they wouldn't have the capacity to do any of this negative crap. 

The deliberate knock on needs re-assessing to. it's become to subjective/negative.   Intercepts are an exciting/difficult/skilful part of the game.  The sanction should be the same, but it should just be the lines mans call,  no eye in the sky/endless slowmo. 

Fewer replacements, would lead to less heavy, more athletic players. thus maybe likely to cut down on severe injuries/free flowing rugby. 

Best of luck against England in the 3rd test!

[Ken Gargett]

27 minutes ago, 99call said:

Nearly lost the 2nd test to the same one eyed nonsense,  AWJ given a yellow for literally nothing,  The ref didn't quite know what he was sending him off for, refused to talk to the players, refused to go to the 4th official.   Beyond a joke. 

Completely agree that the blend of the rules is completely off at the moment.   One of the major problems is backs wanting to do upright 'soak up' tackles.   They want to stay in the game and recycle themselves as quickly as possible into the back line. They take the oncoming player stood up, get bounced off, but are able to either stay on their feet or at the very least don't get trapped in the ruck.   The negative side affect is, loads and loads of head clashes.  and loads of yellows/reds. 

Crooked feeds into the scrum need to be addressed, as the hooker competition is non existent, the competing packs, are.......not competing!, they are instead focusing on all sorts of dark arts, that collapse, wheel, endlessly reset the scrums.     If they had to compete, they wouldn't have the capacity to do any of this negative crap. 

The deliberate knock on needs re-assessing to. it's become to subjective/negative.   Intercepts are an exciting/difficult/skilful part of the game.  The sanction should be the same, but it should just be the lines mans call,  no eye in the sky/endless slowmo. 

Fewer replacements, would lead to less heavy, more athletic players. thus maybe likely to cut down on severe injuries/free flowing rugby. 

Best of luck against England in the 3rd test!

i was planning to avoid any discussion of the rugby after last night given what a farce rugby has become, but you have ruined that. 

to be honest, thoroughly great occasion and atmosphere at the ground. all great fun. no question england deserved to win. two games in a row we have had shocker first halves. got away with it last time. not twice and nor did we deserve to. sure, we scored two tries to one but they played the far better rugby. they did what they had to. we made endless stupid mistakes. there were times when we looked like we'd just met. some horrific injuries. no question hooper is usually one of our best and never givees up but last night was one of his worst games. england was solid and farrell kicked superbly. we can bitch about scoring more tries but that is a crucial part of the game and they did it well. 

all that said, a few things. 

i have said for 30 plus years that the deliberate knock down rule is the worst in sport. any sport. utterly moronic. people used to look at me like i was some unhinged whinger. finally, they are realising how stupid the rule is. last night, a pom attempts an intercept and knocks on. a penalty only - as it should be. then izzy P goes for an intercept (england already had a penalty so they were not going to have a try scored against them even if he had caught it). it was right near where i was and i was directly in line. anyone who tries to convince me that was a deliberate knockdown is a liar or a moron. ridiculous. it should not be a penalty, let alone a yellow card. makes rugby near unwatchable. ruins games.

when will a tmo realise that out of 50,000 people there last night, not a single one came to see him interfere. not one. the same number came to watch the refs hold conferences and piss everyone about. sure, a pom was later yellow carded for the knockdown as well but they had painted themselves into a corner by then and would not have got out alive if he had not got the card. 

next, and i am still steaming at this - in the first test, swain gets a red card and suspended for the full series for what was a small head nudge. not a butt. a nudge. okay, if that is the penalty for anything to do with touching the head, fair enough, however silly. last night, the pommy prop slams his elbow into the back of the head of a wallaby who is face down on the ground. how the hell is that not much worse? all it gets is a penalty. the total lack of consistency is seriously pissing fans off massively. granted there were mitigating circumstances. it was nic white's head and i suspect most of his team mates would like to do the same to it but seriously? refs can stuff up and we can live with it. but when they are inconsistent, it really annoys us. 

finally, feigning injury when a side gets a yellow card. the poms get a card against them and in the next ten minutes, i think six stops for injuries. all of whom miraculously recovered. no doubt that the toxic hobbit gives them instructions to do it, and not suggesting they are on their own in doing it, but another nail in rugby's coffin. dire stuff. stamp it out or lose more fans. 

finally, on jones, an utterly graceless response after the game. he is a vile little grub. not even clive would have been so classless as the toxic hobbit. 

between him and krygios (and a few cricketers, although i always felt many of them were unfairly targeted, simply because they kept winning against england), no wonder people think aussies are a bunch of grubby low class tossers. 

next week, the game clashes with the local brisbane broncos rugby league game. i'll be watching the league.