With the Reds missing Harry Wilson’s tireless ball carrying and Filipo Daugunu’s spark, Saturday always felt like it would be a tough night. More so when hooker Matt Faessler left the action early.
Nevertheless, the home side was on the front foot early, with an excellent try to Hunter Paisami helping the Reds skip to a 14-0 lead.
Gradually however, the Brumbies cut their errors and ramped up the power; Rob Valetini laying waste to Tim Ryan for his try, and repeating the dose several times over. Off the back of that, halves Ryan Lonergan and Noah Lolesio enjoyed strong matches – kudos too to coach Steve Larkham, recognising that Lonergan was having a night and not replacing him in the second half, just because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
In difficult conditions, 39-26 represented not only a highly enjoyable game of rugby, but a testament to the Brumbies’ physicality. They now edge ahead of the Reds on the ladder, albeit by the cigarette paper-width of a Lalakai Foketi put-down in the corner. More on that later.
Much was made of the usually placid Les Kiss tearing into his side at half-time. With the next Wallabies coaching announcement said to be imminent, perhaps he was shouting something like, ‘lift your game you blokes or else Rugby Australia is going to make me job share with that Pommy guy, Lancaster!’
Les Kiss (Photo by Pete Dovgan/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Reds now get a week off to take stock before hosting the Blues in a match that, like their last encounter, already has ‘epic’ written all over it. Seeing as how the Blues, courtesy of their 36-17 win over Moana Pasifika, have now made contact with the middle tier of the competition, and the Reds desperately want to finish in the top two, the stakes are sky-high.
As comfortable as their win was, this still isn’t the Blues of 2024. The power game is there, but only in patches, and while it was pleasing to see Caleb Clarke and Mark Telea more involved this week, their backline play remains far from fluid.
Perhaps Moana Pasifika can be forgiven an off week, but the close nature of this competition means that if they want to push on towards finals action, they can’t afford any more slip-ups. Getting on the wrong side of referee Paul Williams proved to be a flawed strategy, and without any front foot ball, they were no chance of reprising the free-flowing running game of the week before.
Saturday’s other match was a highly entertaining affair in Dunedin, the Highlanders welcoming back some first-choice players, putting paid to the Drua, 43-20.
New Highlanders winger Taniela Filemoni had the distinction of scoring a try with his first touch in Super Rugby, although focusing on his swan dive at the expense of improving his position, seemed a little off point. The message must have gone out because ten minutes later he was in again, this time running it around to secure the extra two points!
The home side also took a firm grip on the title for worst line-out of the season; their 21st minute effort a masterclass in miscommunication and slapstick comedy.
With the jury still out on all of the All Blacks’ developing halfbacks not named Roigard, the return of Folau Fakatava after an extended absence, was welcome. His running and passing game were sharp, albeit it appears the layoff hasn’t rid him of his tendency to lapse into over-exuberance and kick good ball away in the attacking half.
The Drua were everything you would expect; slow off the mark, fragile at set piece, and unable to fracture the play until they were well behind on the scoreboard. As ever, they ran in a couple of cracking tries – Ponipati Loganimasi’s kick, chase and regather mirroring Paisami’s effort in Brisbane, but although they closed to 24-20, that elusive away win remains as distant as ever.
The Crusaders weren’t to know it, but their 31-24 win against the Hurricanes on Friday night was enough to lift them to the top of the ladder. This was a hard game to get a handle on, with the Hurricanes’ error rate so far off the charts, meaning they had no right to still be in the match after halftime.
Yet with ten minutes to go, and the Crusaders suddenly down to 13 men, the Hurricanes had not only closed, but really, should have won. Instead, a final-minute lineout maul drive to take the match into extra-time was foiled when replacement hooker Raymond Tuputupu chose to bury himself further into the maul, away from his supports, and was stripped. All with men to spare, in space, in the backline.
One hopes opposing fullbacks Will Jordan and Ruben Love found time to share a beer afterwards; Love chasing after a long kick, diving crudely and irresponsibly towards Jordan’s exposed knee, instead of the ball.
In the end, no damage was done, but the potential headline – ‘All Black star has his knee blown out by aspirant to his position’ – would not have made pretty reading for Scott Robertson.
Will Jordan (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)
But it was Dan McKellar’s Waratahs who were the big story of the weekend, albeit their upset 21-14 over the Chiefs in Sydney failed to trigger a stream of ‘I’m sorry Dan, I got that wrong’ posts from Roar readers who flooded the boards last week questioning his ability.
The winning recipe was exactly the same as the one used against the Brumbies three weeks ago: incessant defensive pressure and physicality hurrying the Chiefs and forcing Cortez Ratima to kick a lot of ball away. Then, with the Chiefs unable to play the game on their terms, the Waratahs feeding off the errors created.
There were two aspects to the Waratahs’ defence – aggression in the first half, with Damian McKenzie in particular thrown right off his game, then, as fatigue set in and the tension levels rose and the Chiefs closed to within seven points, a whole-hearted commitment to manning up and not allowing them in.
Teddy Wilson’s 100m ‘try of the Millennium’ has already been done to death, but the work of Andrew Kellaway, Joseph Suaalii and Lawson Creighton bears repeated acknowledgement – these are the kinds of tries every rugby fan hopes to see when they go to a match, but seldom do.
That the Chiefs weren’t able to score in the last 28 minutes, wasn’t all down to the Waratah’s defence. Some of their decision making was questionable, and the final, drawn-out passage of play after the siren bizarrely resembled a side ahead on the scoreboard, not behind, running the clock down, losing ground as they did so.
Disappointingly, at the ground and on various platforms afterwards, many fans seemed to forget to enjoy the win, preferring instead to vent their anger at the match officials.
Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Jack Bowen of the Waratahs celebrate (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Amongst the outrage were allegations of ‘fixing’ and a call for a petition to run the match officials involved out of Super Rugby – as pointless and nonsensical as previous petitions highlighting the grievances of Fijian and Pasifika supporters and, a couple of years ago, a crude attempt to end the career of Damon Murphy.
Here’s the thing: I’m not a Waratahs fan, but if I were, I would be delighted the manner of the victory, the heart shown, the signs that a young developing side, on its day, can mix it with the best in the competition, and the fact that a season that looked like it was going out the back door, is still well and truly alive.
It seems, however, that for many fans, that’s not enough. A referee and TMO deemed to be biased against them need to be put in their place.
So, here’s another thing. Breaking the match down, the Waratahs weren’t actually hard done by at all. Certainly, there was no refereeing error as obvious as the one made by Paul Williams in allowing a strip in a tackle made on Ardie Savea, which led to a Blues try.
Savea courteously queried Williams, asking for a TMO review which would have proven him right, only to be rebuffed. Moana Pasifika will receive an apology email on Monday, because that’s how these things work, but in the meantime, we can be sure that Williams and TMO Richard Kelly will not have been subject to the nonsense that accompanied the Waratahs match.
At the head of the grievance queue was Foketi’s corner flag put down – a superb bit of work, but denied by TMO James Leckie, who deemed that the ball cut the touch-in-goal line simultaneously with the in-goal.
Fans looking for clarity probably weren’t helped by rugby.com’s match report, which read, “later in the game, Lalakai Foketi scored a try but after TMO the referees called it no try because his foot hit the ground simultaneously to the ball.” Unscramble that at your own risk.
Seemingly missed in the pile-on afterwards was the point that TMOs have access to high-grade equipment and multiple angles that fans at the ground and at home, don’t have. Leckie is a very experienced operator, highly regarded, who privately, was adamant afterwards that his call was the correct one.
Everyone knows that match officials don’t get everything right every time. But why have rugby fans lost the ability to accept that sometimes there are 50/50 or subjective calls – because that is the very nature of the game – that sometimes go your way and sometimes don’t?
Here’s something else. The Chiefs’ Gideon Wrampling was very fortunate not to receive a red-card upgrade for his high shot on Suaalii. In effect, that would have provided the Waratahs with a numerical advantage for an additional ten minutes. And I’d have been looking for referee Angus Mabey to be more vigilant about Chiefs support players latching ahead of the ball carrier on some occasions, effectively blocking clear access for the tackler.
But that’s about it. Is that enough to lather oneself up into an all-time sook about? Hardly.
And what about counting the swings as well as the roundabouts? Leroy Carter’s try was off a Luke Jacobson pass no more or less forward than Joey Walton’s pass for Triston Reilly’s try.
Deep into time after the siren, Suaalii was deemed to have knocked the ball down in the act of making a tackle, when video strongly indicated an unlawful slap at the ball. Would the Waratahs have survived a final 5m lineout drive with big lock Miles Amatosero in the sin bin?
And what about how the Waratahs repeatedly slowed the Chiefs down at the back of their ruck; the Chiefs halfbacks having to step over or push aside Waratahs players on the ground no fewer than 18 separate times in the match.
On just three of those occasions the Waratahs were penalised for not rolling away, but it could have been a lot more. That’s a tactical win for McKellar by the way, his side playing the odds on compromising their opponent’s ball, and winning.
So, here’s a message to upset Tahs fans. Don’t be angry, be happy. Take the well-deserved win and run with it.
