Reds Vs Highlanders

[darwin_23]

Highlanders and Reds Teams for the game have been announced:

Highlanders:

15. Paul Williams, 14. Lucky Mulipola, 13. Niva Ta'auso, 12. Johnny Leota, 11. Fetu'u Vainikolo, 10. Daniel Bowden, 9. Jimmy Cowan (VC ) 8. Steven Setephano, 7. Alando Soakai, 6. Hayden Triggs, 5. Tom Donnelly, 4. Isaac Ross, 3. Clint Newland, 2. Jason Macdonald ( C ), 1. Jamie Mackintosh,

Reserves 16. David Hall, 17. Chris King, 18. Adam Thomson, 19. Tim Boys, 20. Toby Morland, 21. Mike Delany, 22. Brett Mather





Reds:


Chris Latham, Digby Ioane, Morgan Turinui, Chris Siale, Clinton Schifcofske, Berrick Barnes, Sam Cordingley, John Roe (captain), David Croft, Hugh McMeniman, James Horwill, Van Humphries, Rodney Blake, Stephen Moore, Greg Holmes.

Reserves: Sean Hardman, Dayna Edwards, Ed O'Donoghue, Leroy Houston, Will Genia, Andrew Walker, Peter Hynes

Teams look pretty predictable - the only surprise to me is the make-up of the Otago loose forwards, with no room for Adam Thomson in the starting lineup. The inclusion of Triggs (who usually plays at lock) at 6 could be to counter McMeniman at lineout time...

 

[Fushitsusha]

Highlanders and Reds Teams for the game have been announced:

Highlanders:

15. Paul Williams, 14. Lucky Mulipola, 13. Niva Ta'auso, 12. Johnny Leota, 11. Fetu’u Vainikolo, 10. Daniel Bowden, 9. Jimmy Cowan (VC ) 8. Steven Setephano, 7. Alando Soakai, 6. Hayden Triggs, 5. Tom Donnelly, 4. Isaac Ross, 3. Clint Newland, 2. Jason Macdonald ( C ), 1. Jamie Mackintosh,

Reserves 16. David Hall, 17. Chris King, 18. Adam Thomson, 19. Tim Boys, 20. Toby Morland, 21. Mike Delany, 22. Brett Mather





Reds:


Chris Latham, Digby Ioane, Morgan Turinui, Chris Siale, Clinton Schifcofske, Berrick Barnes, Sam Cordingley, John Roe (captain), David Croft, Hugh McMeniman, James Horwill, Van Humphries, Rodney Blake, Stephen Moore, Greg Holmes.

Reserves: Sean Hardman, Dayna Edwards, Ed O'Donoghue, Leroy Houston, Will Genia, Andrew Walker, Peter Hynes

Teams look pretty predictable - the only surprise to me is the make-up of the Otago loose forwards, with no room for Adam Thomson in the starting lineup. The inclusion of Triggs (who usually plays at lock) at 6 could be to counter McMeniman at lineout time...
[/b]

That's a pretty fine looking Reds team.

 

[dobrien7]

Is probably the best line up the Highlanders can muster, here's hoping for a good result.

PS - Check out those props of ours, both 130kg and sweet bugger all fat on them...

 

[j1mb0]

I think it was on Foxsports.com.au I read that Dayna Edwards (bench for Qld) is an Academy player who has massive scrummaging potential, another good sign for the future of the Reds

 

[mimic]

I'm not a Highlanders fan, as I don't really like the style of rugby they play.. But man, I'm really keen to see how their backline clicks.. They have the potential to carve up some teams imo.. Just gotta hope their forwards set the platform though.. Really tough to replace the front row, as well as James Ryan..

 

[esoj]

highlanders have lost a stack of players especially in the forwards and their star backline general evans. Their backline has some exciting talent but it will very much depend on what the forwards can produce for them.

reds team on paper looks good. on the field is where it counts and where previous good reds teams on paper have failed.

I just don't think the highlanders have the grunt up front to take this one and expect the reds to win it by 1-12

 

[C A Iversen]

I hope your wrong! I've picked the Reds in the Virtual Super 14, but my heart still wants an unpredicted win!

 

[C A Iversen]

This game has been made a travesty of by two refereeing decisions. The Reds deserve a win, I won't take that away from them. The two dubious tries on the other hand were a joke.

What kind of loaded question is "Can you give me any reasons not to award the try?".

The second time round the TMO realised what was going on after the first was awarded and said, "The footage is inconclusive". Which exonerates him as from that point on he'd done nothing wrong. He merely answered the question.

Marius Jonkers had already made up his mind and was just wanting to make sure that there was nothing upstairs to contradict him, whatever it said about the state of the try.

How about the question, "Can you tell me if there was a grounding over the line?"

Hats off to the Reds for their game, but for those two calls Jonkers is a farce.

 

[dobrien7]

Give me a reason not to award it... how about give me a reason to award it. Highlanders up and down there, poor defence early, but showed some signs on attack, but couldn't finish anything off.

 

[candybum]

Great start by the Reds!

 

[mackka]

That was...interesting. Two tries were a bit dubious but I think the second one was probably ok. The Reds showed some awesome attack early on then went to sleep. I think it's going to be a looooooong season for the Highlanders...the Reds obviously have a lot of talent but their second half was very poor. Either this was a poor match for them or they will be in the bottom half again this year...a severe disappointment given their fantastic lineup. Ione, Siale, Schifcofske and McMenniman were standouts for me.

 

[dobrien7]

First time I've seen Siale, reminds me a bit of Anthony Tuitavake.

 

[Gavin]

From the highlights I saw of the match the two tries looked very unconclusive. Not sure how the video referee could award one of the tries because it looked to me that the player and the ball was held up by a Highlanders player. Other than that well done to the Reds, good to see them get a home win after that horrible last year.

 

[BLR]

Looked at the replay, that first try was disgraceful that it was called a try...the TMO should be sacked...

 

[C A Iversen]

Thank goodness that the Australians on forum haven't been biased about the thin evidence regarding the tries. I genuinely hate bleating on about stuff like that and as I've said earlier, the Reds deserved a win on their other merits, so it's not sour grapes. I do have to say though the poor bloody TMO was put in a ridiculous position with the wording of the questions he was asked.

I'm very impressed once again with the neutrality of the views from Australian TRF members.

 

[mackka]

I think what's happened is that in both cases, once all the players had gotten up from the mess, the ref saw the ball grounded over the line and so asked the question the way he did. The problem is that the players could have gotten the ball down after the ref had blown his whistle while everyone was still on the ground. I don't think there's any doubt in both cases the ball was grounded eventually, but that doesn't necessarily mean a try's been scored and I don't think that's really a good enough reason for the ref to ask the question the way he did and not allow the TMO any scope...on the other hand, benefit of the doubt and all that. Highlanders certainly showed a lot of spirit regardless and wouldn't have been undeserving if they'd gotten away with it.

 

[mimic]

Highlanders squandered so many chances.. The Highlanders dominated most of the match, good to see..
Their backline moves was mainly just the cut back, and the Reds read it very easily

 

[mackka]

Also, anybody know what happened to Mulipola? Looked suspiciously like a broken arm to me.

 

[Vambo]

Just watched this one. Good entertainment but like others I have to question the validity of the Reds tries.I certainly doubt that Schifcofske grounded the ball on anything other then the defenders thigh.
Nice to see the Reds get their campaign off with a win though