Week 3: Crusaders v Waratahs

[Gavin]

Young Todd on the flank for the Crusaders is a great player; New Zealand are going to be perfectly fine when McCaw retires.

 

[Charles]

Young Todd on the flank for the Crusaders is a great player; New Zealand are going to be perfectly fine when McCaw retires.

Exactly what I thought...

 

[Sam Owen]

Yeah not a very good start from Sonny but as the game progressed he started to get some positive plays in. He had a bit of a mixed game tonight but Im certain we're going to see some more good stuff from him and awesome team.

Matt Todd, Brad Thorn, Corey Flynn, Whitelock and Reid played well tonight, all of the 'Saders backs played well IMO.

I expected better from the 'Tahs, they started out nicely but as the game went on it seemed they we're definately missing Barnes out there tonight. The forwards took a knock when they lost Polota-Nau whose been playing strongly. The centres are good young players but they just wernt allowed in the game.

 

[lance2010]

Yeah not a very good start from Sonny but as the game progressed he started to get some positive plays in. He had a bit of a mixed game tonight but Im certain we're going to see some more good stuff from him and awesome team.

Matt Todd, Brad Thorn, Corey Flynn, Whitelock and Reid played well tonight, all of the 'Saders backs played well IMO.

I expected better from the 'Tahs, they started out nicely but as the game went on it seemed they we're definately missing Barnes out there tonight. The forwards took a knock when they lost Polota-Nau whose been playing strongly. The centres are good young players but they just wernt allowed in the game.

Whitelock which 1 there was 3 of them lol.George had a massive game it thought.Fruean was great and he's very quick too.SBW long passing was a shocker,and a couple of his offloads were risky but he will get better.

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

The Crusaders pack dominated the Waratahs in close which meant bad ball and the defense was very flat and abrasive which lead to the Waratahs' wide game looking skittish and desperate.

Well done Crusaders. Hope the SA teams take note of how to strangle the Waratahs (Stormers did the same last year twice), not that it helps the Stormers as we miss them this year. Maybe in the play-offs..

 

[TRF_stormer2010]

Yeah i don't SBW played all that well; a mixed bag and some of the stuff he got lucky with TBH. Still he definately has a good presence in mid-field and allows those around him more opportunity.

 

[Sam Owen]

The Crusaders pack dominated the Waratahs in close which meant bad ball and the defense was very flat and abrasive which lead to the Waratahs' wide game looking skittish and desperate.

Yeah true that in my previous post on this thread Ive got 5 'Sader forwards who I thought had good games. The 'Tahs pack I thought looked good last week but tonight showed theres a lot to work on just like every other team but the season is still early and I'd put them down as one of those teams that can turn their season around. Starts from the front as they say

 

[smartcooky]

I was at the game, and it was very good, but not the real cracker I had hoped for. It was a scratchy start, and I don't think its fair to rail totally on SBW, I think they all played poorly for the first 20. The Tahs really missed Berrick Barnes to give some direction to the midfield. Without him, they struggled.

IMO the turning point came about 10 min before half time when the Crusaders pack munted the Tahs in the scrum, pushing them off their own ball. After than, I noticed Al Baxter getting up to his old tricks again, slipping his bind and dropping the scrum when his team lost the hit, but it didn't help them much, as the Crusaders pack totally dominated them for the rest of the match.

Robbie Fruean was awesome. I wonder how many tackles he broke tonight. I can't recall any occasion (well on my side of the field anyway) when he was tackled and dropped first time.

Good win in the end to the Crusaders 33-18

 

[TNT88]

Good game, watching the replay now. Sonny Bill seems to be finding his place in the Crusaders backline, whenever Carter takes it up he seems to be there to take on the play making.

The Crusaders defence was just too good, they contained Beale better than NZ did.

 

[Amobokoboko]

Happy the Saders won and happy to see SBW score his first Super rugby try.
The shirts they used today looked awesome.
Hopefully they put them for sale so the profit goes to the victims of the quake.

 

[lance2010]

Happy the Saders won and happy to see SBW score his first Super rugby try.
The shirts they used today looked awesome.
Hopefully they put them for sale so the profit goes to the victims of the quake.

Im quite sure the shirts are going to be signed by the Crusaders and then auctioned and the proceeds will go towards the famlies of the 29 Pike River miners,thats what the wearing of the West Coast shirts were originally for.But maybe some might go to the Quake relief .

 

[smartcooky]

Im quite sure the shirts are going to be signed by the Crusaders and then auctioned and the proceeds will go towards the famlies of the 29 Pike River miners,thats what the wearing of the West Coast shirts were originally for.

Yep. They will be signed by the players who played in them.

This was announced at the ground.

 

[d1e1m]

I was at the game, and it was very good, but not the real cracker I had hoped for. It was a scratchy start, and I don't think its fair to rail totally on SBW, I think they all played poorly for the first 20. The Tahs really missed Berrick Barnes to give some direction to the midfield. Without him, they struggled.

IMO the turning point came about 10 min before half time when the Crusaders pack munted the Tahs in the scrum, pushing them off their own ball. After than, I noticed Al Baxter getting up to his old tricks again, slipping his bind and dropping the scrum when his team lost the hit, but it didn't help them much, as the Crusaders pack totally dominated them for the rest of the match.

Robbie Fruean was awesome. I wonder how many tackles he broke tonight. I can't recall any occasion (well on my side of the field anyway) when he was tackled and dropped first time.

Good win in the end to the Crusaders 33-18

When I saw that scrum I just started laughing, like watching men vs. boys, Crockett could earn a AB spot back if he keeps on like that. Matt Todd taught Waugh a lesson in loose forward play, granted Waugh is struggling with a serious injury. Read had a subdued game by his high standards. People might say Tahs played like crap but that doesn't bode well for other teams if the Crusaders are barely warming up by teaching the "form" team a comprehensive lesson in rugby. Tahs did miss Berrick who would have exposed the defensive weakness of SBW and Freuan. And SBW will get better but its criminal he was picked on tour and Robbie was left at home. The first 20 min were the Tahs and after that scrum, you could just see the Crusaders switch to "**** it, we're going to win this" mode.

 

[Sam Owen]

And SBW will get better but its criminal he was picked on tour and Robbie was left at home.

Well we all know who to hate/blame that on, Mr Henry and co. I like Graham Henry by the way. I think the NZRFU brains trust came up with the right move to make him coach, even if they do lose the RWC Henry is the right man for the job despite some of his team choices.

 

[d1e1m]

Well we all know who to hate/blame that on, Mr Henry and co. I like Graham Henry by the way. I think the NZRFU brains trust came up with the right move to make him coach, even if they do lose the RWC Henry is the right man for the job despite some of his team choices.

At the very least, he'll leave us with younger squad that will compete at the next world cup (Read, Franks, Whitelock, SBW, Freuan, Dagg, Slade, etc. [wow, lots of crusaders listed ]). It's easy to hate on Henry but when you have arguably the 2 best players in the world playing for you and the team is so dependent on them, its hard for him to not to take the blame sometimes, especially when he does stupid things like bringing on Donald for a game-winning moment.

 

[Dexternz]

Good game I
Reckon!

 

[Darwin]

Great result for the Crusaders. They were far from the clinical team that we expect the Crusaders to be (though there are a number of obvious reasons for this), however they were very dangerous with the ball in hand, particularly on the counter-attack. There loose-frowards dominated the breakdown area forcing numerous turnovers, which gave them heaps of turnover ball to attack with.

The Crusaders front row dominated, while Brad Thorn was a standout at lock, constantly breaking tackles with his powerful running. For a change Read didn't standout, though this was largely because the other two loosies were so impressive. Todd maintained his NPC form, while George Whitelock played possibly his best game ever for the Crusaders, breaking the line on numerous occasions (not normally his strength..). Todd is certainly putting a lot of pressure on Daniel Braid for the spot backing up McCaw in the AB's.

Ellis played quite well, as did Carter, who looked very dangerous in attack and made a lot of tackles in defense. SBW had a pretty poor game in my opinion, though he did score a good try and make the last pass in another. Two of his first three touches of the ball lead to turnovers, while the other almost did - though he did settle down a bit during the game he still had a number of offloads that didn't find there target. Fruean was almost unstoppable with the ball in hand - great to see he brought his NPC form into the Super Rugby season. Maitland again caused trouble with the ball in hand but still forgets he has team mates when he gets the ball. In a game full of counterattacking rugby Dagg was surprisingly contained.

There were few standouts for the Tahs. Polota-Nau looked good for the first 20 or so mins before he went off with injury - he was a huge loss when he went off, hopefully for the Tahs his injury is not too bad. Phil Waugh was very ineffective - I wonder whether his injury is affecting his play. The Tahs really missed Berrick Barnes as Halangahu struggled to control the game and was poor defensively. Drew Mitchell and Beale looked dangerous with the ball in hand, but neither got many chances in space.

 

[woodward]

Tahs did miss Berrick who would have exposed the defensive weakness of SBW and Freuan. And SBW will get better but its criminal he was picked on tour and Robbie was left at home.

Are they really a defensive weakness? Why should've Freuan gone instead of SBW when they play different positions? you do know they have positions in rugby right?

awesome game, Todd was amazing, as was Freuan and I thought Carter was very good also. SBW did well to bounce back from a nightmare start, heard willie lose saying today "how long are we going to put up with these mistakes he's making" Lol oh dear.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Why should've Freuan gone instead of SBW when they play different positions? you do know they have positions in rugby right?

SBWs first cap was playing 13

 

[smartcooky]

Are they really a defensive weakness?

Just after SBW's try, I was thinking about what the Waratahs coach said before the match.....

[textarea]"Defensively, there could be some weaknesses as well, which we would look to exploit," he told The Australian.[/textarea]

....and then these two guys score three tries between them.

As a coach, I reckon it pays not to say things like that, as they can often have a tendency to come back and bite you in the arse.