Posts by Russell Brown
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More to the point was the infringing at the breakdown hands etc in the last quarter. Not spotted by the touchies or if it was spotted not acted on.
Yup. This was a doozy. WTF?
But, we lost. We lost because we weren't good enough. We lost because the french had the killer instinct and took their opportunities, we were lacking when we had to adapt.
All that. And I think I'd be harder on McCaw than you are: he was responsible for the way they played under pressure.
Yellow card? Shouldn't put yourself in a position to get pinged
It's hard to see how McAllister could really be blamed for that -- it wasn't even a penalty. I really think Barnes lost all composure there, as evidenced by his nine blasts on the whistle afterwards.
Honestly, even though Paddy O'Brien's telling us all to man up, I see this as a bit like his shocking display in France vs Fiji in 1999, which he has since publicly regretted. It was a really poor refereeing display that had a significant impact on the result.
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Or else it could have been the anti depressants. During the replay of the game on TV3 this afternoon they ran the JK ad for coming forward if you are suffering from depression. I bet the phones have been ringing off the hook.
I was talking to a female friend on the phone and she mentioned that the family violence ad I'm in screened first up after the post-match interviews (I was on my bike -- literally! -- by then).
I hate the idea that a bloody sports team losing could even be contemplated as cause for family violence (and as Hadyn has pointed out here, the idea that unfortunate rugby losses make men beat their wives is an urban myth not borne out by the data) but that was an interesting bit of scheduling. Is Culture & Heritage going to say they can't play that?
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So well done France. A truly remarkable display of discipline in a match where you had to defend for 70% of it.
Indeed. Although it's hard to see how the officials couldn't find something to penalise in this dying minutes incident on the French line. Jeez ...
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..all of this is just deeply tedious for those of us not invested in the sport, so there's always going to be a certain level of glee from us when the whole thing collapses so spectacularly.
Glee? Jeez, Danyl, steady on.
I dropped the kids off at St Lukes for the movies this afternoon, and the atmosphere was actually quite funny. Most people (men especially) were just sort of walking around in a daze.
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Hey, I take my politics seriously too - I don't always agree with your argument but you often make reasonable points - but this discussion didn't appear to be about politics? It was about rugby.
Yeah, I wasn't summoning any higher principles either. It was just a game of rugby, albeit a rather important one. It's happened before: Paddy O'Brien put Fiji out of the 1999 tournament with a woeful display (for which he was good enough to express great regret when it was eventually politic to do so). But I wouldn't be human if I didn't feel extremely frustrated by it.
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Russell, have you re-watched the footage of the end of the match to see how long the ref had his arm out for during that period of advantage?
Caught that part now. He was actually signalling for a knock-on advantage, so perhaps his waving play on then wasn't so bad, even if on another day they night have had a scrum in front on the 22 ...
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--I think McAlister went for the dropgoal because the ref had his arm out for advantage. We should've just dropped the ball and given Evans the chance to slot it over.--
Agree on both points. I'm not sure what advantage accrued to and expected the ABs to have the option of a scrum or kick?
McAllister says he only made the attempt because Barnes' arm was out for advantage and he figured they'd have the shot at goal (in front of the posts, no less). Then he kicked it and Barnes waved play on. Kind of hard to believe ...
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Russell, have you re-watched the footage of the end of the match to see how long the ref had his arm out for during that period of advantage?
No, I didn't PVR it. What happened?
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And when I've seen ten year olds handle lose a football match with considerably more maturity and grace than I've seen from their alleged elders and betters today, I respectfully suggest the 'irony' is not mine.
Which is excellent stuff in theory, especially if you didn't watch or care about the game.
But having reviewed the key incidents, I have gone from being philosophical to feeling that our chaps were unusually unlucky with the referee, to the extent that I think it is reasonable to say that the inexperienced referee's performance had a direct impact on the result.
I would note that I have had no such complaints in previous years where the All Blacks have dipped out of the World Cup. Although David Kirk blathered like this in 2003:
Take your pick of modern "isms" - populism, socialism, me too-ism, not fair-ism, free ride-ism - they all add up to mediocrity.
What a dick. It's just a game. But right now, one in which I feel just a bit robbed.
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Oh, it gets worse ...
McAlister had another disagreement with young English referee Wayne Barnes in the dying minutes when he unsuccessfully attempted a dropped goal from nearly 50m out.
He said this wasn't the panicked action that some might believe.
"We had the advantage, the ref had his arm out so I just thought I would have a stab at it, thinking that we would come back for the advantage. But obviously he thought the advantage was over."
Arrgggh ....
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