The Rugby Championship

Forgot to set this up until 20 minutes into the first half of Aus v Bok, very physical game so far. Despite the new laws trying to keep the stoppages to a minimum the boks still finding a way to require a few minutes for injury treatment before most scrums & line outs.

Crowd sounds at least 50% Saffas, lots of kicking, Australian ill-discipline letting SA piggy back their way down field on the back of a better line out and much better scrum. Lolesio and Gordon both a bit guilty of kicking too deep and not giving their chasers a chance to compete.

Ref could do better at ensuring the big saffa forwards are actually retreating back onside during the kick duels. Fun watch for a neutral so far, Aussie mistakes would make it frustrating to watch if you were from the West Island.

Well, 40 minutes in and the Saffas are thriving off Wallabies mistakes and ill discipline. I'd say some of those penalties are a bit pedantic and the sort of technically wrong, but also not really impacting anything things. Like penalising the Aus prop for standing up as the ball leaves the scrum. The scrum which was happening due to a knock on - turning a knock-on into a penalty is just the drizzling shits of rugby these days and I hate it.

But, Aus giving up territory by dumb penalties, and then when they do have the ball struggling to maintain discipline & possession is the story of the game so far. Still reasonably fun to watch but not as good as your average NPC game thanks to the usual International refereeing sticklers.

I think the Kellaway yellow was a bit unfortunate. Sure it was dumb that he lifted - but it only became dangerous when the SA players pulled him over. The SA 9 wasn't hurt given the football style hysterics trying to milk the card. Hopefully it doesn't get upgraded to a red because it really doesn't deserve it.
Ok well Aus doing a massive heel turn with that god awful country trio playing in the half time break. Jesus H Christ, what is wrong with you people!

I thought about making a thread yesterday morning, but it then slipped my mind, so thank you. Sounds like first game has gone as predicted, lets see if Los Pumas do any better than predicted too!

I think if the Wallabies had set some better pictures they wouldn't have been penalised out of the first half so much. While I do think Pearce has been a bit pedantic and not paid attention to some of the SA infringements as much really it comes down to referee management and the Aussies just did too much dumb stuff early on to ever get on the right page with the ref.

Combine that with a malfunctioning scrum & a wobbly line out they've just really struggled to get much going. At times so far in the 2nd half they've looked very good on attack, but as soon as SA manage to slow a couple of rucks down they've been at risk of a turnover - that is if they haven't dropped it themselves by then.

Finish your drink on a dayboo try!

Not often you see boots fall apart! 8 to go and NZ in trouble here

Oh how I wish Scotland got a crack at New Zealand this year, our last team to win against

Surely SA's to lose now

Yeah I said after the two England games that the ABs were pretty lucky to get away with 2 wins and could easily go 0-4 on the road against SA, Ire & Eng this year. I still thought they should have had enough to put the Argentinians away at home but yet again they played a muddled, disjointed game and had no answer to the rush defence. Couple that with a very soft 2nd half forward performance and they were deserved losers.

Honestly, unlike the home loss to Argentina under Foster this performance I think was even worse. Argentina 2 years ago played incredibly; tonight they just played well. Good, structured rugby - did the basics very well, and had some interesting variety in attack plus from broken play were incredibly dangerous.

Yet again, the All Blacks defensive system this year was found to be very porous and they got no better physicality from Blackadder than they did with Finau against England. When Sititi came on they pulled Papali'i off and left Blackadder on who promptly gave up two penalties. The Sotutu fans will be even more aggrieved that he was overlooked for that performance.

The NZ public will probably bag McKenzie but I dont think there was a lot he could have done, Perenara's service was pretty slow for the first 55 minutes, and while things sped up a lot with Ratima on for the last 20 minutes the ABs forwards were just completely outclassed.

I was at the Wellington Stadium with my Scottish partner & in-laws for the 2011 World Cup when Argentina beat Scotland and while we were all gutted to lose that, the Argentinian fans that night were amazing. They were just as incredible tonight - so much passion, so much fun. I hate losing, but I love the joy they get out of beating us :)

LFG Pumas!!

I don't want the All Blacks to lose to anyone, but I can crack a smile at the way the Pumas fans go off when they beat us.

The Rugby Championship - Round 1