The Rugby Championship - Round 1 (lemmy.nz)

submitted 1 month ago by TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz to c/rugby@sh.itjust.works

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Australia v South Africa in Brisbane
New Zealand v Argentina in Wellington

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[-] TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz 2 points 1 month ago

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.

[-] TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 month ago

And the game completely stops at 53:38 for a couple of minutes before a scrum because Etzebeth sits down, pulls his boot off, then has to take the tape off of it so he can put it back on. Only to get subbed off anyway. That should have been a free kick for time wasting.