Planet Rugby have coverage of Saturday night’s game between the Brumbies and the Sharks from South Africa. The squeaker of a game turned on a yellow card given to the Sharks Deon Carstens late in the first half.
Now all through the first half I was watching the Sharks rushing defence smash our mid-field near to bits and wondering why we didn’t play in the forwards a bit more to draw the defence in before spinning the ball out wide. But the Brumbies persisted, the Sharks kept rushing up and eventually their persistent offsides drew the yellow card.
Now lets assume George Gregan and the chess playing Steve Larkham are better readers of a rugby game than I am (and I think we all agree there’s little danger with that assumption). We then have to ask: were they deliberately playing to get that yellow card and then turn on a tailored plan to score tries against 14 men?