1 March 2009

Brumbies fail to penetrate Force field

| Kramer
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Last night Canberrans were treated to a disappointing performance from the Brumbies, as they were outclassed 16 – 25 by the Force. During the 80 minutes, the Brumbies rarely broke through the Force’s defence, and never crossed their try line – the Brumbies only try was a penalty try (albeit well deserved). Matt Giteau gave a good display of inconsistent kicking, while his team mate Cameron Sheppard stacked on the 3 tries against the ‘bies – so maybe we should be looking to acquire Sheppard rather than Giteau?

All the gory details are up on Brumbies Rugby.

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I haven’t previously read this thread, but everytime I see the title on the front page, I read “Brumbies fail to penetrate Force” with “field” falling on another line.

Then I think maybe it is another story about sport and sexual harassment…

Beserk Keyboard Warrior2:35 pm 02 Mar 09

Tom Tom – Fairbanks is injured… yet again.

Frontrow +1

Agree, score is an irrelevancy…I played tight head, and would you believe some idiot back had the audacity to pass me the ball once!

Agree with Kramer on captaincy..Hoiles waited to the post match interview to get fired up!

Skidd Marx – just my interpretation of the game… and that was only a 6 beer evening. Imagine what I could do with more! Hopefully I might make it to one of the Rugby Podcasts this season (then you’ll see how pitiful I really am).

Yes, more good words about the forwards! I did think we were the best we’ve been in ages in the scrums and lineouts. Although as much as I love the pigs, and especially #8, I reckon Hoiles should hand the captaincy back to Mortlock. We need someone with a big mouth on the field like Greegs.

Yes, the forwards in general are looking the goods. That’s usually enough to win matches, not when the backs are so out-of-touch though, as they currently seem to be.

Pretty good day for the Brumbies front row. Good scrumming transcends piffling irrelevancies such as who scores more points.

Wow! 18 comments on a sport-related post? That would have to be a RiotAct record. Kudos Kramer.

I also don’t like to crucify young players too much but I don’t know what the Brumbies see in Phibbs. He has overplayed his hand in every match I’ve ever watched. His box kicks stink and he has a bad case of white line fever. They look so much better when Holmes comes on.

Nambucco Deliria12:56 pm 02 Mar 09

How much compensation will the Brumbies have to pay Andy Friend next year if ‘Gits’ decides he doesn’t like the training regime and gets involved in another locker room revolt?

tom-tom:how many times did he crab across the field before throwing a hospital pass?

That might say more about the players outside him than about his own ability although the two Super games I’ve been to this season I’ve been disappointed with his performance. Kick has been suspect in particular.

Giteau’s general play kicked was awesome – place kicking let him down. He’ll be a real asset next year. Him and Mitchell.

> also what on earth do holmes and tyrone smith have to do to get a game?

Good point. Holmes has looked very good when he’s come on…not that Phibbs has been bad I have to say, I just think Holmes has looked a bit sharper. Ditto for Tyrone…Adam Ashley-Cooper hasn’t really looked great this season so far, Smith has been a realy injection of that “go forward” you were talking about each time he’s come on.

i thought lealifano had a very poor game, not just his kicking but his distribution aswell; how many times did he crab across the field before throwing a hospital pass? we had no ‘go forwed’ in the backs all game and thats what really cost us. Mortlock and ashley cooper can break the line better than most but even they can’t do much when they have to take a pass flat footed.

Lealifano is a better player than he’s been showing but i think he really needs his inside centre to be a good distributor (is fairbanks still around?) to take a little pressure off him and let him play to his strengths and run a little more. The kicking problem could be fixed by having a third kicker in general play (after lealifano and gerrard)because for most of the kicks he stuffed up gerrard was out of play so the force could pressure lealifano safe in the knowledge no one else would be kicking.

also what on earth do holmes and tyrone smith have to do to get a game?

This time I am forced to agree ramblingted…Lealiifano had a reall barry. Missed tackles, poor passing, AWFUL kicking…was very frustrating to watch. At least our forwards our doing a good job, so hopefully the backline can sort itself out & we can get back to winning. The good news was that as bad as the Brumbies played, they weren’t really outclassed that badly…on a good day, they would have beaten the Force by plenty…with or without the Git.

> You can have it when we play the Tahs, I wanna watch Kurtley tear LeiLei a new one too. Bring back David Knox!!!

I’d rather see LeiLei come good & steer us to a magnificent victory myself….I hate the Pansies. David Knox is a dead-set legend…silky smooth, I loved watching him play.

Same problems we’re going to face all year unfortunately. I thought Phibbs almost played well this week, so I’ll lay off him for once. I hate to critisize a young rugby player, but ol’ LeiLei needs to stop thinking and just play footy. I’m sure he can play when he wants to, but kicking out on the full week in, week out is destroying us. He is now hesitating and trying to do everything when all I’d have him doing is distributing to the talent outside him all game. You’re not world class like they are buddy, deal with it and move on!

There’s no direction on the field, no counter attacking options and no organisation during broken play. How many times do we have to see the centre switch move with Rathbone coming in before we realise it doesn’t work? Glad I didn’t donate my $31 this week. You can have it when we play the Tahs, I wanna watch Kurtley tear LeiLei a new one too. Bring back David Knox!!!

Beserk Keyboard Warrior said :

It was like having a Ferrari in the garage with the keys nowhere to be found.

Larkham’s the classic, but still quick Ferrari 250 GTO, meanwhile we’re left to punt around in the Hyundai Tiburon.

Beserk Keyboard Warrior5:32 pm 01 Mar 09

How the hell can you criticise Gits when he tore as a new proverbial?!!

Lealifano is a grade A soft cock evidenced by his attempted “tackle” on Pelesasa which led to a try.

It almost brought a tear to my eye to see Steve Larkham watching from the grandstand while Lealifano fumbled and farted all over the field. It was like having a Ferrari in the garage with the keys nowhere to be found.

and I forgot to add…………..f*cken’ pointy heads!!

Ramblingted x 100

Leilifano is out of his depth. One of the commentators on Fox made the comment that he was playing like he was gun shy after the KO last week. He plays like that every week. As I told someone during the game, if Git had’ve swapped teams at 1/2 time we would have won by 30.

Lesson to our backs. Its always a good idea when, with ball in hand and confronted by a not so great position, not to pass it to someone in a worse position.

Oh……and Ashley Cooper can’t tackle

Kramer said :

I agree that the our backs were not doing our forwards any favours with their plays.

And Mortlock only dropped the ball once that I saw!

Giteau didn’t play a bad game it’s just that Sheppard played a better game with the ball in his hands (as I played my rugby career as a forward I don’t appreciate what the pointy heads do when they kick). That said, Gits & Shep played far better than many of the Brumbies backs who are still lacking maturity.

I agree that the our backs were not doing our forwards any favours with their plays.

From what I saw, the Brumbies back line was not playing for the same team as the forwards. The brumbies kicking for touch really helped the Force. Still Rugby can be like that sometimes.

After attacking early, the Brumbies looked weak and the back line looked cramped and flustered. While the penalty try was deserved, the Brumbies consistently failed to make use of their possession and the “kicking for touch” was a joke for the whole game. The Force played the better game and Giteau’s play certainly lifted them to the win.

If Andy Friend has a game plan – perhaps he should let the players know what it is.
They were like a bunch of headless chooks running around last night.
Give the captaincy back to Mortlock as their was absolutely no on field direction apparent.

Don’t know which gave you were watching but Giteau’s kicking in general play was outstanding…meanwhile, as predicted in my post last week (and ya boo sucks to those who disagreed) Lealiifano was again a hopeless joke, adding missed tackles to his poor kicking and passing game which meant the Brumbies backline never had the ball going forward…FFS Friend PUNT THIS CLOWN NOW..if you don’t trust the young bloke who is the number two choice, then look elsewhere…there must be better number 10s running around in Canberra first grade…

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