Desert Qlder
First Grade
- Messages
- 9,480
I thoroughly enjoyed the game. It was absorbing without being highly skilled.
The most supreme moment in the game was at the death with Foran's effort to put Hohaia in to score. A vivid demonstration of Foran's skills there, and reason for NZ to give him more opportunity's in attacking play.
I've been a very vocal critic of Paul Gallen on this forum, but he deserved Man of the Match for last night, closely followed by a brutal effort from Matt Scott. Gallen seems very comfortable roaming with Lockyer now and it showed in that second try. There's is no doubt he's a skillful player, and is tempering his game somewhat. It'll take more time for me to come around on him however (
Gallen fans).
The reason I was so swallowed up in this game was because it was a true war of attrition. Just two penalties being given meant that both sides had to put in a lot of work for field position. There was none of the piggyback penalties, for the ref felt no necessity to put his influence on things. Thus both sides were forced to work hard to gain quality field position. Unfortunately no great skill was displayed by the halves for the vast majority of the match, so we saw no great long range tries. But the ingredients for great footy was there, and we saw glimpses of it with the final passage of play in the first half being a prime example. We should be bountiful in our praise of Richard Silverwood, his performance is quite possibly the best refereeing I've ever seen.
Thurston played somewhat within himself, standing out greatly for his lack of authority in the match. One can sense a subtle change in Thurston this year, he seems more inclined to go for a safe option for NQ. This has been a resounding change, but I felt he was too restrained last night. Perhaps we'll see his more flamboyant self during the Origin series.
NZ can hold there head high. Losing Rapira early put them on the back foot from the start and there go forward game suffered. For the greater portion of the match they defended well and it was only a run of errors that ended it for them. Bad luck. For the Aussies, nice job. A long way off their best but the forwards toughed it out and they pounced on the mistakes and took the opportunities given to them.
The most supreme moment in the game was at the death with Foran's effort to put Hohaia in to score. A vivid demonstration of Foran's skills there, and reason for NZ to give him more opportunity's in attacking play.
I've been a very vocal critic of Paul Gallen on this forum, but he deserved Man of the Match for last night, closely followed by a brutal effort from Matt Scott. Gallen seems very comfortable roaming with Lockyer now and it showed in that second try. There's is no doubt he's a skillful player, and is tempering his game somewhat. It'll take more time for me to come around on him however (
Gallen fans).The reason I was so swallowed up in this game was because it was a true war of attrition. Just two penalties being given meant that both sides had to put in a lot of work for field position. There was none of the piggyback penalties, for the ref felt no necessity to put his influence on things. Thus both sides were forced to work hard to gain quality field position. Unfortunately no great skill was displayed by the halves for the vast majority of the match, so we saw no great long range tries. But the ingredients for great footy was there, and we saw glimpses of it with the final passage of play in the first half being a prime example. We should be bountiful in our praise of Richard Silverwood, his performance is quite possibly the best refereeing I've ever seen.
Thurston played somewhat within himself, standing out greatly for his lack of authority in the match. One can sense a subtle change in Thurston this year, he seems more inclined to go for a safe option for NQ. This has been a resounding change, but I felt he was too restrained last night. Perhaps we'll see his more flamboyant self during the Origin series.
NZ can hold there head high. Losing Rapira early put them on the back foot from the start and there go forward game suffered. For the greater portion of the match they defended well and it was only a run of errors that ended it for them. Bad luck. For the Aussies, nice job. A long way off their best but the forwards toughed it out and they pounced on the mistakes and took the opportunities given to them.
