Big crowd Wallabies v Samoa..why cant RL do that?

[gaterooze]

In their main forum on Planet Rugby -- 8 pages on the thread "Destiny Child Split Up - Nooooooooooo"

:lol:

 

[JK]

I saw offers of $15 a ticket. Didn't spot the free ones but no one who knows me would bother trying to get me to a union game.

38,000 is nothing to sneeze at. Hopefully the ARL can use the network of amateur clubs to get people to the game cheap. We would like at least 50K there.

 

[Brutus]

To TFC for this thread?

No, keep it here. Keep it in the mainstream. It's not hurting anyone.

 

[Green Machine]

GM,

Actually, anybody who is stupid enough to do anything illegal does so on the understanding that they will get it back in spades during the next ruck. I think the military types call it mutually assured destruction.

That is apart from the three qualified referees, the video ref, and the after game scrutiny which catches everything, absolutely everything, these days.

In any case, there is an old adage, that if you lie on the ball, you do so at your own risk.

O'Driscoll incident puts Umaga offside
Monday, June 27, 2005

Relations between the All Blacks and British and Irish Lions have continued to sour as the tourists lay blame for their captain Brian O'Driscoll's shoulder injury on his New Zealand opposite Tana Umaga.

Lions coach Clive Woodward called a news conference in Wellington late Sunday to show video and still footage he said clearly demonstrated Umaga spear-tackled O'Driscoll in the second minute of Saturday's first Test, causing the shoulder injury which has ended O'Driscoll's tour.

"When you see it I think you will cringe," Woodward said. "It's a pretty horrific situation to find yourself in as a player because you can't defend yourself."

The footage, from both end-on and side-one views, appeared to show O'Driscoll being lifted by the legs by Umaga and All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu and dropped head first. He was carried from the field with a severely dislocated right shoulder.

A bitter O'Driscoll said he was "gutted" by the incident. He said he had no doubt he was the victim of a spear tackle which was "unnecessary and certainly beyond the rules and regulations of the game".​

The Lions have gone to extreme lengths since Saturday to blame O'Driscoll's injury on Umaga.

Woodward has raised the issue at a series of news conferences, starting immediately after the match.

O'Driscoll slammed Umaga for failing to make an effort at the time or since the match to speak with him, calling his reticence "a breach of common courtesy between captains."

"I am in no doubt whatever that it was deliberate foul play, a double spearing. It was a cheap shot which has put me out of the Tour ... I'm really shocked that Umaga did that," O'Driscoll said.

Woodward later used a video presentation to highlight what he called Umaga's "guilt" and expressed concern that South African Willem Venter, the International Rugby Board's citing commissioner, had seen the same footage and had found no case for Umaga to answer.

Venter instead cited Lions' lock Danny Grewcock for biting. After an all-day hearing Sunday, IRB judicial officer Terry Willis of Australia found Grewcock guilty and suspended him for two months.

Both the Lions and New Zealand moved Monday to quash suggestions O'Driscoll may have been "targeted" because of the tourists' allegedly disrespectful response to the All Blacks' pre-match haka.

The Lions stood in a wide semicircle while the Maori challenge was performed with O'Driscoll and the tourists' youngest player, scrumhalf Dwayne Peel, prominent. When the haka ended, O'Driscoll appeared to stoop and throw away a piece of grass in a gesture which could be interpreted as a rejection or dismissal of the challenge.

Woodward said the Lions' response to the haka had been based on an e-mail he had received from "a Maori" advising how, under traditional protocol, a haka should be received.

"This man said to show respect for the haka the chief goes out front with one of the youngest players then accepts the challenge by picking up a piece of grass at the end of the haka as a mark of friendship and respect," Woodward said.

But All Blacks coach Graham Henry said the Lions were using the O'Driscoll incident to divert attention from their 21-3 first Test defeat.

"For the opposition to concentrate on one incident that I can't see anything wrong with instead of saying 'well done All Blacks, you did pretty well' is a little bit disappointing."

 

[fobsta]

O'Driscoll is a bloody sook. He was picked up by Umaga and Mealamu and then dropped. He was not driven into the ground as the Lions' Spindoctors will have you believe. You see way worse tackles in the NRL on a weekly basis, mainly where the players go above horizontal then are driven into the ground.
Anything to divert attention away from the fact that Woodward picked a Lions squad full of out of form Englishmen (ignoring the 6 Nations Champions Welsh players) and got towelled in every facet of the game.