I just got back from the game. I honestly didn’t expect us to come back like we did, but what a thrilling finish. I couldn’t tell from where I was in the Western Grandstand which grub elbowed Mansour in the face (was it Croker?) but I have no idea how he stayed on the field. What a disgraceful act. Mansour was clearly rattled by it, but he got a standing ovation from the Western Grandstand as he went off up the tunnel (and responded with a big thumbs up to the crowd, whilst keeping his face buried in a towel).
I thought Checcin had an awful game. He was very inconsistent in his approach to the ruck. Early in the game he penalised us a few times for holding down, but then as the game went on he was allowing the Raiders to get away with murder (but we were no longer trying to hold down as long because of being penalised in the first half).
I couldn’t tell for certain from where I was sitting, but it looked to me that Whare had scored a try in the first half off a bat-back from DWZ, that Cecchin called as a knock on without going to the video, but then on the video seemed clearly to have gone back. I haven’t seen a replay yet, but was I wrong about that?
Then there was the tap from BJ off the penalty when he ran straight at Maloney and just scored. It happened so quickly and seemed so bizzare my immediate reaction was that Cecchin hadn’t properly alerted the players that it was play on. It can’t have been a quick tap either because it was inside the 10m. For those of you who watched on the video, what was the consensus?
Then there was the Rapana strip on Kikau. Live, from not too far away, it looked to me like a strip with 2 men in the tackle.
As to our performance, it was a mixed bag. Katoa got worse as the game on - I think it was fatigue. He started off well but his service and decision making became bad as the game wore on. I don’t think he can yet handle 80 minutes at dummy half. I think the extra fatigue was caused by the effort required to stop the large Canberra pack in defence. May should have come on earlier.
RCG looked good in his first game back.
Merrin was absoutey furious when he was interchanged with 20 minutes to go. He came to the side line but didn’t walk off and was having a heated exchange with the staff. When he finally came off he was so furious he walked off up the side of the field for about 30 metres before eventually coming back and sitting on the bench. Read into that what you will.
I thought Peach was brilliant. His dropped ball in the first half shifted the momentum but we should have been able to defend it. However in attack he was excellent. I don’t think we win the game without him.
Looking at our pack against the Raiders - and even our backs - there was a noticeable size advantage, on average, between the two sides. I think that was part of the reason why the game turned out how it did. We were having trouble slowing down the Raiders forwards. Our pack, by comparison, is quite tall and rangey. We come into our own the longer the game goes on, because without carrying as much mass we can have more cardiovascular endurance (I think it is recognised that we are one of the fittest if not the fittest team in the comp).
I think that is also part of the reason for why we start games badly but have such a good second half record. Other teams with bigger forwards we struggle to contain early in games, but as the game wears on we then run over the top of other teams with superior fitness.
The best form of games for us should therefore be games where we keep the ball in play for as long as possible. We should also be doing more to try to earn repeat sets.
Oh and Yeo had a blinder as always.
