Brumbies - Reds Game

There is one thing in evidence as to this game - irrespective of how good the backline of a team is - if the forwards do not provide good ball to the backline - thr is one really impe issue in evidence and that is it neutrlizes the backline advantage completely

The brumbies forwrds did a veryy good job and laid the foundation for their 24 - 6 victory over the Reds.   I think that the problem for th Reds started with Copper - he showed very little today and may even have been rated s below par - that last long pass in the last minute of the game indicates that he did not really show class.

It was clear  that the only Reds backline player of note was Ioane - at least he made a few efforts - but not really successful.

Jake White really showed tonight that he knows what is expected - strong forward performance, coupled tp good defence was noticeable tonight.   The negative is that they did show some deeficiencies in midfield,

On the whole I think that tonight's performances shows that the Reds are not really title contenders this year - the margin of loss was really too big to feel comfortable if you are a Reds supporter.

 The reds scrumhalf did not look like much. Coupled with the poor performance at the rucks by the Reds forwards, Cooper did not get much quality ball on the front foot. Pocock is maybe the best on the ground at stealing and slowing possesion, at least legally.

It was all pretty static for the Reds. This is why the South Africam teams typically do well, as our forwards get some better ball to the backs- even though our centers crash ball to much. 

It is early days for the Reds though, I think they can get better. 

In general the Brumbies defensive structure was significantly solid without conceding a try which is mainly why Reds couldn't get momentum going forword in the mid centres, they eventually ran out of options and decided to rely on the forwards to produce which wasn't effective at all. I agree Ioane was the only player that managed to do well on attack with the most running metres of 93 metres. If the Reds continue to play such a low standard effort on attack i don't think they will be contenders amongst the top 6. The question remains whether  without the key players such as Genia, Horwill and Samo ect.. was the cause of the negative result? This match clearly indicates Cooper only needs to focus on rugby in his career, at this stage he is below standard and needs some motivation, Cooper only played well at the last 10 minutes.

Stats
Possession - Brumbies 52 - Reds 48
Rucks/Mauls - Brumbies 85 - Reds 79
Linebreaks - Brumbies 1 - Reds 3
Offloads - Brumbies 9 - Reds 14
Running Metres - Brumbies 543 - Reds 525
Kicks - Brumbies 20 - Reds 15
Tackles Made - Brumbies 126 - Reds 141
Tackles Missed Brumbies 23 - Reds 14
Penalties Conceded - Brumbies 8 - Reds 13
 

Lucid

Thanks for the summary - it really illustrates what went wrong with the Reds in this game.   I agree Genia was sadly missed by the Reds and Horwill make a difference.  However, the Reds lost a lot today - if the margi of victory is taken into account.   Personally I do not think they have the forwards to take them through the competition.

Next weekend the situation would be much more interesting - so lets wait and see what  happens. .  

Mike exactly so. This was the point I made when the Bok forwards humbled the wee kiwi pack and their backs could do zip. England beat them when once more the wee kiwi pack folded and the ab backs couldnt do much.

Some curious dynamics may come into play with Quade. For all we know he may alreeady have been offered a lucrative deal for his next bout and doesnt want to risk injury.

Anyhow it shows again how astute a coach Jake is.  But very early days.

the reds brumbies game was very high intensity, but i couldnt believe how conservative the reds & to a lower extent the brumbies were playing it. only in the last 15 mins did the reds up their attacking ante & that was behind in the scoreboard desperation.
the amount of kicking involved had me thinking this was a saffa darby.

brumbies whipped their a55 by being technically more sound & former NRL coach brian smiths defensive influence looks to be coming along nicely. jake white was smart in hiring him, but stupid in picking rathbone over tomane.

the ref was useless. in the rebels game the ref didnt know what daylight was & last nites ref dosent know u have to stay on ur feet & support ur own weight when pilfering, or that teams cant seal the ball.
ref was consistently sh!t for both teams, but the brumbies were getting pinged many times deep in the reds half & the reds were getting pinged heaps in theirs, so brumbies had that in their corner.
brumbies still deserved their win, they were better & more efficient with everything.

poc0ck schooled the young guns in the reds outfit in defence & the breakdown, but his ball carries are still a laughable farce. david baggins knows that he needs an effective ball carrying game to go with his other qualities, cos IMO hooper is miles ahead of him.
to even compare david poc0ck baggins to McCaw let alone say hes his equal or better, pffffffffffft what a joke.

i always rated the reds halfback ben lucas, but the reds looked way more composed when frisby was on the field. i would have left frisby on when lucas hit the blood bin.

i think cooper has proven one thing the last few years, without genia hes about as useful as a broken tampon string.
reds need genia back ASAP, cos that backline had no direction what so ever, though that could be testament to brian smiths defensive influence.

leilafano was kak too, hes playing like he did in 2011 which is a shame, cos he was one of the best in 2012.

mogg was pretty solid though, his positioning on the field especially on atk & basic fundamental was all class. will be hard to deny him a yellow jersey if he continues to play like this, especially on the back of his 2012 performance.

moore was my MOTM though, what a huge workrate, the dude was everywhere on attack & defence, his performance summed up the brumbies as a whole IMO.

Sasue

Shipperley, Speight and Alexander  cost me dearly insofar as the fantasy teams are concerned and I was not at all surprised by the disaster Faingaa proved to be.   I hope you did not pick that one for your team.   All three I did take is on my shitlist - so they will never be selected this year by me again.   

Am I right in saying that you are second on our league's point scoring list?  

@mikey,

nah i didnt pick faainga, ive always thought he was useless. alexanders was poor, but he is usually a lot better, same goes with pocock.
shipperly and speight i think their selections in peoples teams are based on the fact we cant pick guys we normally would, something that will change in round 2.

in regards to an earlier post of urs. i think its waaaaaaaay too early to start writing of the reds, no matter what the scorline was. yes they were kak, but one poor performance esepcially in their first spXV match for the year is hardly the go to make such calls, i think the way reds perform when they get horwill and genia back will be the story of their season.

and yep, i am second in our league, :o)

Jesse Mogg's out of hand kicking last year left a lot to be desired, he's obviously done some work on it during the off season and last night he was without a doubt a much better kicker. I liked the way he joined the backline adding impetus to the Brumbie attack,  a  few more performances like that and I reckon he'd soon be a Wallaby.

Mike you're perfectly correct about forward play, the Brumbies forward play had JW's stamp on it. It was great to see Rathbone back, he is one class act, surprisingly he didn't seem rusty after a long layoff.

Sasue

As always you are correct in your assessment - the Reds were "kak" - I would rather use another word - namely "strond" - means the same but is must more descriptive.   LOL.

The Sharks last year also had a horrible start to Super 15 and in the end had to win virtually everything to be in contention - so you are probably correct in that case.  

@mikey,

the sharks are a fine example of teams who get of to a poor start. as poor as the reds were, i would never rule the out the reds, i actually rate the former spXV champions. especially when their team boasts the likes of digby, genia, cooper, harris, tapuai, slipper, hanson, shipperly, horwill, is a team not to be trifiled with. some of those players may not have performed in the weekend, but they are all big game players.

as well as the brumbies played, i still dont think they will make the finals. ithink the reds are a stronger team & the waratahs from what ive seen are going to be real deadly.
mike cheika is a fantastic coach and hes really impressed me with his rugby phlosiphies and general demeanour.