highlanders beat sharks to end losing streak,,,

 Another unworthy team wins.

 Sharks get penalised for coming in from side and also for hands in. Highlanders players stops try by doing same and nothing happens. Hahahahahahahha More yellows for highlanders were called for. JP got a yellow for an intercept attmpt. Highlanders didnt even get a penalty for his side entry and hands in!! Extraordinary stuff once again. Especially when one considers the repeated infringements.

Sasue

highlanders
aaron smiths best game ever, i thought it was a huge mistake to see him subbed, luckily my scardy catness wasnt justifeid.

tamati ellison makes a huge difference to the highlanders, he was rusty, but he and the landers will get better. cant wait for nonu to get back, IMO nonu/ellison is gonna rip it up for the landers remaining games.

landers were lucky not to get more then 1 yellow in the end IMO, a couple of yellows would have been justified.

thorny, ur still a bloody legend but jospeh needs to be smarter with his subs, thorn isnt an 80min player anymore, let him go hard for 60-65 mins then bring on some fresher legs.

jospeh needs to consider bringing back whoppa, cos woody just aint cutting it, spending some time on the bench might be the perfect thing for him to get his A into gear.

landers really need someone like poki or buxton on the field, they really would have carved it up.

nice win landers, good for my superbru picks too, :o)

sharks
du toit was massive, everywhere everytime, most impresive game from du toit ive seen, with mobility not normally assoiciated with a saffa.

not a big fan of bosman, but he was awesome too, smartly ran correct lines and gave his team heaps of chances, IMO the steyn/bosman combo is the sharks best midfield combo.

steyn was looking real good to, despite that first touch knock on, lolz. that first try he set up is the type of a role he should be playing more of, smart use of his extra weight. hes still got quick ball skills and hopefully hes not injured, cos were going to see a resurrection of sorts from steyn IMO.

very nice to see lambie start attacking the line again, that helped congest highlanders defence giving his backline more room. i hope to see more of that, cos thats the lambie we all know and love.

mvovo must have been drinking from the same tap as the rest of the players, cos that was his best game too, supported well and used that pace to create some space.

jp pieterson had a real nice return game, like ellison, the sharks sem to have found that spark from their int reps which they have been sorely lacking.

 Mike no use talking to saSUE about bent nz refs. He thinks bryce lawerence was a great ref - yes the guy who dispite being voted as nz's best ref was booted off the IRB elite panel of refs due at the very best for gross incompetence.

uh-oh, beeno1 aka storminged is having a tantrum, now someone give this baby his bottle and give him a nap, dont forget to burp him.

poor storminged, now hes making up lies saying i said lawerence is a good ref, sniff sniff, are u teething little one??? wait a minute, heres a more important question, did u actually watch the game??? now now little one, dont throw tantrums at me because the highalnders and blues took ur toys away from u, ROLMFAO, :oP

When one criticize the ref or assistant ref for obvious reasons people tend to instantly come to the conclusion that it is a excuse or whining without looking at the actual true facts which they ignore. I stated last week Steve Walsh doesn't always make the clear calls after the Stormers vs Hurricanes match, now we have just seen a similar actuation from Walsh although last week it was worser. Highlanders deserve the win to a extent, they were well coached this week. Ben Smith is by far the best fullback in form in NZ, certainly a AB selection this year, Dagg is not up to standard. However some bad calls as well as in Stormers vs Blues match.

@lucid,

 i posted a thread about walshes defciency as a ref, after a very poor performance during the blues/highlanders game
i wouldnt say hes not very clear, if anything hes very articulate with nearly every call he makes, i think he just makes one too many errors that always seem to favour one team, wether by design or or just incompetence, it always seems to roll that way.

as i mentioned above, the highlanders could feel very fortunate that they didnt have more then one yellow card near the end.
the biggest gripe seems to be when treeby in the 78min pilfered the ball back when he wasnt supporting his own weight and he was coming from the side too. in walshes defence, he was coming from the otherside where the breakdown was obstructing his vision, though he still should have been able to tell that it wasnt from behind the gate, sharks can feel hard done by there.

even so, the sharks had possesion got a chance to equalise in the 79min with a penalty, but chose to go for a lineout which amounted to nothing.
every infraction the highlanders commited they were punished for in that moment onwards, but the sharks couldnt deliver.

IMO the ref was bad, but not bad enough to favour the highlanders so overwhelmingly it led to a victory, thats just frustartion speaking and its foggin up the windows of objectivity.

garteh anscombe and charles piutau are nZs form fullbacks IMO, but its silly to rwrite off dagg, mark my words, dagg will still be there for the All Blacks, especially against the french who have been a constant thorn in our asses.
ben smith will be there too, but in a role similar to last year. with jane out im looking at him to be seen more on the wing, but i hope he gets more time at 13 where he is equally as good, cos i see him as conrads long term successor, if the ranger scenario dosent fall through.

Cry into your pints lads, hate to say it but you saffas are becoming bigger whingers than those convict prick aussies. I know every decent tradesmen has left SA already but ffs build a bridge... LOSERS!!!!!! hahahahaahhabanbeano!!!!!