I at last had the opportunity to se the above game. There was a bunber of things that I observed duribng the match and I would like to ask the opinion of the New Zealand members about their comments:-
* Otago tried to play the game according to the same methods ised by the Springboks in the Soweto test - namely to get ascendancy in forward play. However, their forwards are weak and if they want to be competitive in Super 15 - the pack needs to be strengthened drastically before they would in any way be competitive.
* Manukau played very good running rugby - same as the All Blacks did in Soweto - and desrved their victory. I think they tried to and succedding in beating Otago by bakline performance. There were handling errors as well - but on the whole they provided the entertaining part of the match.
* The refereeing standard was poor and the referee was erratic in application of the law. That in a way detracted from the match as a whole.
Like what I saw from Manukau - but Otago did not impress me at all.
