Re-Union Program Discussion
October 25, 2012, 11:00:55
I watched the Re-Union program this morning as I wanted to hear the opinion of the panelists as to the test last Saturday. There were three major issues raised, namely - * The penalties issue * The incident involving McCaw * The attitude of the Wallabies The Penalties Issue The panelists said ther is a major problem with the All Blacks consistently giving away penalties for the same offences. (This is nothing new - in the Soweto test the All Blacks gave away 11 penalties before there was one contravention by the Springbok. The penalties are all for contraventions in the ruck and tackle situations to stop the ball from getting out to continue with play. This tendency is going to lead to more yellow cards in the event of an even-handed referee. However, this may also indicate that the All Blacks forwards are under pressure as well). The panelists also pointed out that handling errors played a major roll in the case of potential tries by the All Blacks and that there line-outs were not up to standard. (Nothing new there - their line-outs against the Springboks were also no good) The McCaw Incident The incident was shown twice and then discussed it in more detail. They also showed 7 incidents in previous tests where similar occurences involving Mc Caw took place. In dealing with the incident there were three aspects dealt with:- * In all incidents McCaw was in a place where he should not have been in th first place and was obstructing the flow of the games in question. As a result of that - in the absence of no action by the referee - the opposing players took the aw into their own hands - in fact opposing players regard McCaw as a cheat. * The other issue mentioned was that the incidents can have major dangerous results and that there is a need for stricter punishment of players who do take he law into their own hands. The remark was made that Joubert was even handed and handled the situation well - though he should have been more strict on off-the-ball incidents. Simultaneously it was implied that the referees are not strict enough in dealing with him by mentioning that in his whole career McCaw only got one yellow card and also that there would be less change of incidents that could have serious consequences. What was interesting was when the lead panelist asked the Hurricanes Coach what he would do in similar circumstances and he said he would warn his players against taking the law into their own hands. The Australian Approach In this regard they said that they believe the Australians are not confident about winning against the All Blacks. - this became particularly evident during the last few minutes of the game - when they went through 23 phases without even considering a drop goal from virtually in front of the posts. Summary The above was basically what was discussed by the panelists and there was some rather clearcut problems identified by them as to the McCaw way of playing in games - this is the first time I heard some rather scathing remarks about McCaw and the way he conducts himself during games.. the th
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