WELLINGTON, NZ – As you all know by now, last weekend saw Los Pumas take on the all-mighty All Blacks, and the Springboks take on the Wallabies in The Rugby Championship. To be sure, both were very exciting games, despite the predicted scores and actual outcomes.
As for the refereeing, Roman Poite took charge of the New Zealand/Argentina match, and Nigel Owens managed the Australia vs South Africa test.
Once again, I wasn’t too impressed with the rugby put out by the All Blacks or Los Pumas. The ball seemed to be constantly lost and we had a scrum every few minutes. It wasn’t the greatest showing from either team. However, credit Los Pumas… so many of us came in expecting a walk-over by the All Blacks. But with a 5-6 halftime score, they impressed a lot of people, including a yours humbled.
Yet, Poite’s performance was just lack-luster. What stood out was the ruck. I felt that the ruck saw a lot of mess – that if cleaned up, would have facilitated for a faster and more open game. The other thing that stood out was the Yellow Card. The All Blacks had a 2 on 1 and the Argentina player deliberately slapped the ball down. It could easily have been a penalty try, but luckily in the end the right team won.
Changing gears, take a look at this video and see what you think about Richie McCaw’s wonderful example of properly cheating.
https://youtu.be/UdKLIQxU52U
The Australia vs South Africa match was exciting on and off the pitch. The coaches, South Africa’s Heyneke Meyer and Australia’s Robbie Deans, were/are under enormous pressure to win. They certainly didn’t need the referee influencing the match’s outcome. To that end, Nigel Owens was spot-on with his decisions and the Yellow Carding was perfect. Well done.
That’s it for me, leave your thoughts below and we promise not to Sin Bin you… And be sure to see England 7s star Mathew Drew Turner’s tongue-in-cheek report from Spain…. Cheers.
