Tri Nations/Bledisloe Cup - Aus v NZ (Etihad Stadium)

[JimDocker]

I've heard that Mitchell's first yellow was for taking McCaw out off the ball and that it was deserved. Too bad it seemingly wasn't picked up by the cameras...

I'm not too devastated. All Blacks deserved to win and the Wallabies played really stupidly at times. But with 15 men on the field and a bit more ability at bloody kick off's and we'd have been right in it.

How good are both Pocock and McCaw by the way?! Was a pleasure to watch those two go at it.

Pocock was head and shoulders above any other Australian player, his ability to win turnovers even with the new ruck interpretations is amazing. You just see him get in there, and then get absolutely smashed, but somehow retain his feet and his hold on the ball. And he's very accurate when he goes for it and when he doesn't - or at least, like McCaw reads the referee very well and figures out what he can get away with - which thankfully is a lot less under the new interpretation.

The Etihad pitch is a disgrace - they need to figure something out because it's not good enough. It was like a sandpit out there. A few of the English Premier League sides with massive sun blocking stadiums now use some half synthetic/half grass turf that apparently works pretty well. Maybe Etihad should look into it.

Two yellows is a red card, everyone knows that. Mitchell shouldn't have done what he did considering he was already on a yellow. It was cynical and stupid and both teams had been specifically warned about that very thing. No one to blame but himself. Funny thing was Australia probably played better in the 2nd half with just 14 men. We actually managed to keep the ball and put extended phases together - resulting in a couple of tries.

The fact the All Blacks were going to have been given a yellow card in the 2nd half for that lifting tackle would have been the biggest joke. Luckily for them Kaplan is blind.

Giteau was by far better than Barnes last night. The amount of times Barnes rushed out of defence only to miss the tackle was not good. The change I'd definitely make is dropping Brown from number 8. Don't care who comes in for him but he played poorly. I also don't think O'Connor is our best option on the wing. Hynes or Shepherd would be better I think.

All good calls from Mint Condition. None of us saw why Mitchell got the first yellow, but the ref had warned both captains about slowing the game down by foul means and we all heard Elson say to the ref that he wanted something doing about it. The ref made it clear that he would give a yellow the next time it happened and Mitchell was dumb.

The sin binning of Franks was the worst decision. He was chest onto Brown who turned his shoulder into the tackle and still got knocked flying. He then acted like a goose when he slapped Franks on the top of the head with a gormless look on his face. Brown was very very poor. apart from falling over in that tackle, he was palmed off far too easily twice. Number 8s have to be a lot stronger than that.

Pocock was magnificent.

 

[Aucklander]

Great summation of the incidents on sat night here

An explanation of the red card (which not all of us knew about) it shows Mitchell's initial infringement (on McCaw) and Franks' and about the only difference I can see is the ball is a bit further away in the Mitchell "tackle"

Both incidents are barely worth 10 in the bin.

 

[SandyToes]

Both incidents are barely worth 10 in the bin.

and Paddy O'Brien agreed..the Saffie touchie gets a rest in the magoos...tosser.

http://au.sports.yahoo.com/rugby/news/article/-/7698840/official-axed-mitchell-yellow-card

 

[Swans120]

Craig Joubert is and always has been a tool. Just like Kaplan.