Rough night for the Waratahs and Atieli Pakalani vs the Blues
The first qualifier of this past weekend's Super Rugby playoffs turned out to be quite a physical affair, with plenty of big hits and players dropping like flies. Here's a few of the tackles that might have caught your attention.
The Waratahs went into the match with a horrible injury count. At the beginning of their campaign, their first choice team were nothing like what turned out against the Blues, and during the match itself, they lost a few more players.
While both sides - and indeed a few others - have been through a tough time of late personnel wise, the Sydney side's injury list makes grim reading. Coach Chris Hickey refused to use that as an excuse for the loss though, and all things considered, they put on a decent display.
During the match itself, there was no holding back as both sides gave their all in the knockout clash. As you can see in this short compilation video, Jerome Kaino threw his body around a fair bit (and other peoples), and Keven Mealamu and Stephen Brett combined earlier in the game for a for a big hit on wing Atieli Pakalani.
One of the more enjoyable moments though was prop John Afoa's impressive kick chase and tackle, also on Pakalani, and then later on there was the sickening head-clash between big Sitaleki Timani and, you guessed it, Pakalani. Rough night for him. Another short highlight was Ali Williams' kick ahead, to add to his try in the same match.
The Blues have also got a few injury concerns, with Anthony Boric being rules out from their crunch semi final with the Reds this coming weekend. He has a foot strain.
Time: 02:05
The Waratahs went into the match with a horrible injury count. At the beginning of their campaign, their first choice team were nothing like what turned out against the Blues, and during the match itself, they lost a few more players.
While both sides - and indeed a few others - have been through a tough time of late personnel wise, the Sydney side's injury list makes grim reading. Coach Chris Hickey refused to use that as an excuse for the loss though, and all things considered, they put on a decent display.
During the match itself, there was no holding back as both sides gave their all in the knockout clash. As you can see in this short compilation video, Jerome Kaino threw his body around a fair bit (and other peoples), and Keven Mealamu and Stephen Brett combined earlier in the game for a for a big hit on wing Atieli Pakalani.
One of the more enjoyable moments though was prop John Afoa's impressive kick chase and tackle, also on Pakalani, and then later on there was the sickening head-clash between big Sitaleki Timani and, you guessed it, Pakalani. Rough night for him. Another short highlight was Ali Williams' kick ahead, to add to his try in the same match.
The Blues have also got a few injury concerns, with Anthony Boric being rules out from their crunch semi final with the Reds this coming weekend. He has a foot strain.
Time: 02:05
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23 Comments:
Nice!
By Anonymous, at June 27, 2011 8:53 pm
Second. So clos
By backrovern, at June 27, 2011 8:59 pm
so clos to firs eh
By Anonymous, at June 27, 2011 9:06 pm
"kissing cousins" haha, love the commentary on Super rugby games!
Some decent hits, can't wait for the semis this weekend! Probably gona be Reds v Crusaders in the final but i don't care i'm English, just hoping to see some good rugby.
Cheers for the clip RD.
By Anonymous, at June 27, 2011 9:26 pm
rough evening for the tahs, they went well though but desperatly need a no10, there is just no decent cover for barnes in the squad
By Anonymous, at June 27, 2011 9:46 pm
lol, how are they not able to sell out these fixtures?
By Anonymous, at June 27, 2011 10:07 pm
haha the "oooh" and the "aaah" made me laugh
By Anonymous, at June 27, 2011 10:19 pm
A blues fan definitely made this video, left out a few very juice hits by the Tahs on Blues players
By Anonymous, at June 27, 2011 11:20 pm
Anon, please lets not start a "why attendances are so poor in Super Rugby" debate again here. It's been going around for a while now.
Consider that Super Rugby is played through three countries and that South Africa is 8K kilometres away from Australasia (so no away public most of the time), that the stadiums are often huge (so crowds look laughably small), that franchise teames take time to get the heart of the public and that New Zealander's pockets are saving money for World Cup tickets (at least I hope so).
Anyway, it's interasting to debate why on earth the IRB gave the WC to New Zealand, considering there are tons of countries in where we need to develop the game and that New Zealand are two tiny islands in the Pacific, that they haven't got the stadia nor the capacity to receive such an amount of people.
The IRB should definitely look forward - the England 2015 fiasco is already done, so after Japan, the WC's should be held in Italy, then the USA and then Russia. Sure we don't want to end like FIFA!
Cheers
By Juggernautert, at June 28, 2011 12:27 am
Sorry, but this is a pretty shitty/useless compilation.
Having watched the game, and interestingly enough you didn't add the clips were Pakalani and Timani ran over the top of Blues players.
Pull your heads out and get the Australia vs France, 3rd place highlights for the u/20 World Cup please. Thanks
By Anonymous, at June 28, 2011 1:28 am
Fair duce, some solid D from the Blues.
The hit from mealamu was illegal.
By Mart, at June 28, 2011 2:09 am
Bye bye Tahs better luck next year, plenty of time to practise kissing eachother in the off-season. heheheh
By Anonymous, at June 28, 2011 2:34 am
@Mart..are you saying you would actually penalise Mealamu for that hit? there was no way he was intentionally doing that
By JT, at June 28, 2011 4:43 am
Sitileki "Disaster" Timani hahaha
By Anonymous, at June 28, 2011 4:55 am
Yep. There was no attempt to use the arms from what i could see.
By Mart, at June 28, 2011 5:05 am
I'm a Tahs fan and I think it would be ridiculous to penalsie Maelamu for that hit.
I thought it was perfect.
By Anonymous, at June 28, 2011 7:57 am
2 Tongans taken out by 1 Samoan. LOLZ
By Anonymous, at June 28, 2011 8:14 am
ouch
By Anonymous, at June 28, 2011 10:44 am
Pakalani had a pretty decent game and is looking like a decent talent, but he really needs to learn to avoid the fatties.
By Nick, at June 28, 2011 11:12 am
Mealamu should have been penalised. Absolutely no attempt to actually tackle the player but instead he just goes straight in with his shoulder. Its a NFL-style hit, not a rugby tackle
By Anonymous, at June 28, 2011 11:34 am
"Sorry, but this is a pretty shitty/useless compilation.
Having watched the game, and interestingly enough you didn't add the clips were Pakalani and Timani ran over the top of Blues players.
Pull your heads out and get the Australia vs France, 3rd place highlights for the u/20 World Cup please. Thanks"
Could you be any more of a Waratahs fan? Get over yourself, and find highlights yourself. I doubt that tone would get your anywhere.
By Laz, at June 28, 2011 12:01 pm
@ tokensouthafrican:
am I to assume that piere spies is 0.08 seconds faster than Usain Bolt's world record? Please, stop smoking things you find in your neighbour's garden. Sick and tired of this homoerotic love some guys seem to have for Spies. The guy isn't even his country's best nº8, let alone the world. And if Div wasn't one of his fans, Joe Van Niekerk would have his place EASY.
Also, nice game, with plenty of heart, ESPECIALLY if you consider the injury toll this year. Kaino is a monster. Seems everyone wants to prove themselves. It's going to be a cracker of a World Cup
By The Green Mafia, at June 28, 2011 12:07 pm
@ Greenmafia, that was a troll comment by someone making fun of exactly what you describe. It wasn't serious. It's been removed.
By Greiffel, at June 28, 2011 12:11 pm
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