I got accused of being a whingeing Pom for suggesting the ref was favouring the home team. Yes, I think Genia should have been carded at the end of the first half, and Owens or any NH ref would have done so.
My (one-eyed?) perception was he was much quicker to penalise the Lions for holding on than he was the Aussies.
We definitely need to sharpen up and read the ref better in Melbourne.
North's try was a superb solo effort.
Great comment from the Aussie commentator when Halfpenny eventually missed - "Strewth, he's human after all".
Heard lots os shouts to Use It to the Lions - not so much to the shakledraggers.
Mind you when I watch Phillips plying for Wales - its usually me Shouting Get it Out Phillips you ****
A few quotes from Gatland after the match about Pollocks handling of the match.
"There were a few decisions that didn't go our way, but we'll take that on the chin," Gatland added.
"It was tough at the breakdown. He's penalised Mako Vunipola for coming in at the side when he's made the tackle.
"He spoke to Brian O'Driscoll early in the match after penalising him when he was clearly on his feet.
"Brian said to me he was afraid to compete at the breakdown after that because he was afraid of there being a yellow card situation.
"We created some stuff but the referee said advantage over when we were in goalkicking range.
"There were a few chances we missed out on. It's a huge step up for referees to come in from provincial to Test rugby in terms of intensity."
The ref was truly appauling today. All of this 'interpretation' rubbish gets right on my nerves. The laws are the laws and he clearly penalised O'Driscoll for competing at the breakdown perfectly legitimately, and Vunipola for absolutely nothing. He also missed a few completely glaring pieces of foul play by the Wallabies, not lest the yellow card offence near the end of the first half.
Still, our back-line was exposed in defence a number of times and their were elementary errors in other areas as well. Thought bringing off Corbs and Jones at the 50 minute mark (and Youngs at 60 mins) was jumping the gun massively. Our scrum was dominant up until that point. Also thought Phillips had a pretty poor game and a few of the other lads were too quiet.
However, it was a great solo effort from North and some good interplay to set up Cuthbert. Youngs (Ben) looked quite sharp when he came on, Sexton had a better game than I expected and Halfpenny was very reliable. Davies looked strong in midfield as well. We also seemed physically stronger than the Aussies, usually coming off best in contact. Glad we came through without any major injuries.
Had to feel for Beale at the end, although I'm glad he missed. Couldn't help laughing at the replay - all it was missing was the noise of a slide-whistle as he went down! Bring on next week.
Corbs is carrying an injury, apparently.Agree about the ref about whom an England coach warned Gatland as they had to endure his refereeing in one of the test matches Argentina .
Seems that Horwill's been cited for his stamping on AWJ, and Beale's been sanctioned by the Rebels for his off-field shennanigans, so both likely to miss the next 2 tests. Add that to the three pretty serious-looking injuries and the Wallabies could be struggling.
Just looked at the incident. Definate kick to AWJ's face with his studs. Should have a ban, no place for that kind of play.
Just what were the officials looking at?
Did you see it real time out of interest?
I can't see that anyone mentioned it at the time on here.....
Surely this is the officials doing their job - missed it in real time (totally excusable imo as no-one mentioned it in commentary/in punditry) but the citing officer has caught it.
Horwill has been cleared .POC and Corbs both carrying injuries, both would be bad losses .Dont think either side played particularly well but given OZ had players out of their normal position, it begs the questionwhy the Lions couldnt capitalise and win by by a much greater margin.
Its the first time we have seen the aussies play.Now we analyze the play and smash them Saturday