All jokes aside (there are certain players we must not joke about on here) I was pretty happy with the result.

Best crowd of the season, vocal and involved.

Whacked $100 on under 47.5 total points at the TAB (paid $2.20) as it was pretty obvious to me that conditions weren't right for a high scoring game.

I think this is the first time in quite a while that we came with real line speed and aggression on defense. It's how we've won our last 2 titles and it was good to see it back. Plummer and Nonu had real trouble dealing with it behind a pack that was on the back foot, rurus service didn't help either.

Interesting to compare the way the number eights played.

Whetu Douglas seems to lead us in defense and at breakdown,and is super involved.

Akira seems to run away from the ball a lot, he'll pack down in a scrum or stand in the lineout then when the ball is cleared, jog out into the backline and stand around waiting for the ball to find him. I know it's the team patterns that dictate this, but he's such a big strong bully type player I'd love to see him closer to the ruck hurting people, particularly on a cold wet night like this one.

Moody made a huge difference to our scrum.

Tom Robinson the best blues forward for me, he's a niggly prick. Refs missed a clear swinging arm to the head from him on a crusaders player at the bottom of a ruck, I like watching him play

Both fullbacks were good.... as was George Bridge, a Ben Smith like game from him.

Edit: @KiwiMurph feel free to put your grammar nazi cap on and criticise my post 🙄

The Silver Fern

SammyC