Genia named Aussies’ best
26 Jul 2012
Will Genia has won the Australian Super Rugby Player of the Year award.
The Reds edged the Brumbies for a place in the final six of this year’s competition, and despite the Brumbies being the more consistent side throughout the year, a Reds player was awarded the top gong.
According to reports in Australia, Genia polled three votes in the last round of the season to finish on 18, one point ahead of team-mate Scott Higginbotham, Western Force captain David Pocock and Brumbies flyhalf Christian Lealiifano.
Reds coach Ewen McKenzie was named Coach of the Year. The Reds, who won the Australian conference, were recognised as Team of the Year.
There was some success for the Brumbies, with wing Joe Tomane winning the Rookie of the Year accolade.
18 Comments
26 Jul 2012, 10:12 am
Unlucky Brumby dragons; “Mugged by Marius” in Pretoria…
26 Jul 2012, 10:15 am
He should have been named sore loser of the year.
26 Jul 2012, 10:28 am
@BrumbiesBoy-1: oh yeah and gifted dubious scrum penalties at home by keith brown against the cheetahs!
karma is a ******…
26 Jul 2012, 10:56 am
Aussie S15 player of the year? That is very much like a gold star at the special school, isn’t it?
26 Jul 2012, 11:06 am
@kaksioek-2: Upgrade that to king of the whingers – he’s up there with BOD now.
26 Jul 2012, 11:16 am
@Transformation-3: Have seen chirps about that game before; unfortunately never saw the game (reffed by a neutral referee) but have also never seen any reports stating that some of Brown’s “errors” actually cost the Cheetahs the game, which was not the case in Pretoria, SANZAR credibly made that announcement later.
Having said that, two wrongs don’t make a right and the bottom line is that Joubert’s “errors” gave the Bulls an undeserved playoff place at our expense and I’m extremely glad that they got what they deserved in Christchurch last weekend.
“Cheaters never prosper”
26 Jul 2012, 11:22 am
@Transformation-3: Yes, that was BS, but Marius “Jou ma se Karma” Jonker got them back in their game against the Bulls
26 Jul 2012, 11:23 am
@BrumbiesBoy-6: Watch the game against the Cheetahs and then come back and retract that BS.
26 Jul 2012, 11:25 am
@BrumbiesBoy-6:
Bray admits ref got it wrong
14th March 2012 11:21
Scrum contest: Bad calls cost Cheetahs
SANZAR referees chief Lyndon Bray believes the Cheetahs were not given a fair chance by Keith Brown at the scrums during their clash with the Brumbies last week.
Bray has requested more clarity on the final penalty which the Brumbies received in the dying moments of the match and which secured them the win when Christian Lealiifano converted the spot kick.
SANZAR are unhappy with Brown’s decisions in that match, especially in the scrums, where he penalised the Cheetahs five times, often within goal-kicking range.
Bray said Brown would undergo SANZAR’s official review, but he had already done a “self-review” where the imbalance was apparent.
“Keith has done his own self-review and out of it the scrums to me stood out as the big imbalance,” Bray told SuperSport.com
“Taking out the debate about the last penalty, the imbalance came with the way he managed the engage sequence in the scrum set-pieces,
“There was no question that the Cheetahs did go early, but both packs did and that started earlier with the Brumbies going early on the engage call, to which the Cheetahs responded.
“There were consequences to that, in that the hip position got messy and the Cheetahs lost confidence in the engage process. Keith has to take ownership of that in the game.”
Bray revealed the issue regarding the final scrum where the Cheetahs were penalised for wheeling the scrum was being reviewed by Sanzar’s scrum experts.
After the match, the Cheetahs’ management said they ordered their players not to wheel the scrum in case there was to be a penalty, but were penalised anyway.
“I’ve sent an email to the three scrum coaches in the countries and am waiting for a response,” Bray explained.
“The issue is that about three years ago we had what we call a “sideways crib”, where the back five literally walk sideways in the scrum.
“At the time we all agreed that it was rubbish and a negative tactic that was not in the spirit of the contest at the scrum.
“We spent a lot of time at the time debating how do you rule on it.
“The coaches felt at the time that you need to allow players to have an effective forward push before a scrum can wheel. If there is that, then if the scrum goes around the corner, and the scrum literally turns on its access, it isn’t illegal, as long as there is a forward shove.
“What I’ve asked is these three or four decisions which led to penalties and the last one to have a professional view as to how we approach this.
“We need to get back to all the referees and make sure they are mindful that this must be done legally.”
26 Jul 2012, 11:53 am
@BrumbiesBoy-6: the you should’ve watched the bloody game, you not seeing chirps means NOTHING when lyndon bray himself ordered a review of some of the scrum calls and called in 2 experts from each country! keith brown was bullshitting, he pinged the cheetahs for “early engagement” when the team that started the game and finished the game engaging early were the brumbies…
karma!!
26 Jul 2012, 12:04 pm
In any case, the Brumbies had an easy penalty kick to win the game against the Reds that would have sealed the conference title – but they choked.
26 Jul 2012, 12:17 pm
@kaksioek-9: Thanks, makes for interesting reading, glad I’m not a referee!!! However I’m not going to go back and watch the game now as that’s pointless and won’t change anything will it?
That said, the Cheetahs were never in the running for a place in the playoffs & probably won’t be in the near future either. Pity, I actually like them though, just peed about the Pink Bulls though although that’s also not going to change anything now either.
Thanks Marius
Thanks Stefan Breytenbach
26 Jul 2012, 12:18 pm
@Transformation-10: Unfortunately some of us have to work on Saturday’s, mate.
Verstaan?
26 Jul 2012, 12:33 pm
@BrumbiesBoy-12: Ideally, both teams should have a fair chance of winning any game – regardless of their respective log positions.
26 Jul 2012, 12:39 pm
@kaksioek-14: Sure, I’m 100% with you there.
Just sad how these crucial decisions by match officials cost teams by those few points when it matters most. Losing out when ur team has played badly is one thing but it’s bad when it’s taken out of their hands by incompetence.
26 Jul 2012, 12:43 pm
@BrumbiesBoy-15: just be consistent in your team’s assessment and not lump everything on one ref decision in pretoria, as mentioned earlier zack holmes missed a penalty kick that would’ve clinched the game and probably the conference for you okes, so it was still in your hands!
26 Jul 2012, 13:00 pm
@Transformation-16: See #15.
Agree about the last game though, woeful goalkicking & sometimes poor decision making has cost us more than one-or-two playoff places in the past.
Sniff!
27 Jul 2012, 07:16 am
The Brumbies should have made it but in the end they proved they are a couple of years off being contenders for the title.
There were lots of games over this year that could have gone either way. Look at the Warratahs entire season, they could have been in the four but never got the “bounce of the ball” and to be honest, they never deserved it. The Bulls probably deserved to make the finals after their great start to the tournament.
The one team that stands out above all others that probably only made it due to refereeing decisions is the Crusaders. And I know every Kiwi will get their backs up for daring to have a go at them but it’s a fact – they have been getting more than their fair share of (let’s call it luck) for several years now.
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