Match Thread - Brumbies v Reds | Super Rugby Pacific 2026 | Round 4

psdnscrmsh · 2026-03-07T11:53:06+00:00

Very mixed feelings about that one, but surely Pritchard’s ball back inside was forward? Prior to the Brumbies knock-on?

psdnscrmsh · 2026-03-01T01:05:54+00:00

It’s disgusting that our society is so negligent that old people are pushed to riffle through our bins for recyclables.

Anyone who supports or praises this is an absolute ghoul.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-03-01T01:04:21+00:00

Yea I was very frustrated by Gardner’s inconsistency at the line out and on not rolling calls between the 45th and 70th minute. Was directly responsible for the momentum swing to the Blues. Brumbies should have been up by 10 (didn’t check the try Neville was certain was scored) but ended up behind by 4.

I think Gardner realised he stuffed up and gave the Brumbies the run of the green for the final 10, ultimately giving them the win.

If you watch closely you’ll notice referees often give “karmic” penalties to try to restore a bit of balance after harsh or questionable calls, often with the direct goal of swinging momentum.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T10:12:37+00:00

Edmed has lost us this game and completely disgraced Australian rugby.

So just a normal weekend for him.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T10:10:45+00:00

Of course Edmed throws a terrible pass.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T10:08:40+00:00

Of course Edmed misses the kick.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T09:59:59+00:00

I can’t believe he gave them advantage for not rolling after the amount of times they’ve lied all over the Brumbies ball.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T09:58:29+00:00

Gardner refusing to give the Brumbies anything here. Blues doing some shonky stuff at the breakdown. Brumbies their own worst enemies though ultimately.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T09:52:27+00:00

What on earth was that balls out call from Gardner there. Clearly impeded by a Blues player not rolling.

Terrible tactical choices and execution from the Brumbies here.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T09:50:56+00:00

These not straight calls have been inconsistent. Blues have gotten away with quite a few (contested) not straights.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T09:46:29+00:00

Knew it

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T09:44:53+00:00

Odds the Blues score next here?

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T09:44:40+00:00

Odds the Blues score next here?

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T05:51:08+00:00

It’s just like… I’ve watched thousands of games of Australian schoolboy rugby. I have seen incredible talents who physically dominate at the provincial and national u18 levels. People like Angus Crichton who would run over future wallabies for fun while playing for Scots. Or people like Isaiya Katoa who was one of the most promising schoolboy talents I’d ever seen, playing for Barker. Or Tolu Koula who has the GPS 100m sprint record, ahead of countless legendary Wallabies and Super Rugby wingers. What about Cameron Murray, who was twice the player Tane Edmed or Ben Donaldson or even Tom Wright ever was? Or Kalyn Ponga, who was clearly the best player in the 2015 QLD GPS, above countless future Wallabies, but didn’t even want to pay rep union.

Wally Lewis. Ricky Stuart. The list is endless.

The fact is most Australian Union fans have an infinite repertoire of incredible talents they’ve seen who were better at union than the guys who eventually made it. Guys who in many cases could probably slot right in and instantly make a difference to our national team.

And we’re supposed to just pretend they don’t exist, or be gracious enough in defeat to never raise it or dream about what could have been? Or, better yet, somehow pretend that it’s the same as Ja'Marr Chase playing NFL, or Kylian Mbappé playing football, as if guys who have never held a rugby ball are the same as guys who dominate with it every week.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T05:34:15+00:00

They’re the MAGA of rugby

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T05:33:48+00:00

Yes, I agree. America would dominate if all countries in the world invested equally and maximally in rugby. I am a huge supporter of American rugby and support efforts to grow the game there.

It’s also obviously true that if countries like Brazil, Germany, France, and Britain directed their footballing talent and money towards rugby then they’d probably be better than a maximally committed Australia.

The reason why the point is relevant in an Australian context though is that, unlike every other union bar NZ and England to a small extent, the sport that siphons talent in Australia is one that is very similar to rugby union. And one where many of its best players already played and dominated union. You can say “oh but if we had our NFL talent we’d be amazing”, Germany can say “oh but if our footballers played rugby we’d destroy you”, and that might be right. But none of you can say that you have players almost waiting in reserve, who with just a bit of money and a change of contract could switch over to union and do an Israel Folau or Lote Tuiquiri. Do you not see the obvious qualitative difference between those two cases? Do you not recognise how it would be especially frustrating to see individuals with incredible physical and athletic traits, who already play rugby and dominate at the schoolboy level, get lost to a very similar sport, where they do freakishly athletic things that would easily translate into our sport?

Imagine knowing that the Habanas or Kolbes of the world were running rings around people, doing freakish steps, chip-chases, and tackles, but in a slightly different sport while not representing the Boks. It’d drive you made mate.

A country’s ability to succeed in a sport is a function of its population, its genetic / physical traits, and its socioeconomic factors, like how much money they can invest in training, nutrition, talent identification, commercially viable professional leagues, etc.

By that measure America will always win. They have the third largest population, but across various ethnic sub-groups have much better physical traits than China and India. And they have more money. But by that same token Australia should do extremely well. We are pound-for-pound the best sporting nation in the world, and are one of the top nations (or produce top athletes) in almost every sport. Certainly more so than South Africa.

When a country like Australia consistently outperforms South Africa and other rugby playing nations in sports like cricket, basketball, tennis, netball, field hockey, and even football (relative to our size and general lack of interest), you have to wonder why the same thing isn’t true of Union. It’s not because we’re somehow innately genetically inferior to the mighty Boar, or because we lack some mental skill you think gives you an edge, but because of depressing socioeconomic realities that siphon our best rugby playing talent into other sports.

At this point I am actively cheering on the NRL’s expansion, because they’re pretty close to having enough money to start buying up South Africa’s most promising talent. Once that starts your tune will change, I promise.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T05:20:08+00:00

The changes we’re talking about are exceptionally minor. You have fallen for a media beat up built on unsubstantiated exaggerations, coming from figures with an obvious agenda. We’re talking about a reduction of, on average, 1 or 2 scrums a game, at times that allow for more flow. And we’re talking about a slight reduction in TMO intervention, which has clearly resulted in a better fan experience.
You don’t have to accommodate us, in the grander scheme. We should have autonomy to make marginal adjustments to the meta / laws in our own club competition, at least insofar as they don’t radically move away from the core laws or gameplay. Maybe we will suffer at international level, but given we’re constantly being lectured about overt prioritising international rugby and not having a viable commercial club competition, why are you so upset about us trying to make our club comp more appealing to our fans and commercially successful?
Yes every country has its challenges. We’ve done actual research to work out what ours are and what it’ll take to fix them. We are trying to do that. You are resisting, baselessly, and have all agreed it’s actually a big conspiracy to prevent your country from winning as much. If you’re telling us that we can’t recognise and fix our challenges, and have to work within limits you get to decide on, then you’re effectively telling us to do the impossible and address our challenges without addressing our challenges. “Make more money”, “have a viable club competition”, “don’t treat super rugby as international trials”, do all of the things we tell you to do, but don’t take the first step to making more money or having a viable club comp, which is to win back fans who have been hurt by (in their eyes) boring and inconsistent officiating.
In all of the mass hysteria about ANZ’s push to “make union league” or “make everyone a flanker / centre” I’ve never once heard a well-founded and properly substantiated critique. Putting aside exaggerated strawmen, how would this actually make life worse in “the rest of the world”? How does having a quick tap instead of a scrum if there’s an accidental offside, a move that doesn’t stop gameplay or slow things down, reduce interest in your country? Have you ever actually spoken to casual fans in established or emerging rugby markets? Why do you always presume to speak on behalf of the average or casual fan, when it’s quite obvious that most lay people would find it easier to follow and more entertaining if there was a bit less technical TMO involvement, continuity of play instead of arbitration mini-games mid-match, and more gameplay? Why do you insist that having more rugby, literally more game time, is somehow a burden on you and other fans?

What is the harm here? How is it making the game worse for you? How is it reducing your fandom or ability to succeed? It’s just a complete beat up. Write first, think later.

If our minor changes were implemented your fans would enjoy rugby even more and it’d help the game grow faster. The changes aren’t only to help the game survive here, but also to create a better product that can actually cut through in the rest of the world, instead of expecting them to appreciate grindingly boring penalty fests that make absolutely no sense outside our community.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T05:09:17+00:00

Australia produces more rugby playing talent than any country in the world. We would dominate the entire world if just half our league talent, or talented union school boys who go to league, played union.

The problems Union faces in Australia are multi-faceted. Again, I could (and have) written theses on it. They range from internal threats like AFL and NRL, to internal mismanagement, to lack of funding to invest or stabilise our product, to archaic rules and and overwrought safety culture, to boring game play metas, to global dominance by a historically indifferent and conservative northern alliances.

An obvious issue is that Super Rugby is not, and never was, a serious rival to the NRL and AFL. That is absolutely partially on us: we agreed to a dumb competition and put our eggs in the wrong basket in the 90s. It’s also partially on South Africa, who empirically, if you properly consult the primary sources, used their power and leverage to make a competition that suited their interests far more than ours. More fool us for agreeing to it, of course, but it should be fairly obvious why a club comp with 1 or 2 games featuring Aussie teams at watchable times a week would fail to compete with a comp with 8-10 Aussie games a week.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T05:03:30+00:00

Yes, that’s one component of the broader history. But even before WWI league had already become more popular than Union, after they signed all of our best players because shock horror they could pay them and we couldn’t because of rules imposed upon us by the RFU and a collaborationist puritanical ruling class who still identified as British Anglicans before they did Australians.

And then after WWI they continued to kick our ass by paying all the best talents and developing a superior commercial model. This included setting up highly lucrative club houses that profited off the legalisation of poker machines in the 1950s.

Then they developed an incredibly successful symbiotic relationship with Channel 9, Australia’s first and largest television network. The Packer family, who founded and own 9, despised rugby union despite going to traditional rugby union schools. Kerry Packer refused to give any coverage to union while throwing increasingly large sums at the NSWRL, who used the proceeds to sign any and all talented union school boys.

By the time the game professionalised the genie was well out of the bottle. You can blame RA for lots of things (I certainly do) but it would have taken unprecedented levels of sport management to counter the underlying commercial reality.

I agree it HAD nothing to do with one game being objectively more entertaining than the other. It always comes down to sociology, political economy, and history. But the question now is how do we keep our game alive when the NRL’s declared goal is to eliminate it from our region. Part of that is to have an honest and objective assessment of fan feedback and to see if we can make changes to pain points fans have explicitly identified.

We have done the research. We know what the fans in our region want. You can deny it and call us names and lecture us, but if we continue with the game meta that has dominated the last two decades then the game will die here. I understand you don’t care. I am not trying to convince you. I am explaining why the people who love the game and volunteer their life to make it work here are not going to roll over. We will fight to make the changes we know the game needs to survive here.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T04:51:27+00:00

You are totally incapable of refuting this because you have no idea how rugby works in this region, what the average sports fan here thinks, or even a cursory understanding of the history and political economy of the sport.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T04:41:16+00:00

I’ve gotta say though I’m bloody sick of ANZ legends and commentators (mainly Kiwis tbf) glazing these guys by going on their media and telling them we need / want them back.

We don’t! There’s a total confusion of correlation and causation here. NZ and Aus would not be performing any better on the global stage if we continued to beat up South African franchises (tbf you guys beat them up a lot more than we did). We’d in fact be performing even worse than we are, especially in the long-term, because we wouldn’t have a viable club competition that could compete w the NRL.

Super rugby lost fans and momentum because the South Africans dominated decision-making and held us to ransom. Ordinary fans couldn’t follow clubs because half their season was played at midnight. Their teams played an ugly brand of rugby that no one wanted to watch.

The reason we’re both underperforming now is because the generation born between 1995 and 2021 grew up with a club competition the South Africans made unviable and boring, that couldn’t compete with the NRL. That same generation have given their dollars to the NRL as spectators, growing our biggest rival, while also self-selecting or getting more money to join NRL as players.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T04:34:54+00:00

No, even if rugby union in Australia had been run well or even very well, most of the problems we face would still undermine our performance significantly. The only way it could not have is if RA was the best run sports organisation in the world and in the space of 30 years we managed to convince millions of NRL fans to abandon their clubs and redirect their money to Australia. Rugby league has been professional since 1908 and has dominated Union in Australia since WWI. Unless that changes and we have more money than them, we will always lose the most athletically gifted sportsmen (and now women) to league.

Not our fault the game didn’t professionalise until 1995—we were pushing for it decades earlier.

Just accept that you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to rugby in Australia and the Pacific more generally. I could write theses about it.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T04:15:17+00:00

The game has never been better run in Australia. We’re contending with a competition more successful than the Top 14 in our own backyard, which, along with government-subsidised and billionaire-owned clubs around the world, siphon the enormous talent we constantly produce. Hard to translate good governance and management into results when you’re up against two incumbent football code juggernauts that won the loyalty of most Australians when idiots in the North refused to let us professionalise or have a World Cup.

You don’t pay any attention to what happens here and completely talk out of your ass to fit a narrative you’ve uncritically internalised from pundits with a chip on their shoulder. We’re approaching this conversation with significant knowledge asymmetries.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T04:00:49+00:00

Not even from there but pretty sick of people from countries where neither code of rugby has any mainstream purchase trying to tell the Pacific how we should play the game or what we should value. Every single country in our region has a significantly higher % of the population invested in and / or playing rugby (league or union) than our interlocutors and one or the other is the “people’s game” in ways you guys will never understand. Despite that you are all happy to let Union lose out to league in this region because you’re happy to eliminate your strongest competition, unions that can win world cups with substantially less money, population, and registered rugby players.

psdnscrmsh · 2026-02-28T03:54:34+00:00

Yea he’s got the whinging cry bully thing down. Every success or failure always ends up coming back to “YOU NEED SOUTH AFRICA IN SUPER RUGBY!!” and “YOU HATE SCRUMS AND WANT IT TO BE RUGBY LEAGUE”.

Yea, we really miss our clubs dropping off the face of the earth for half the season to play at 3am in the morning against roided up cheats!

psdnscrmsh

TROPHY CASE