The Gooner Forum

Burger has always been a dirty bastard. Him doing that did not surprise me at all. As I've already said on this thread, I agree completely with rodders and his new opinion on South Africa.

As for hating Australia, I'm fine with that, they're my second team anyway behind Ireland. And even I dislike them to some degrees, can only really love the Waratahs players in the team. Particularly dislike George Smith, always have.

And yes, O'Gara should have just kicked it out, but that doesn't change anything about the penalty decision.

Australian Rugby Union terminated Lote Tuqiri's contract tonight.

Whats the reaction over there to Bastareaud lying about being beating up by a gang of Kiwi's RAM??

Fucking crazy stuff!!


What's the inside story on Lote Tuqiri's contract being termindated? It's all very hush hush here as to why?

rodders999 wrote:Whats the reaction over there to Bastareaud lying about being beating up by a gang of Kiwi's RAM??

Fucking crazy stuff!!


What's the inside story on Lote Tuqiri's contract being termindated? It's all very hush hush here as to why?

Wait...who lied about being beaten up? Don't think I even heard about that.

And as for Lote...well both sides are real quiet because there is an upcoming legal battle. I heard it was a breach of behaviour in the contract. However, he had one indescretion to his name already from 2007, and this was the 'final straw' so was supposed to be something rather minor....

And the ARU are rumoured to be keeping close watch on another Wallaby player who might be suffering the same fate as Tuqiri.


Big question is where Tuqiri will go now. I'd like to see him come back to rugby league if he won't be playing union in Australia.

Made a bit of a splash over here -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/8112028.stm

the Kiwis got pretty hot under the collar about their "good name" being tarnished!

No that didn't make the news here at all. Or if it did I didn't see it, so certainly wasn't big news.

Shame about the Kiwi's "good name" though. Funny that the story is so realistic in the first place.

FROM A SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE:

Talking points off the field:

Burger/De Villiers: Burger is NOT that type of player. However, what he did was disgraceful and deserved a sending off, and the ban is fine as well.
De Villiers comments were dumb, nothing more. Admittedly, the bloke is a loose cannon at times and he was wrong, but how similar were his comments to AWs after the Brum game, and I dont remember him being pilloried on here.

Botha suspension: That happens very very often in rugby and it is, imo, a poor decision. It happened multiple times in EVERY GAME and Bakkies got done pretty unfairly.

TMO's decisions:
I actually thought both were tries, and I think the TMO made the right decision in the second test, but Ndungane's WAS a try, and I'm not gonna argue that. It seemed to me like a clear try.

NOW ONTO THE RUGBY

Positives:

Mtawarira was immense in the scrummage, he's really come on as a player and is pretty much an irresistible force right now.

Good back play, Du Preez was very good again - truly world class.

Forwards were also generally good (Burger aside).

Brussow really showed what he's made of, as a Cheetahs fan I have been rating him for quite a while but only now is he really noticed.

Morne Steyn also really shined this series, and maybe Pienaar/Morne Steyn is the right halfback pairing for the future.

We won.

Negatives

I'm not really too bothered about losing the final test.

Burger/De Villiers/general foul play and bad temperament was not good, but I do think the Lions have to take some blame as well. We must sort this out.

Adi Jacobs has shown that he is just not defensively good enough to merit a place in the side, quota or no quota. Fourie is also a damned good player. Maybe Jacobs just needs to develop as a player, but I just don't see the requisite level of quality.

This lad Zane Kirchner, who was meant to be a good player and whom I knew very little about, turned out to be a total flop. Not even sure he is one for the future...

We were very lucky to win the first test, but I think the replacements did well. Maybe next time PDV should not take off the big guns so early?

General bad taste left in the mouth of the Lions fans, and I can see why. BUT as a Bokke supporter and partly due to having to listen to English commentary I was also disappointed in the way the Lions conducted themselves.

Sorry if I've missed anything!!

General bad taste left in the mouth of the Lions fans, and I can see why. BUT as a Bokke supporter and partly due to having to listen to English commentary I was also disappointed in the way the Lions conducted themselves.

I had to listen to South African commentary and trust me when I say it can't have been much better.

How can you say Burger isn't a dirty player though? Every time I see him play he tries to stir trouble, and his red card record isn't exactly a picture of a good behaviour.