Bledisloe Bust

Photo courtesy of Zimbio.com
The Bledisloe Cup.
Outside of the Rugby World Cup, it is the most important trophy to be contested between the All Blacks and Wallabies. A do or die battle of epic proportions, memorable moments and classic matches.
Saturday was not one of them.
After the NSW Waratahs success in the Super Rugby campaign this year, many predicted that this would be the single greatest chance for the Wallabies to get their hands back on the old cup, having not tasted out of it for 11 years. While the All Blacks headed into the match desperate to clinch win number 18 and enter the records books for successive wins after finishing season 2013 undefeated.
With the Sydney heavens opening up for much of the pre match afternoon, rain was well and truly on the cards with both teams obviously switching their game plan’s accordingly, with most predicting the battle of the forwards would be the decisive factor in the match.
Early in the match the All Blacks looked as though they were on the front foot, with early dominance at set piece, as well as the breakdown, signs were ominious for victory 18 to be within reach.
However many of us did not account for the level of refereeing that we saw.
It always seems to easy to lay blame with any match officials these days when things are not going well for your team, but from a Kiwi point of view you know that things are looking decidedly one sided when the usually one eyed Fox Sports commentary team even make note as to the calls seemingly going their way.
Jaco Peyper, a seasoned campaigner at the international level seemed to have a love affair with his whistle and for most of the match could only muster his arm out in favour of the Wallabies.
Now as per usual, we expect when things go a bit awry, our boys should adjust to the calls, which to be fair it didn’t seem as though they did as well as they could have, but when Wyatt Crockett got sent to the sin bin just prior to half time, for “cynical play” which later was shown to be wrong.
Crockett came from an ONside position, to tackle Wallaby halfback Nic White, who had his hands on the ball, perfectly legal, it threw a spanner into the works.
This is just one of the utterly confusing calls made during the game that had many seasoned players, coaches and those of us who have been couch commentators for a season or two to re think if we had possibly read the same rule book.
It would be nice if those in the power, in charge of the officiating could come out and say yes, there were several instances in the game where mistakes were made.
Sadly it appears as though it is now just an accepted part of sports that officials make mistakes at crucial moments and it gets brushed aside.
Wouldnt it be nice if this didnt happen.
It wasn’t just the teams that were frustrated at the officiating, it took away from the spectacle of the match, at the time when Rugby is already fighting an uphill battle in the code war in Australian sport.
Both sides finished the match, a 12 all draw, basically right where they started 80 minutes earlier. All be it with a few more injury concerns for the All Blacks.
Well i guess we can all wish, or hold our breathe’s before this weekends re-match at Eden Park, with a single All Blacks victory enough to secure the Cup for another season and hopefully a more open expansive game for all to enjoy.

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