Well, what can you say? I've always maintained that Australian refs have criminality in their genes, so the rough deal we got against New South Wales is no surprise. How that joker could spot the slapdown, yellow card the culprit then award a penalty instead of a penalty try is beyond me. Kankowski had an open line just yards away. Terblanche's pass was perfect. What do you have to do for a penalty try to be awarded? Pull out a gun and shoot the guy?
Who spotted the touch judge while all this was going on? Did he try to intervene? Like heck he did! He rolled his eyes and turned away whistling, all innocence.
The penalty to New South Wales from the resulting line-out in the corner was dodgy as an IOU in a whorehouse. And not long before all this even the Aussie commentators said it was a harsh call when the pass that would have sent Bismarck du Plessis over under the posts was judged forward. Hoo boy! We expect rough calls but three in succession, costing at least 12 points, is a bit rich.
So here we are up sewage creek in a barbed wire canoe, without a paddle. We've played four. We should have won three. We should have had 12 points on the log but we have three. It is not a great situation. But then nor was Dunkirk a great situation. We just have to grit our teeth and get on with it, starting tomorrow against Australian Capital Territories.
Let's remember there were some positives from last Saturday. We built up some fantastic phases of play, we kept the ball in hand and used short passes moving forward (the most effective tactic there is in rugby). As already noted, one such short-passing phase should have ended in a try. While we had two players off the field with yellow cards, we not only drove the Waratahs out of our 25, we notched up eight points. (Not that I'm advocating we go for yellow cards).
But there were also some terrible lapses, like failure to take the ball from the kick-off. But where we lapsed, NSW lapsed even worse. Mama mia! Did you hear the Sydney crowd booing their own side for kicking the game to death?
'Twas not a great game nor a great start to the weekend and were it not for the fact that I was in the company of some very entertaining people, I could have become despondent. But I was with a group of Westville folk who call themselves the "Wild Tribe" and specialise in taking one's mind off things with braai fires and beer and getting their children to perform the American line dance and other steps.
Some of the kids are very small indeed – primary school – and clearly they are being given an excellent start and will be the life and soul of future parties. They are led by a lady named Julie who says it's her ambition to get some rhythm into the ANC Youth League. Her name alone just about qualifies her.
ACT tomorrow. And don't forget Ireland versus Wales and England versus Scotland in the Six Nations for some tension-free enjoyment.
Can we pull it off in Canberra? We've simply got to crack it this time. Otherwise I'll dust off my Stetson and take up American line dancing.
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