Super Rugby Grand Final match review: Hurricanes v. Lions at Wellington

The Hurricanes, representing the southern and eastern coasts of the North Island, played host to the Lions, representing the Witwatersrand conurbation and the veldt to its west and east, in a grand final which would crown a virgin winner of the Super 12 14 Rugby competition. A forecast of chilly temperatures, a mild downpour, and squally winds promised a distinctly un-Super Rugby forwards-battle-slash-kicking-duel, and the two sides didn’t disappoint.

Lions fly-half Elton Jantjies has had a stellar season, but he fluffed his lines early in this one, sending the opening kick-off over the dead-ball line and then misjudging the weather conditions to crash a third-minute penalty into the goalpost padding. His opposing number, Beauden Barrett, didn’t take long to insert himself into the picture, kicking a teammate over for a try only to be denied by the TMO, missing a drop goal attempt, and then putting the hosts ahead with an eleventh-minute penalty goal.

Much of the match was taken up by kicking duels, and it was a wayward Lionel Mapoe kick that Cory Jane intercepted and ran over for the first try of the match. After Jantjies made no mistake with his second penalty attempt to make the score 10-3, the Africans had a string of attacking scrums in much the same part of the pitch as did the Chiefs for a key period of last week’s semi-final. The matter ended the same way: the ‘Canes won a scrum against the feed and got out of jail with their kicking game.

After numerous handling errors on high balls leading into the break, the Gramscian war of position began again in the second half, until broken up by a Barrett penalty goal after an offside infringement. Home captain Dane Coles was substituted off, before making a short but impactful return as a blood bin replacement. Despite having the better of the penalty count, the men from Johannesburg were unable to make it count on the scoreboard, Jantjies missing another from forty metres out just after the hour mark.

Barrett sealed his man-of-the-match performance eleven minutes from time when he pounced on a ball which had sprung loose in the chaos ensuing from the Lions spoiling of a Hurricanes lineout. The Wellingtonians’ superlative defence denied the visitors at the other end, and the long-suffering franchise had won its first ever title against a team of likeable cast-offs from the veldt.

Hurricanes 20 (Cory Jane try 22’; Beauden Barrett try 69’, 2/2 convs., pens. 12’, 52’) – Lions 3 (Elton Jantjies pen. 26’)

Trans-Tasman Netball League Grand Final match review: Queensland Firebirds v. New South Wales Swifts at Brisbane

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but the [Sponsor’s Name] Championship, est. 2008, comes to an end in favour of a back-to-the-future eight-team all-Australian circuit. Whether this is for the best remains to be seen, but the Queensland Firebirds and New South Wales Swifts gave the grand old girl an almighty send-off with a thriller on the polished floorboards of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

‘THEY MEET AGAIN’ screamed the Channel Ten promo, reminding us that These Two Teams Faced Off In Last Year’s Decider. The Swifts signalled their intentions with an interception from the first centre pass, Caitlin Thwaites’ no-nonsense shooting putting them up 6-2 within five minutes and 12-7 within ten.

But it was the shooting form of the Firebirds’ goaler Romelda Aiken which surprised everyone unused to seeing the tall Jamaican miss. Having shot for 87.5% in the season thus far, she looked out of sorts, relying on her rebounding skills to mop up her missed shots and even, in an interesting role reversal, handing the ball off to Gretel Tippett.

The Swifts’ territorial dominance wasn’t translating into dominance of the scoreboard, and Laura Geitz marshalled her defensive line to get the Firebirds back into the match. Tippett sank her first score of the afternoon to put the hosts up 16-15 at the first change. By the long break, Aiken had settled to twenty-six goals from forty attempts and the Queenslanders led 29-27.

Just as the Swifts began the first half with an interception, the Firebirds began the second in a similar fashion, a coast-to-coast goal putting them three clear. Ahead 37-36 and in the tenth minute of the third quarter, Aiken intercepted Sharni Layton’s lazy inbounds pass and goaled. A see-sawing quarter saw the Swifts take the lead soon after, and the denizens of the Siren City of the South led by one goal at lemon time.

The final term began with the all-too-familiar sight of an Aiken-Layton aerial duel won by the Jamaican. The next three Swifts attacks ended in interceptions or defensive rebounds, and the Firebirds assumed a five-goal lead by the eighth minute. They led 54-51 with just over a minute to go, but the Swifts weren’t done; midcourt turnovers and Thwaites’ offensive rebounding got the three goals needed and we were headed to extra time.

The Firebirds looked the likelier team after the resumption, leading 61-59 at the changeover when Swifts coach Rob Wright rolled the dice: centre Kimberlee Green came off for Paige Hadley, and goal attack Susan Pettitt was replaced by Stephanie Wood. It worked for a while: the Swifts led 63-62, and the score was tied at 66-all when Layton denied Aiken an aerial ball; the resulting shot was missed by Wood.

That was the end of extra time, except that it wasn’t: the match proceeded into a first-to-lead-by-two sudden death ‘double extra time’. Gabi Simpson, one of the standout players for the Firebirds this season, manufactured the crucial turnover, Aiken converting to end the contest at 69-67, after sixteen minutes and forty-four seconds of extra time so hardcore that Kellie Underwood twice described it as “pulsating”.

Where was the match won and lost? The home side converted 69 of its 100 shots; i rossoblu 67 from 84. Poor shooting was compensated for by Aiken’s twenty rebounds and Tippett’s forty-seven shooting circle feeds constituted a textbook performance at goal attack.

It’s one of the most shopworn sporting clichés, but netball was the real winner here. The sport couldn’t have devised a more fitting way to launch next season’s national competition.

Queensland Firebirds 69 (Romelda Aiken 63/89; Gretel Tippett 6/11) – New South Wales Swifts 67 (Caitlin Thwaites 34/41; Susan Pettitt 30/39; Stephanie Wood 3/4) (a.s.d.e.t.)

State of Origin 1 match review: New South Wales v. Queensland at Sydney

In front of a packed Olympic Stadium, the opening match of this year’s State of Origin series was played out and didn’t disappoint. Despite the loss, New South Wales played as well as they have done in some years, and will go into the second match with the knowledge that they have Queensland’s measure.

After just thirteen minutes, James Tamou was penalised for holding down Matt Gillett at the play-the-ball; the darling of the commentariat, Jonathan Thurston, snaring the two points which would prove decisive. Queensland dominated the field position stakes early, being tackled inside their opposition quarter twelve times before the Blues could even get off the mark.

Penrith fullback Matt Moylan had an up-and-down night, conceding goal-line drop-outs at one end and setting up attacks at the other. His effort in the twenty-first minute began a series of four consecutive attacking sets, culminating in James Maloney putting Easts second-rower Boyd Cordner over for the first try of the night.

New South Wales coach Laurie Daley unleashed the ‘Beast of Belmore’, David Klemmer, soon afterwards, but Queensland ended an even first half 6-4 up thanks to an old-school backline movement that ended with Dane Gagai’s inaugural Origin try. As the two sides headed for the sheds, they were, statistically speaking, virtually inseparable. The hosts had had fifty-one percent of the possession, but both teams had completed seventeen of nineteen sets and made two offloads.

The second half was a disappointment for those who want rugby league to be glorified touch football producing a collage of highlight-reel moments (which seems to be most people in this town); it was, however, a delight for those of us who savour the physical and tactical intricacies of le rugby à treize. The boys from the Premier State began to dominate the statistics, but couldn’t make it count on the scoreboard. Josh Morris came closest, having a try disallowed in the sixty-sixth minute by what the hip cats these days are calling ‘The Bunker’.

Our lads threw everything at the cocky overdogs from Sir Joh’s Mrs. Palaszczuk’s Bananaland: Klemmer and Andrew Fifita, Robbie Farah’s sumptuous kicking game, even ten minutes of Dylan Walker, but to no avail. With fifteen missed tackles and four penalties each, this was rugby league played to perfection.

New South Wales 4 – Queensland 6

Tries: Cordner 25’ (N. S. W.); Gagai 37’ (Qld.)

Conversions: Reynolds 0/1 (N. S. W.); Thurston 0/1 (Qld.)

Penalties: Thurston 1/1 (Qld.)

2018 World Cup qualifying match review: Australia v. Jordan at Sydney (SFS)

Needing only a draw, if that, to book a spot in the next phase in their long and winding World Cup qualifying campaign, the Socceroos faced the oddly-shaped nation of Jordan at the scene of many great international matches, the Sydney Football Stadium.

Given Jordan’s 2-0 victory in the reverse fixture in Amman last October, a close match was to be expected; instead, the Socceroos routed their opponents, whose appointment of English supercoach Harry Redknapp has been in vain, having failed to secure one of the top four runners-up spots.

The hosts were slow to get going: the first major incidents of the match were an early Brad Smith’s tête-à-tête with Baha’ Abdel-Rahman and a Tom Rogić shot on target in the seventeenth minute. Hamza Al-Dardour then snuck onside from a free kick but lacked passing options and was closed down by the Socceroo defence.

In the twenty-fourth minute, the procession of goals began. The first combined assists from Aaron Mooy and Robbie Kruse with a Tim Cahill six-yard-box tap-in. The second came from a counter-attack, Mooy finishing with a sublime strike, unmarked and well outside the box. For the third, Kruse deftly chipped an aerial ball onto the head of Cahill, acting as stand-in captain in the absence of Mile Jedinak.

Cahill’s first shot of the second stanza was blocked, but Tom Rogić goaled with the rebound. Mooy and Mathew Leckie were rested in favour of Massimo Luongo and Chris Ikonomidis after the hour mark; five minutes after their introduction, Ikonomidis got on the end of a Smith throw-in and laid up the assist through a napping Jordanian defence for Luongo to score Australia’s fifth.

The sourest note of the match was the sixty-fifth-minute caution of Yousef Al-Rawashdeh: the Jordanian forward appeared to deliberately ‘cork’ Kruse, whose injury troubles have deprived Socceroo followers of an interrupted experience of his glorious crosses and breathtaking runs down the wing. Not taking any risks, Ange Postecoglou replaced him soon after with Nathan Burns.

Los australianos hammered the Jordanian goal in the final ten minutes but goalkeeper-captain Amer Shafi’s cat-like reflexes repelled everything they threw at him. Al-Nashāmā botched a counter-attack two minutes from time, but soon found a consolation goal when Abdallah Deeb threaded through a fatigued ‘Roos defence.

Australia 5 (Tim Cahill 24’, 44’; Aaron Mooy 39’; Tom Rogić 53’; Massimo Luongo 69’) – Jordan 1 (Abdallah Deeb 90’)

Cautions: Yousef Al-Rawashdeh (Jor.) 65’; Baha’ Faisal (Jor.) 77’; Bailey Wright (Aust.) 80’; Tom Rogić (Aust.) 89’

AFL Round 1 match review: Geelong v. Hawthorn at Melbourne

Melbourne, March 28

Footy’s back. Well, it restarted on Thursday night but one had to wait until Easter Monday for The Greatest Team Of All™ to begin their campaign.

Both sides signalled their intent with a relentless defensive effort: neither scored until the eighth minute of regulation time, when Luke Breust snapped a major from inside fifty. But it was all Geelong for the rest of the term; Zac Smith, Lincoln McCarthy, Smith again, and Josh Caddy all goaling to put the hoops fifteen points up at the first change.

The biancoazzurri onslaught continued at the resumption: Steven Motlop and McCarthy piled on two more early, and the Cats outgoaled their opponents 7-4, finishing the quarter with a spectacular Tom Hawkins soccer in the goal square. By the main break, Geelong led 11.1.67 to 5.7.37, had won eighty-three contested possessions to the Mayblooms’ sixty-six, and star recruit Paddy DANGERFIELD! had racked up twenty disposals and effectuated five inside fifties.

But there have been strange rumblings in football this weekend, the new cap of ninety mid-quarter interchanges per team per match seemingly causing wild turnarounds in fortunes. And so it was in the third quarter: Puopolo, Gunston, Burgoyne goal but Andrew Mackie can only hit the post; a turnover and Billy Hartung receives the ball from a teammate’s volleyball spike; Puopolo runs onto another loose ball inside the arc and majors; Hawkins misses the lot and Selwood’s nine-iron snap sails through for a behind. A five-goals-to-none third quarter, and the Mustard Pots head into lemon time two points up.

It all came back now: the 2008 Grand Final, the 2013 preliminary final, Easter Monday 2015. That fatalism, that sense of being outgunned by a brown-and-gold máquina that wins premierships and Chooses Swisse. That awful feeling that Hawthorn were about to unleash The Real Julia on us.

Darcy Lang and Jack Gunston traded goals. Dangerfield remonstrated with an umpire after being denied a free kick. Dennis Cometti, demonstrating a superb knowledge of the sport’s history, referred to that line at the top of the goal square as the “kick-off line”. Joel Selwood marked outside fifty and handballed off to Cam Guthrie, whose long-range effort put Geelong two points up.

The new fashion in the ninety-interchange-capped era of footy is to rest midfielders in the forward line, a homage to the Good Old Days when your ruckman spelled in the back pocket and your ruck-rover and your rover occupied the forward pockets. And so it was for the boy from Moggs Creek: mid-way through the final term, he outmuscled the Hawthorn defence, kicked a behind, took a screamer on the shoulders of Ben Stratton near what Cometti again called the “kick-off line”, and booted another behind.

Four points ahead, the Pivotonians’ lead hit double digits with Lachie Henderson’s first major in the hoops, but this state of affairs lasted only as long as Breust’s lovely floating set shot. DANGERFIELD! added to his tally of behinds with a poster before Caddy extended Geelong’s lead.

Luke ‘Bloody Idiot’ Hodge, heretofore having a quiet afternoon, copped Mitch Duncan’s elbow in his face on centre wing, but the subsequent report was the only black spot for the Cats, who stacked on another three goals in the last five minutes to win what Cometti described as “a real tug-of-war at the M.C.G. this afternoon”. Tug-of-war, I recently discovered, was a medal event at the five Summer Olympics between 1900 and 1920, and this was an Olympian effort.

And the most Olympian of them all was DANGERFIELD! The Crows recruit tallied forty-three possessions, breaking the first-match-for-a-new-club record held by Greg Williams (thirty-seven for Sydney after transferring from Geelong in his Brownlow-winning year of 1986). Thanks to his duet with Selwood, Geelong won the centre clearances 51-39 and the inside fifty count 61-46. And ninety interchanges? Who needs them? We only needed eighty-four.

Sydney, March 29

Was this real? Did I dream this? I’d certainly dreamed about something like this all summer:

Dangerfield leads Geelong to 30-point win over Hawthorn

The ABC News24 newsbar said it, so it must be true.

Geelong 18.8.116 – Hawthorn 12.14.86

Goals: Caddy 3, Lang 3, Smith 3, Hawkins 2, McCarthy 2, Blicavs, Guthrie, Henderson, Motlop, Murdoch (Geel.); Gunston 3, Puopolo 3, Breust 2, Langford 2, Burgoyne, Hartung (Haw.)

Best: Dangerfield, Blicavs, Guthrie (Geel.); Mitchell, Frawley, Puopolo (Haw.)

2018 World Cup qualifying match review: Australia v. Tajikistan at Adelaide

The Socceroos, presumably in homage to Coldplay, unveiled their All Yellow strip (with green socks) as they resumed their World Cup qualifying campaign against Tajikistan on a cut-up Adelaide Oval surface seemingly covered in big strips of green masking tape. Piling up a cricket score against the hapless and wounded Central Asians, they ploughed on ahead of Jordan at the top of Group B.

The sizeable crowd were barely in their seats when Massimo Luongo opened the scoring in the second minute, taking his chance from outside a chockers penalty area. Ten minutes later, captain Mile Jedinak converted a penalty occasioned by keeper Alisher Tuychiev professionally fouling international debutante Apostolos Giannou.

The Socceroos kept firing balls into the penalty area – twenty-three by the fortieth minute to Tajikistan’s one – without adding to the 2-0 scoreline, and the visitors had two players stretchered off. Looking très haut-couture in their white shirt with thin green-then-red-then-green-then-red-again chevrons, they were looking competent enough at the back until they came undone after the interval.

Defender Davron Ergashev was cautioned for collaring Giannou in the box, substitute captain Mark Milligan putting i gialloverdi 3-0 up. Nathan Burns had a few chances before tapping in an Aaron Mooy cross in the sixty-seventh minute, and the subsequent introduction of Tom Rogić, on for Luongo, fired up the Socceroos’ offence. Within five minutes, the Celtic man had netted a brace: the first a Wembley-Tor from a Mooy free kick, the second an opportunist extra-areal strike.

Not done yet, Rogić hit the bar in the seventy-fifth minute, and his team would hit the woodwork twice more. Burns’ second goal completed the rout, a mere training drill on the road to Russia.

Australia 7 (Massimo Luongo 2’; Mile Jedinak [pen.] 13’; Mark Milligan [pen.] 57’; Nathan Burns 67’, 87’; Tom Rogić 70’, 72’) – Tajikistan 0

Cautions: Alisher Tuychiev (Taj.) 11’; Daler Tukhtasunov (Taj.) 27’; Davron Ergashev (Taj.) 56’; Trent Sainsbury (Aust.) 81’; Kamil Saidov (Taj.) 85’

Women’s Olympic soccer qualifying match review: Japan v. Australia at Osaka

According to my television’s electronic programme guide, the Matildas “captured the hearts of the nation with their deeds at last year’s World Cup”. Maybe, but it sounds rather disingenuous coming from the same commercial networks which regularly slander the men’s game with talk of Hooliganism! and Flares! Nonetheless, one couldn’t resist the patriotic temptation to get behind Our Girls on the proverbial Road to Rio.

Having never beaten Japan in the Home Islands, the Matildas opened their account with a stunning 3-1 victory at the Kincho Stadium in Osaka, earning an invaluable three points. The opening quarter-hour was a cagey one, with few real chances for either side. Mizuho Sakaguchi was denied by a Lydia Williams save before Lisa de Vanna put i gialloverdi 1-0 up by heading in a Katrina Gorry cross.

From just outside the box and straight in front, Alanna Kennedy almost curled in a superlative free kick shortly after the half-hour mark. But the highlight of the night came minutes later, when the Italian referee, Carina Vitulano, couldn’t get out of the way of a Japanese cross-field pass. Her unintentional header on the half-way line turned the ball into the visitors’ attacking half, where de Vanna was ready to pounce, laying it up for Michelle Heyman to score.

But Nadeshiko wouldn’t go quietly, responding in stoppage time when one of their regular goal-mouth scrambles was turned in by striker Yūki Ōgimi. Japan had the better of the third quarter of the match, Sakaguchi and captain Aya Miyama forcing saves from Williams. Les Mathildes threw some fresh blood into the mix in the seventieth minute, swapping Heyman for Kyah Simon.

Seemingly content with coasting to a 2-1 win, they got a third goal against the run of play eight minutes later, when Emily van Egmond combined with Gorry, who beat the keeper with a well-timed header.

Japan 1 (Yūki Ōgimi 45+2’) – Australia 3 (Lisa de Vanna 25’; Michelle Heyman 41’; Katrina Gorry 78’)

Cautions: Caitlin Foord (Aust.) 94’