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Our unbeaten run this season is over. But were certainly not finished, there's still plenty of games left on our journey towards becoming 2012 Super Rugby champions.
Both sides seemed eager to play, which made for a messy start. But 4 minutes in the Brumbies got a try. The Brumbies were forcing turnovers defensively, and at crucial times, resulting in them getting critical ball.
We made stupid mistakes like lazy skill execution which led to us conceding penalties, although around the 20th minute we were hard done by, it wasn't even a tackle! I personally think we missed Adam Thomson, I do understand he's played the last seven games (which includes the pre-games) and we can't play him every game. But he really was missed. Plus John Hardie wasn't playing either, and they are two of our best flankers.
James Haskell had an average game. There were some positives but all I could seem to pick up were the negatives, like being in front of play and dropping balls. Andrew Hore had an inspirational game. He led by example, like pushing forward and running straight at the defence rather than
running across field.
Colin Slade also had standard game while he was on and led the team around the field well. He's had a lot of bad luck in the past two years and I really hope he recovers and comes back even better and works his way into the All Blacks.
Chris Noakes came on for Colin and had a pretty good game, and will be looking to have an even better game, starting against the Rebels tonight.
All in all the Brumbies weren't all that bad, they did make mistakes as well; like kicking the ball out on the full in the 8th minute.
We play the Rebels in Invercargill tonight, which is a must win. I think we can do it in front of a passionate Southland crowd. And if we have worked on our defence throughout the week and Chris Noakes leads the team well, and kicks on target then we can definitely beat the Rebels and win 5/6, which will be a pretty good record!