Saints v Cronulla Rnd20 (2000)

Round 20
Sunday
18 June 2.30 pm
Saints v
Cronulla
Venue:
Woolaware Swamp
aka Toyota Park
Saints on TV 2000

Match Preview
& Team

Match
Report & Results

TV / Video Capture

This Weeks

Sound File

Scrapbook

Referee Rating

PREVIEW: The news of the week is that Trent Barrett has decided to remain a Dragon for 4 years. This will boost Saints' camp as they head to the Sutherland shire to take on Cronulla in a do or die local derby. There's plenty of feeling between these two teams. As well, there's been plenty of publicity in the past about Cronulla and the type of crap they get up to off the field. Both teams are winning in form and both teams are desperate. It should be a pretty intense match.
Saints have key forwards returning and look to be on high. They have to keep winning and they have to keep winning well if they stand a chance in the 2000 comp. This fact will not be lost on the players, some of whom have been really sparkling over the last two weeks.
Another preview can be found at Jubilee Av and a beaut summary of our feelings can "allegedly" be found at scumpark - well worth a visit.
TV delayed telecast: This match has been really pushed hard by the Packer machine and it's looking like the pick of the round. Qld viewers have to put up with the Brisbane match and have to rely on Pay TV while Syd regionals are well served at 4pm.
Channel 9 at 4pm (Syd and Syd regionals only), Optus at 4pm and/or 9.30pm, Fox at 7.30pm (4pm on Ch 40something)
Saints by 12

FOOTY TAB:
StGeo $2.90
Cron $1.40
Saints: 7 .5 start

TEAMS
(As of Friday 16 June)
Ref: Steven Clark ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA DRAGONS:
Amos Roberts, Nathan Blacklock, Jamie Ainscough, Lee Murphy, Lee Hookey, Trent Barrett, Luke Branighan, Wayne Bartrim, Andrew Hart, Darren Treacy, Craig Smith (c), Nathan Brown (c), Luke Bailey.
Reserves: Chris Leikvoll, Colin Ward, Jamie Fitzgerald, Jason Ryles, Wes Patten. (one to be omitted)
CRONULLA SHARKS:
David Peachey, Mat Rogers, Andrew Ettingshausen (c), Russell Richardson, Colin Best, Adam Dykes, Blaine Stanley, Nick Graham, Chris McKenna, Nathan Long, Martin Lang, Dean Treister,
Jason Stevens.
Reserves: Andrew Pierce, Sean Ryan, Paul Mellor, Mitch Healey.

Teams subject to late changes.
(Terry Lamey suspended one week)

FULLTIME SCORE: Saints 10 - Cronulla 40
Match Conditions: Fair breeze. Overcast. Saints won toss and elected to run into breeze.
Attendance: 19, 507
MATCH SUMMARY:
SAINTS GO DOWN 40 - 10
BACKS TO THE WALL !! The Dragons won the toss and chose to run into the wind. Cronulla scored a lucky early try but Saints hit back and were looking OK at half time with the home team, Cronulla leading by 18 - 10.
Unfortunately, the 2nd half display from the Dragons was ordinary and ref Steven Clark was more than generous to the Cronulla team as he continually reacted to the countless crowd calls.
Possession was hard to come by with Cronulla getting plenty of the ball thanks consecutive well placed penalties, dodgy 50/50 ref decisions and appalling handling from Saints. Bartrim in particular had a shocker.
The worse was yet to come with Cronulla running in 22 unanswered points in a forgettable 2nd half as a number of Saints' players forgot how to tackle.
Saints best player was without a doubt Craig Smith who looked as stand out amongst the forwards, outshining his team mates in both defence and attack. It wasn't surprising that when Smith had to leave the field through injury that the Saints game completely fell apart and the match was won and lost mid way through the 2nd half.
Inside the last 10 minutes, Nathan Blacklock was sin binned and the Saints now had to play with just 12 against 14 (!) - The final disgrace came in the last 5 minutes as Saints let in 2 soft tries.
With just 6 more matches to go in the season proper, the Dragons find themselves at the wrong end of the ladder and their backs against the wall. It remains to be seen if this team has what it takes to come out fighting.

FULL MATCH REPORT:

1 min: Saints started the match slowly, struggling to get to their 30 metre line from the kick off - their dummy half play is at half pace. A very ordinary kick on the last from Luke Branighan goes straight into the legs of McKenna who gets a perfect bounce and strolls to the tryline. An easy conversion is missed by Rogers but Cronulla have had a gift start to the match. Score: Saints 0 - Cronulla 4
12 min: From 10 m out, Brown from dummy half sends the pass to Branighan and suddenly Saints have decoy runners everywhere. Ainscough takes the next pass and finds Blacklock who touches down out wide. Barto conversion misses.
Score: Saints 4 - Cronulla 4
17 min: Barrett sets up Ward who makes a half bust. He finds Hart in support who only needs to pass to Bartrim and Saints should score under the posts. Unfortunately, Hart is clobbered by a high class charge from Peachey and the play breaks down. Hart is playing well but lets himself down, holding onto the ball for a moment too long. Barrett kicks out on the full in the next play. Despite this, Saints are lifting and with some of the ball are looking good.
20 min: Saints are gaining some ascendancy and they are looking good in defence. Cronulla are having trouble finding a way through. Lee Murphy is set up by the ref & touchie and penalised for offside almost in front of the posts. Rogers says his little prayer and pops it over. Score: Saints 4 - Cronulla 6
25 min: Cronulla get another penalty in kicking range. Murphy charged with being offside once again. Rogers misses and the score remains the same. However, the result is a more confident looking Cronulla team who are now getting plenty of possession.
27 min: Ettingshausen runs down the right flank, chips and Rogers regathers, passing back inside to Ettingshausen who improves his position to score under the posts giving Rogers an easy conversion. Score: Saints 4 - Cronulla 12
32 min: Cronulla make an easy break up the middle of the ruck. Dykes puts in a chancy kick cross field and Rogers, unmarked, takes it on the full, looks like a goose as he sticks his tongue out towards Ainscough before scoring. He says another little prayer and converts his own try. Cronulla look like they are set to run away with this one.
Score: Saints 4 - Cronulla 18
39 min: Wes Patten grabs an intercept 35 out from Saints' line and is tackled. Five metres later, Wes is setting up Branighan who in turn sets up Treacy who makes a glorious break down the left side. Treacy passes to Blacklock who kicks into the in-goal just before being tackled by the cover. The ball almost goes dead but a diving Jamie Ainscough touches down with inches to spare. The crowd boos, takes a collective deep breathe and boo again, Ainscough not being too popular in Woolaware. Blacklock converts from out wide. Score: Saints 10 - Cronulla 18

HALF TIME

The 2nd half was a miserable sight. Saints didn't look anything like the team which hammered Melbourne 2 weeks back and thrashed Wests Tigers just a week later. With the wind at their backs, Saints were unable to capitalise and seriously lacked any sense of real commitment. They saw almost no ball and made things worse for themselves with poor options in both attack and defence.
Smith had to leave the field 5 minutes into the 2nd half and with that, Saints simply lost their way
Smith left the field in the 45th minute...
-Cronulla scored 2 minutes later and Saints looked like a beaten team as the try scorer (Ettingshausen) improves his position, scoring behind the uprights.
-Shortly after that, Ward was being driven back by the defence while team mates stood and watched.
-A minute later Bartrim lost the ball and Jason Stevens fell on it. Not held, Stevens simply got to hs feet and ran another 15 metres despite being surrounded by 3 Saints defenders. Nathan Brown could have shook his hand.
-2 minutes later, Cronulla attempt a kick into the in-goal but the ball rolls loose short of the tryline. Instead of falling on the ball, Bartrim attempts to pick it up. He knocks on for the umpteenth time and hands back possession. -Cronulla score seconds later and the try scorer (McKenna) once again improves his position to score under the sticks.
-What followed was a an eternity of defensive work, made worse by a 'line drop out' from Barrett which trickled 12 metres and directly into the arms of a surprised Cronulla player.
...by the time Smith rejoined the game in the 59th minute, it was all over. Now 20 points down, Saints were disorganised and looking like they wanted to throw in the towel.
Craig Smith can hold his head up high. Amos Roberts, Lee Hookey Nathan Blacklock and Jamie Ainscough all battled hard with little forward support. Barrett and Branighan, for most of the match found little room to manoeuvre. On a number of occasions, players were getting in each other's way. There were times when I thought Hart, Treacy or Ward were going to turn it on and throw down the gauntlet but the contribution was just not enough. At the end of the day, there are too many players looking for excuses.
Blacklock, given no option was sent off for a professional foul with less than 10 minutes remaining. Saints let in 2 very very soft tries in the last 5 minutes and fulltime couldn't come quick enough.

I suppose the talking point of the match will be the sibling rivalry that still exists between the Dragons and the Sharks. When Jamie Ainscough knocked out their fave son, Mat Rogers, the locals carried on and on about it for the rest of the match...I bet they are still talking about it. The fact is, Rogers made the error when he fell into the tackle and collected Ainscough's shoulder. It's unlikely if any action will be taken against Ainscough. One thing's for sure, young Mat is unlikely to give old Jamie any more Road Runner impersonations.

Here's a quick summary of the 2nd half:
47 min: Ettingshausen try, Stanley conversion. Score: Saints 10 - Cronulla 24
51 min: McKenna try, Stanley conversion. Score: Saints 10 - Cronulla 30
62 min: Stanley penalty goal. Score: Saints 10 - Cronulla 32
64th minute tackle count: Saints 260 - Cronulla 154
75 min: Mellor try. Score: Saints 10 - Cronulla 36
79 min: Best try. Score: Saints 10 - Cronulla 40

FULL TIME SCORE: SAINTS 10 - CRONULLA 40

Saints Best
3-Smith, 2-Roberts, 1-Hookey

Stats:
Saints 10 (Blacklock, Ainscough tries. Blacklock 1/1, Bartrim 0/1 goals)
Cronulla 40 (Ettingshausen 2, McKenna 2, Rogers, Best, Mellor tries. Rogers 3/5, Stanley 3/5 goals)

Possession: Saints 38% - Cronulla 62%
Completions: Saints 58% - Cronulla 87%
Handling Errors: Saints 10 - Cronulla 5
Line breaks: Saints 4 - Cronulla 9
Offloads: Saints 17 - Cronulla 19
Missed tackles: Saints 31 - Cronulla 24

Early on and the ref calls back Andrew Hart, claiming he is front of the kicker...

Hart is seen to come to a stop as Blacklock gets ready
to kick. Hart leaves the frame a second later.

The next frame has Hart, barely in front of the kicker and
racing towards the ball some 15 m from where he must
have started his run, behind Tingha.

Hart catches the ball and has support. The ref calls him back for 'offside'

Blacklock scores Saints' first try to take his tally to 17 for year 2000 - still on top.

Colin Ward...

...putting Andrew Hart into the open.

Tingha	Hookey
Smithy	Wes

The Ainscough Try...

Darren Treacy...	...in the clear with Ainscough in pursuit.
Blacklock runs then kicks ahead.	Jamie scores just before the dead ball line.
The slide...the fingers...

Tingha making rare ground in the 2nd half.

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REFEREE & TOUCH JUDGES & VID REF

REFEREE: Steven Clark

Total Referee or Touch Judge errors = 6
Errors in favour of Saints = 0
Errors in favour of Cronulla = 6
Penalty Count: Saints 2 - Cronulla 8
By the minute:
6 min: Barrett kicks ahead and Peachey contests the rolling ball only a few metres from Cronulla's tryline. Peachey loses the ball forward before losing the ball back - the ref rules that he knocked it back. To makes matters worse he penalises Saints for offside. Error favours Cronulla.
8 min: Blacklock puts in a mid field kick and Andrew Hart catches it on the fly. With only the fullback in front and support to his left, Saints look certain to score. The ref, obviously doubting that Hart could have got to the ball from an onside position, decides to penalise Hart for being in front of the kicker. The replay shows Hart actually stopping his run before the kick so as to stay behind Blacklock. Blacklock kicks and Hart then starts his run. He is barely half a metre in front of Blacklock and the ball is 15 metres downfield. Its a top effort from the forward and Hart is well onside. The ref error has cost Saints a try. Error favours Cronulla.
After 8 minutes the penalties are favouring Cronulla 2 - 0.
18 min: Ref Clark is on the Saints tryline and Cronulla play the ball 12 metres out. It is the last tackle and Cronulla put in a bad kick which deflects and goes straight to a Saints player. The referee then awards a penalty to Cronulla deeming that Lee Murphy is half a metre in front of him. This decision follows a section of play where Saints almost scored twice and Cronulla were looking for a way through the defence. More than being a relieving penalty, this is a 2 pointer. The most worrying factor is the ref is later heard to say to Murphy that the touchie is calling out 'Murphy is offside' into the ref's earpiece. This being the case, the whole thing stinks of a set up. Ref inability to grasp basic mathematics favour Cronulla.
After 25 minutes the penalties favour Cronulla 4 - 0.
After 33 minutes, Saints get their first penalty - deep in their own half (Score: Cronulla 18 - 4)
(Blacklock interfered with in the play the ball and Saints get their first penalty. Clark is heard to say to Blacklock that he will give them 'the benefit of the doubt this time')
37 min: Jamie Ainscough goes in with the shoulder on Rogers who is decked. The touch judge reacts to the crowd, runs on and declares a head high and Ainscough is on report. Cronulla get another penalty. While being lectured, Ainscough comments, 'no problem' - he knows that apart from being a tough tackle, there was nothing in it. Rogers' injury caused by Rogers falling awkwardly into the tackle. This report should never see the light of day. Touch judge error favours Cronulla.
64 min: With match won and lost, Blacklock makes a break and Saints are on the attack only to lose possession one play later. However, Roberts steals the ball in a one on one tackle and the Cronulla defence is still recovering. The ref rules that Roberts has knocked the ball on. Saints had a rare attacking opportunity here (their first time inside the Cronulla 20 since the first half) Roberts' look of dismay is for good reason as the replay shows no Saints knock on and it is beyond me as to how the ref could have thought otherwise. Ref error favours Cronulla
After 69 minutes, Saints get their 2nd penalty (Score: Cronulla 32 - 10)
69 min: Cronulla strip ball in tackle and ref has no choice but to give penalty to Saints who are only 10 m out from Cronulla try line. Craig Smith at first receiver runs into the offside defence and manages an off load to his supports. Ref rules that Smith was held but he was still pushing forward and had his arms free. You have to wonder. Perhaps Clark should have a look at the rule book and open the chapter which refers to when a player is held. Smith still had the ball in motion. The ref called held far too early to a player who could not have possibly heard the call while running into players who were offside in front of a loud bunch of yokels. This sums up the day. So much for Saints' 2nd penalty of the match. Error favours Cronulla.
Comments:
Ref Steven Clark's inconsistency with the 10 metre rule is becoming legendary. Sometimes, he would keep a team back 13 metres while other times he would turn a blind eye to players racing up from 7 metres.
There's no doubt that Ref Clark gave the home team plenty of lee way. A number of crowd calls were evident throughout the afternoon and this led to further allowances to Cronulla as they were often let off for minor infringements, such as walking off the mark or playing offside. It is unfortunate that the ref saw fit to penalise the visiting team heavily and within striking distance of their tryline for committing similar minor offences. In the 1st half, Clark's attitude when talking to the visiting players also reeked of bias. As well, Ref Clark made a few crucial calls which on closer inspection have proved to be blatant errors of the worse kind.
Saints played badly and deserved to lose. Cronulla played well and deserved to win. The ref was in attendance just to make sure.
Overall rating: 2 / 10

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