StGeorge vs Brisbane Rnd10 2001

Saints On TV
ST GEORGE ILLAWARRA
DRAGONS

RUGBY LEAGUE FOOTBALL: TV PICS, RESULTS, REPORTS

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ROUND 10 - 21 APRIL 2001 - ANZ STADIUM
SAINTS V BRISBANE

1. Amos Roberts, 2. Nathan Blacklock, 3. Mark Gasnier, 4. Lee Hookey, 5. Jamie Ainscough, 6. Trent Barrett*, 7. Willie Peters, 13. Jason Hooper, 12. Andrew Hart, 11. Darren Treacy, 10. Jason Ryles, 9. Mark Riddell,8.Craig Smith (c)* Reserves: 14. Chris Leikvoll, 15. Jamie Fitzgerald, 16. Lance Thompson, 17. Wayne Bartrim* *Barrett, C. Smith & Bartrim out.
Justin Smith, Ben Hornby & Craig Stapleton in
(Lance Thompson new captain)

1. Darren Lockyer, 2. Lote Tuqiri, 3. Chris Walker, 4. Michael De Vere, 5. Wendell Sailor, 6. Scott Prince, 7. Shaun Berrigan, 13. Shane Walker, 12. Brad Meyers, 11. Gorden Tallis (c), 10. Petero Civoniceva, 9. Luke Priddis, 8. Shane Webcke Reserves: 14. Ashley Harrison, 15. Carl Webb, 16. Justin Hodges, 17. Darren Burns, 18. Dane Carlaw, 19. Stu Kelly (two to be omitted)

KICKOFF: Saturday 7.30pm
TEAMS JUST BEFORE KICK OFF:

NB Andrew Hart injured during warm up and replaced by Jamie Fitzgerald in the run on side

SOTV PREVIEW:
ANZ (QEII) Stadium, Saturday 21 April: Saints face up to their toughest challenge of 2001. Two weeks ago, the Dragons were flying high with big victories under their wings and a team full of confidence. But it took just one match to see Saints come crashing back down to Earth with a loss and the well publicised news of three star players being suspended.
The Stats say it all, Saints have no right to win this match. Not only are Brisbane hot favourites and virtually unbackable, there is also the fact that St George Illawarra have never beaten Brisbane in their only 3 encounters. In fact, Illawarra were last red & white team to defeat Brisbane and that was in 1996. St George's last victory over Brisbane was in March 1994 when the Dragons defeated the Broncos 22-18 in front of the 37, 749 people at the same venue as tomorrow night's clash.
Late changes to the Dragons line up are still on the cards but as we go to the upload, it is Justin Smith, Ben Hornby & Craig Stapleton (debut) who will come on to make up the numbers in place of the NRL judiciary casualties (see teams above).
The fact that Smith and Barrett aren't there shouldn't matter.
Losing because of injuries or suspensions simply doesn't hold up as an excuse.
The replacement players and their team mates will have to just lift a little more in defence. The key man for Saints is Lance Thompson who now has most of the responsibility as captain.
I'm looking forward to a number of players putting their hands up and playing blinders. Afterall, they've got nothing to lose and an injured Dragon is a nasty proposition for any team.
We can't resist the juicy odds and are tipping an upset. Saints by 2
Referee: MARK OATEN

TV Coverage: Live Fox, Optus, DELAYED on Ch9.
Weather forecast at kickoff:
20°C, Cloudy, chance rain.
SPORTSBET FootyTAB (Qld):
To win: Saints $4.75, Bris $1.14
Handicap: Saints 14½ start

RESULTS:
SAINTS 16 (Ryles, Blacklock, Gasnier tries. Riddell 1/2, Roberts 1/1 goals)
BRISBANE 40 (Tallis 2, Tuqiri, Berrigan, Webb, DeVere, Walker tries. DeVere 6/7 goals)
CROWD 19,768

MATCH REPORT: SOON
ANZ Stadium 21 April 2001: Saints scored first and scored last but were made to work hard in defence. Brisbane led by Gorden Tallis, simply over powered the Dragons to score seven tries to three.
St George Illawarra Dragons went into the match with the knowledge that the Brisbane Broncos have not had a loss in their 19 previous encounters at ANZ. The record is impressive, 18 wins, 1 draw, av 30½ points for and a little under 13½ against. Given Saints' recent dramas with the judiciary and the Bronco's formidable record, it was no surprise to see Brisbane come into this match as red hot favourites.
The Dragons' situation was further compounded when Andrew Hart was injured during the warm up and had to withdraw from the run on side. His place was taken by Jamie Fitzgerald.
Interestingly, Lance Thompson was named in the 5/8 position but quickly slotted into the back row and soon found himself at lock forward or in the 2nd row. Jason Hooper took the up the 5/8 role.
The Dragons boast the record of being the top try scoring team in the comp while Brisbane have the record of conceding fewer tries than any other team in the comp.
With that info in hand, we sat back in the light drizzle and readied ourselves for the kick off...
3 min: Try Ryles after he is let go by Bronco's defence close to the line. He is not held and touches down next to the posts. Conversion Riddell. Saints 6-0
10 min: Try Tuqiri. After some sustained pressure, Brisbane score on the last out wide. Conversion De Vere. Score 6-all
14 min: Try Tallis. Typical bust from close range, Tallis too big and too fast.
Conversion DeVere misses. Bris 10-6
19 min: Try Berrigan. Amos Roberts loses sight of a bomb and is unable to do better than touch the ball with his finger tips. Berrigan's fingers tips are more effective and he scores. Conversion De Vere. Bris 16-6
38 min: Try Tallis. Almost carbon copy of try in 14 min only this time, more convincing.
Conversion DeVere. Bris 22-6 HALF TIME

43 min: Try Webb. Conversion DeVere. Bris 28-6
51 min: Try DeVere. Conversion DeVere. Bris 34-6
55 min: Try Blacklock who intercepts and runs 80 m to score. Conversion Roberts. Bris 34-12
65 min: Try Walker after a set move puts him into the clear. Conversion DeVere. Bris 40-12
72 min: Try Gasnier out wide after Saints get repeat sets courtesy of in-goal grubbers from Fitzgerald. Conversion Riddell misses. Bris 40-16 FULL TIME

By fulltime, Saints had to come to terms with the fact that they were simply outplayed by a stronger and sharper team. Apart from the opening few minutes and the final 10-15 minutes, the Broncos had everything going their way.
Even when the Brisbane team took their foot off the pedal, they were able to contain a Dragon's outfit who seemed to be without any spark let alone the fire which would have been required to make a game of it tonight.
Nathan Blacklock's try lifted the players slightly after Tingha made a stirring rally call - although it was apparent he was yelling out of frustration. It did have some effect with the Dragons playing some sensible football again.
There was short downpour just before kickoff and this may have contributed to the poor handling. But in this department, Saints were their own worse enemies for the majority of the match. What little possession we saw was often squandered cheaply.
Brisbane were clinical in their disposal of the Dragons. Gorden Tallis was a standout. He led a forward pack that on Saturday night's effort looks unbeatable in 2001.
The loss sees Saints slipping out of the top eight and we now face the prospect of playing Newcastle and once again without Barrett and Craig Smith.

SOTV BEST PLAYERS:
Lance Thompson (3pts)
Willie Peters (2pts)
Jason Hooper (1pt)

MATCH & CROWD PICS:




Jamie Ainscough leaps high	perfectly marked
Nathan Blacklock in the clear gave us something to cheer about	Tingha on his way to the try line
Jason Ryles scores the first try of the match	Mark Gasnier puts on a magical step to score the final try of the match

SOUND FILES:
(HINT: best way to download sound files is to right click on pic and use 'save link' or 'save target' option, then save WAV file to desktop or folder of choice)
WAV (985 Kb)Click on the pic to hear Nathan Brown talking before the match
WAV (583 Kb) Click on the pic to hear Lance Thompson talking after the match

REF REPORT:
Mark Oaten made a number of basic errors early in the match and appears to be adhering to the trend of penalising teams whenever the opportunity arises.
It's true that the Dragons copped a raw deal from the ref but this was in no way a contributing factor the outcome of the game. With so much possession, the Brisbane team simply controlled the proceedings while the Dragons, under the burden of a massive tackle count often found themselves losing the 50/50 refereeing decisions.

The first blatant ref error was in the 6th minute when he pinned Saints for stripping when the Bronco's player who simply lost control of the ball.
A few minutes later, Scott Prince attempts to throw the ball back but it goes forward off the ground and is a knock on. The ref allows play to continue and Brisbane score a try.
In the 13th minute, Webke has the ball stripped and Ryles is penalised. Brisbane score a moment later. On reflection, the penalty was valid even though the ball control was poor. A query has to be placed on Ryles who created the situation and then argued the point. The juries' still out but Ryles' temper may have to be reined in.
(.wav 210Kb) Click here to hear Lance Thompson & Mark Oaten debate the point
In the 22nd minute, Prince kicked downfield and Roberts had to deal with an evil bounce. Chris Walker contested the ball and won but he was a mile off side as were most of the chasers who were in front of the kicker. How the touchies and ref missed this is beyond belief.
2 minutes later, Oaten penalises Saints for lying on the tackled player but this an ordinary decision with Hart doing his best to get off a kicking player who is also holding on. The penalty count is now 5-2 in favour of Brisbane.
In the 28th minute we had the misfortune to witness a knock on against Saints which went behind the runner.
In contrast, a blatant knock on from Carl Webb was deemed a knock back in the 29th minute.
In the 30th minute, we see yet another ridiculous penalty for holding down when big Chris Leikvoll is too slow to get up according to the standards of little Mark Oaten. This crackdown that the NRl are undertaking is leading to a rash of petty penalties.
6 minutes from half time and Lance Thompson passes the ball to a Brisbane player at close range. The ref penalises Brisbane for stripping but is clearly in the wrong. The commentary tries to make out that this evens things up but we cannot agree. It's just another ref error.
Minutes later, Civoniceva makes a break and passes to a Prince who is tackled. For some reason, Oaten penalises Saints and even Brisbane don't know why. Confusion is replaced by disbelief as it seems the penalty was for obstruction on Prince. Since when is it obstruction to tackle a ball carrier? Brisbane score soon after that's the ball game. At half time the penalty count was Bris 7 - Saints 4.
The Dragons became their own worst enemy when the ball went to ground close to their line but Stapleton managed to fall on a rolling ball. It always a knock back but the ref had no hesitation in calling knock on thus giving Brisbane another scoring opportunity which was converted into points.
The 2nd half didn't get any better with various puzzling decisions including one in the 59th minute where Jamie Ainscough was deemed to be in front of the kicker. This was done on a touch judge call and the ref didn't warn Ainscough off. The replay shows that Ainscough was behind the kicker so it's anyone's guess what the ref and touchie are going on about. Instead being forced to a line drop out, Bris get a penalty.
In the 62nd minute, Ainscough is taken high and in the air by Sailor while fielding a bomb in the in-goal. No action from ref or touchies.
Saints did manage to get a bit of possession late in the match and the ref errors had a chance to go against the Broncos for a bit. The most blatant of these was a forward pass, about a metre forward which the ref and touch judge seemed oblivious to.
All in all, the ref appeared to do the wrong thing by Saints but this was mainly due to the fact that the Dragons had so little possession. Teams with little ball often find themselves on the losing end of the penalty count.
But there were dozens of errors and for that reason we have to be a little hard on Oaten who can do better than this.
Penalty count: Bris 8 - Saints 5
Overall ref rating: 4 out of 10

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