RESULTS:
SAINTS 20 (A. Hart,
N. Blacklock, M. Riddell tries. M. Riddell 3/3, W. Bartrim 1/1 goals)
BRISBANE 18 (S. Kelly,
W. Sailor, S. Webcke tries. M. DeVere 3/3 goals)
Penalties: Brisbane 10-7
Scrums: 5-all
Possession: Saints 52%
Completions: Saints 78% - Bris 73%
Handling Errors Saints 8 - Bris 10
Line breaks: Saints 6 - Bris 5
Offloads: Saints 29 - Bris 17
Missed Tackles: Saints 44 - Bris 59
MATCH
REPORT:
St George 20 - Brisbane 18
THE
TEAM THAT SMASHED THE HOODOO
WIN Stadium, Sunday 12 August
2001: A great match which saw a committed team from St George get on
top from the outset.
Saints built up a healthy amount
of possession and totally outclassed Brisbane with some excellent heavy
defence.
The Bronco's main casualty was
Kevin Walters who looked to have fractured either his eye socket or nose
after some determined defence from Craig Smith (see pics below).*
Saints put in a brilliant first
half performance running into the wind and 'uphill'.
The Mighty Dragons were
only to be thwarted by the ramblings of that inept whistle blowing ref,
Tim Mander who did everything possible to give Brisbane a chance including
pulling back Nathan Blacklock for no reason after he ran 90 metres to 'score'.
In the end , justice was served and the hoodoo was smashed!
Craig Smith was fantastic as were all the forwards and
that paved the way for Trent Barrett who controlled the proceedings.
Half Time: St George 12 - Brisbane 6
Fulltime: St George 20 - Brisbane 18
This scoreline flatters Brisbane beyond comprehension.
*poste script. Craig Smith suspended and sidelined for 6 weeks effectively
ending his Australian career. see news.
MATCH
REPORT (BY THE CLOCK):
Kickoff: Strong breeze favouring
Brisbane who also have the 'down hill' run on the slightly sloping W'gong
footy pitch. Hooper at half back in place of Kerr. Wingers nominate their
opposites and Blacklock elects to play against Sailor while Ainscough will
take on Tuqiri.
6 min: Try Hart. Bursts through from 15
m out Soft defence. Conversion Riddell. Saints 6-0
11 min: Smith puts a big tackle on Walters. As
defenders and ball carrier fall, Smith's elbow accidentally comes into
contact with Walters' face, breaking his nose and eye socket. Walters is
out of the game.
14 min: Try Kelly. From scrum base and 30 m out
from Broncos line, Kelly gets around some poor outside defence from McGregor
and runs 70m to score. Conversion Devere. 6-all
16 min: In their first encounter of the day, Nathan
Blacklock catches a bomb and then easily steps around Wendell Sailor.
22 min: Broncos can count themselves fortunate
as they get a 20m re-start when it should have been a line drop out. Ref
chose not to consult touchies even though the ball was clearly knocked
dead by a Bronco. General flow of play favouring Saints who are really
going after the opposition and they look to be a 20 point better team.
23-24 min: Excellent passage of play from the
Dragons sees them make 90m in six tackles. Some wonderful displays of passing
footy.
26 min: In the first exchange of note, Ainscough
absolutely nails Tuqiri with a bone crunching tackle. Lockyer follows up
with a fine run to get Brisbane out of strife.
36 min: Try Blacklock. Tremendous lead up work
from Roberts and Hooper. From 30m out, Roberts puts Hooper into a gap.
Hooper is met by the defence on the 10m line. He passes to Roberts who
passes from ground level back to Hooper who catches the ball while on his
knees. Blacklock takes the final pass and scores. Conversion Bartrim. Saints
12-6
38-40 min: Gasnier and Thompson makes breaks out
wide. Gasnier by virtue of his side step and Thommo thanks to a big fend
on Berrigan.
At half time, Saints should be further in front after
putting on 40 minutes of great attacking football which was equaled only
by their relentless defence. However, Saints were guilty of making errors
at crucial times. Despite this, they will come out in the 2nd half with
the wind at their backs and look the goods to run away with this.
HALF TIME: Saints 12-6
43 min: Gasnier is penalised for being offside
while intercepting. He was away but the ref called him back. The replay
shows that Gaz was OK and it should have been play on. Broncos make a mess
of the penalty when they take the tap in front of the mark in full view
of everyone effectively costing them possession.
44-51 min: Broncos throwing everything in the
game and get repeat sets of six close to the St George line.
52 min: Try Riddell. Saints withstand the
onslaught and give the perfect reply. At close range, Riddell breaks out
of a tackle, reaches out and scores. The ref sensed a chance of double
movement but after the vid ref scrutiny, Riddell is awarded the try. Conversion
Riddell. Wide kick scrapes the upright and goes in. Saints 18-6
55 min: Barrett bombs Lockyer who touches the
ball but there is no six again. Brisbane off the hook.
60 min: Penalty Goal Riddell. Saints go to 14
points in front. Turning point of the match. Saints 20-6
65 min: Blacklock pulls in intercept and runs
90m to Brisbane try line. In an unpopular decision, the ref pulls him back
and penalises Saints for offside. The replay reveals no such offside play.
It should be 26-6 but Brisbane are done a huge favour by the ref.
69 min: Trent Barrett pulls off great tackle from
behind on Darren Lockyer. The Brisbane fullback is keeping his team in
the match with some fine attacking play and one can only wonder what state
the Broncos would be in without Lockyer.
70 min: Try Sailor. Following the Lockyer run,
the defence is scattered and Sailor takes the final pass to score. Conversion
Devere. Saints 20-12
73 min: Both teams running on empty now. Ref gives
Brisbane a 5th tackle penalty.
75 min: Try Webcke. Conversion Devere. Saints
20-18
FULLTIME: Saints hang on
to win against the Broncos for the first time since 1994. Brisbane crash
to their 4th loss in a row. A late ref assisted surge from the visiting
team was not enough to see them pull off what would have been an undeserving
victory... the scoreboard not giving a true indication of Saints' dominance
in both attack and defence.
SOTV
BEST PLAYERS:
Craig Smith (3pts)
Trent Barrett (2pts)
Lance Thompson (1pt)
Click
here for SOTV 2001 best player tally
THIS
WEEKS SOUND FILES:
SORRY
NO SOUND FILES THIS WEEK
MATCH
& CROWD PICS:
CROWD...
MATCH...
Hart bursts through
|
Andrew Hart scores Saints first try
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Craig Smith tackles Kevin Walters
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While falling, Smith slips over the top
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Smith's forearm collides with Walters' face
|
Unaware of any wrong doing, Smith powers forward throughout
the match.
|
Dragons defence driving the Broncos back
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Lance Thompson bursting through
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Nathan Blacklock steps around Sailor with ease
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Tingha races off with Wendell sprawled in the turf
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Jason Hooper in the clear
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About to be brought down but he will offload
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Tingha ends up the pill and sights the tryline
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Nathan actually puts on step into the defence
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Tingha powers over
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Scoring try #24 for the year!
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Mark Gasnier putting himself in the clear
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Amos Roberts just before halftime finds space down the
sideline but is denied a scoring chance.
|
Nathan Blacklock flies high to intercept...
...only to pulled back by a dubious ref call
|
Tingha yells when he realises it'll be no try... robbed!
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Barrett chases down Lockyer. Great tackle.
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Mark Riddell.
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The face that prompted the media frenzy which led to
Saints losing their captain for 6 weeks.
Reports that Kevin Walters was still bleeding one hour
after fulltime were somewhat exaggerated.
|
Fulltime: Paul McGregor gets a warm send off. This being
his last match at WIN Stadium.
|
REF
REPORT:
Tim Mander at times was barely adequate and in
a effort to make up for his own inefficiencies, he resorted to blowing
the whistle no less than than 17 times. He pulled back Saints twice for
offside when no offside existed. The most glaring off these was in the
65th minute when Nathan Blacklock pulled off a tremendous intercept to
run 90 m to the Bronco's tryline. Mander deemed that Saints had a player
offside, not Blacklock. After a bit of effort, we still couldn't see who
was offside.
The incident which saw Kevin Walters' with a broken nose
and eye socket drew much criticism from Brisbane coach, Wayne Bennett
who
slammed Mander in the press the following day. The general gist being that
Bennett was blaming the ref for the result and condemning Mander's overall
performance. Some were curious as to how Bennett escaped a fine for taking
his complaint to the media. The normal policy of the NRL being that no
coach is allowed to criticise the ref. Is it possible that this policy
does not apply to Bennett?
Close scrutiny of the match showed that Mander was in
fact prone doing 'favours' for the visiting team. The penalty count, favouring
Brisbane by 10 - 7 supports this view.
Overall Ref Rating: 3 out of 10
|
REF:
