this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Rugby Union
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Welp that's a big oof by Barnes there on the release miss. I'm not one to complain though cough
And what was the margin of victory? He saw it on the replay and admitted it was the wrong call before the penalty kick had been taken too.
Oh absolutely, Barnes had quite a few horrible calls by the end. I feel like he kept trying to overcompensate or something. Respect to the ABs though. What a match. We couldn't even get a try through with you guys one man down
I think the trouble is that things WR wants referee's to focus on (at the expense of other parts of the game) inevitably mean that in games with two stalwart defenses such as the ABs clearly had (as you say, not giving up a try while playing with 14 for most of the match) that a referee decision will determine which teams gets the ascendancy.
And defense being so favored in referee decisions has resulted in the last 6 years of teams choosing to play without the ball more often than not. We really had a heyday of Rugby from the mid 90s through to the late 2000s where professional defense wasn't up to much and teams could score lots of tries. Then once Rugby adopted League defensive systems, but without the League dictate of standing the defense back 10m from the ruck the game as a whole has become a bit crap to watch.
When you're invested in the result its still engrossing watching to see who will crack first, but if you're neutral games like that are pretty dire.