Singing a song of (not so) angry men

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Well the crowd at AAMI Park – so far I’m holding out and won’t call it the stockade – were in full song this week, and I can’t say I blame ‘em.

It was a terrific atmosphere and a great occasion.

Let the haters say what they want about the, admittedly, soft penalty in the dying moments. Others might call it justice for some seriously dubious calls from Jonathan Kaplan (and his ‘assistant’ on the right touch line who missed Rebels bad-boy Danny Cipriani getting a slap to the upside of the head).

Cipriani has been lauded in all the Melbourne papers this week – well, in the sports section at least. The social pages still talk about his penchant for nicking vodka and subsequent banning from a completely different night-club. But at some point he is actually going to have to put his defenders onside by actually chasing one of those long punts downfield.

Back to my point, the Rebels team song (appropriated from Les Miserables) seemed particularly apt on Friday night.

The people were most definitely singing, and although over the moon by the result, were mad at Kaplan often enough to fulfil the second line – we were angry, damn angry.  And I, personally, think Kaplan looked a bit sheepish himself when he saw the replay of Henry Speight’s try on the big screen.

All-in all, it was a performance by a team which announced that they would not take another 32-0 ass-whooping, would not be slaves again, were going to stand up and be counted in this competition. Yes, points help in this regard.

There was another kind of music, a brutal, savage music coming from the massive hits laid on by Mortlock, Lippman and co. There is no sugar coating this. Defence was the key to the Rebels first win.

They had next to no ball, and the set pieces were a mess. How they managed to win this game with stats like Rucks and Mauls: Brumbies 118, Rebels 29, is beyond me. But with the ball in hand, playing running rugby, they looked great. So there is definitely life in the new boys yet – now let’s back it up and do it again.

Interestingly enough, for the statisticians among us, the Rebels vs Tahs game – although a complete blow out – was the most watched regular season rugby game in Australian TV history; double the regular audience and more viewers than the last Bledisloe match (source superXV.com). I’m guessing nowhere near that number tuned in this time around, and there were 11,000 less people in the stands, but it was undoubtedly a better game of rugby.

I was moved by the minute’s silence observed at all games for the victims of the Christchurch quake (and at the England v France 6 Nations game, which I am watching now – IQ, gotta love it). And my thoughts are with all of you in CHCH, friends and otherwise, here’s hoping things look up for you all soon.

So, with the honours divided equally between the Crusaders and the Hurricanes … what did I think of the others? Well I might just tell you.

Quote of the week has to come from Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph. At half time, when the Chiefs had had 71% of the possession he was asked if he had anything to say … ‘No, not really. We haven’t started to play our game yet.’

Classic. Well, that all changed in the second half and the southern men walked away with the honours. Much to my chagrin I might add as, at the risk of inciting the wrath of a feisty highlanders supporter who shall remain nameless, I’d tipped the Chiefs, and so my picking nightmare began.

The Cheetahs scrum seemed to start where they left off against the Sharks, giving away penalties against the Bulls. But the champions didn’t have it all their own way. Matfield continued his identity crisis, where he seems to think he’s a flyhalf and fancies sending a kick downfield for a winger to chase – or to go out on the full, and they had to fight back for an unconvincing win.

The Waratahs are playing with a lot of confidence and look dangerous from anywhere on the park. The Reds were never in it.

The Sharks did well to contain the Blues (who took 10 minutes to get out of their own half), and the game was the cracker it always promised to be, but – seriously – how is it possible that Patrick Lambie looks even younger than he did last year?