Ma'a Nonu big shoulder on Jimmy Cowan results in red card

Booya! That was quick :)

terrible tackle, chame on you nonu.
terrible attitude, chame on you cowan.

wouldn't it be shame?!?

I suppose it would.

What a terrible kick!!!

There seems to be more of a soccer mentality in NZ rugby if you ask me - probably because it's so mainstream. Cowan's milking of the situation and grinning at the crowd response, added to his team-mate clapping when the ref sent off Nonu, are reprehensible.

Although to be fair to Cowan, Ma'a Nonu crashing into your head probably would smart a bit...

Oh My Goodness

that's just thuggery, pure and simple. I sense a lengthy ban here.

gosh what an atmosphere! i can see at least... 20 people in the stadium.

^^^^^^

I can see at least...... 0 Northern Hemisphere teams competing for this years World Cup

You were proven wrong New Zealand probably deserved to win the world cup but the final was a disgraceful performance by Joubert and France would have won it with any other ref and were by far the better team on the pitch....

National sport of NZ, opening game of the season... and four people showed up to watch a soccer dive. lol

Loving Melbourne's "hybrid" style. Fusing knock on with another knock on with dogshit.

Rugbydump

While you see Cowan smiling later on, there is no evidence in this video of him milking anything as there is no footage of him on the ground after the hit!

Surely if such a comment is made in the description, it is a good idea to include it in the video or else it looks like thperson who wrote the description is just biased!

(not doubting you btw, just think it's better to include it).


Also personally i think the yellow card was justifiedfor what was a nasty hit. That said, are you sure it was a second yellow which led to the red? The vid only shows a straight red card and i thought they usually showed both a la that Aussie winger against NZ!

Competing for the world cup or not, at least the Northern Hemisphere teams get support from their fans that come out and watch their games week after week.

Munster get 33k most weeks, Leinster get their capacity 20k every week and even Leinster have been getting 50k for their Heineken cup games and their Magners league games against Munster in the Aviva Stadium.

That crowd is shocking for a super 15 game...supposedly "the best competition in club rugby".

Well, no surprises from either player there. There's being physical and then there's just being plain old retarded. Seems like Nonu often teeters toward the latter. As for Cowan, we all know he's a sneaky little shite and it's not the first time he's shown this kind of aptitude for the dark side of sportsmanship. Overall, and coupled with the pathetic crowd (i live in Wellington and i can tell you it's not because of the weather!), it's a pretty shit advert for Kiwi rugby.

of course he is happy. that big lug just ran into him and got carded. anyone who has played the game would understand Cowan's emotions.

and why do we always come back to the same old "there's more crowds up north so it must be better" debate. it's bullshit. we all know why there are more crowds up north and it has nothing to do with the standard of rugby. If the Hurris vs. Highlanders had anything like the history of say, a Munster vs. Ulster game, or Bath vs. Leicester then yes crowds would be bigger. It's the history and passion for your home town, not the quality of the game, that gets people in Europe watching rugby week in week out.

We all know that super rugby only exists for TV revenue and it's why they keep changing the format year in year out now with a ridiculous conference system identical to the IPC cup in NZ and the Curri Cup in SA and the oh-wait-they-don't-have-a-competition in Aus. If you want crowds then watch Bulls vs Sharks in the Currie Cup, and you might also get to watch some better rugby than the muddy dirge served up in the bogs of Ireland

Not very clever from Nonu knowing you already got a yellow in your bag....

Cowan milking of the situation? Really? Just on the base of this short video, hard to say but did not watch the game. As for the smile, well a bit of taunting, reaction to the crowd or teamates nothing more I would say.

About crowd affluence? What is this nonsense to bring this here and try to compare that to NH teams????
Just for instance, in France, competition start at the end of the summer holiday, and stadiums are never full at this stage. Anyhow, pretty childish comment.

yeah definately a double yellow. ref pulls it out before the red.
They dont show it but the commentary are talking about cowan jumping straight to his feet as soon as the card is pulled out.
Nonu at his usual meathead best.

At least the Tahs vs Rebels game was competative, I was on the edge of my seat right up to the final whistle.

Wow, NH people bitching about Super Rugby? There's a surprise.

Anyone who watched the game live knows that Cowan milked it.

'Wow, NH people bitching about Super Rugby?'

I think you'll find it's the people from the south who created this whole 'north/south' thing that doesn't even exist in any other sport.

The ironic thing is that everyone knows that modern New Zealand, Australia and South Africa were all discovered and developed by Europeans (Dutch, British and Portugese), so they're only insulting their relatives.

Strange comment. Firstly one what grounds are you saying that the SH started it? lol

Secondly, its about the rugby, not the heritage :)

And thirdly, there's a few bad apples all over the world. Small percentages of idiocy shouldn't be taken as the norm.

expecting 30 000 plus for crusaders vs blues tomorrow..pretty average crowd.. and how the hell is "who discovered who/insulting your relatives" even a good point in this argument

That was a shocker. Who goes for a charge down shoulder first? Noone.

I'm not convinced Cowan was milking it. The impact of Nonu's shoulder into his neck/chin is pretty bad, and Cowan's in the air at the time. I think he's smiling at the boos not because he got Nonu sent off. If the game's going well for you and you're winning, it's a compliment to be boo-ed.

In a video of two SH teams playing one-another, in the SH, a clip that features two SH players, why are people droning on, yet-a-fucking-gain about NH vs. SH. We get it, now can't we all just get along?

'expecting 30 000 plus for crusaders vs blues tomorrow..pretty average crowd.. and how the hell is "who discovered who/insulting your relatives" even a good point in this argument'

I know you're dim, but I couldn't make it any clearer? It's not an argument, it's just pointing out facts. They're insulting themselves.

30,000 plus for a national sport is impressive, has to be up there with third division Dutch cricket.

I thought there were no cards in super rugby?

Laz said...
Wow, NH people bitching about Super Rugby? There's a surprise.

Laz, scroll up through all the comments above your one and actually read them.

You will discover that the first hemisphere-based remark was a deliberately provocative anti-northern hemisphere comment.

Up to your first post, there was precisely one single response to that from an "NH" poster.

I watched the game, it was very average. Dozens of handling errors, reset scrums and unbelievably poor kicks.

I really was expecting a better quality match, been as all you SH guys talk up your rugby so much. Maybe it's time to get off your high horses?

I appreciate good rugby wherever it's played, however this game was very disappointing. Let's hope the rest of the Super Rugby campaign is more entertaining...

He got what he deserved!! Hopefully he wont be in the world cup!! ;-)

Dave > the Rebels vs Tahs game was even worse. I lost count of the number of knock ons. It was so one sided too, poor to not even get 3 points on the board, should be interesting to see where they go from here.

Ma'a nonu is a class player when he wants to be but he's also a fucking idiot. 80% the latter more often than not. His bitching about wales standing up to the haka springs to mind.

Personally i wouldnt give his shirt the grace of wiping my arse with it.

As for NH vs SH, The way things are going now with citings and perfectly legitimate tackles being disciplined you wont be able to find a decent game with big hits to watch anywhere other than NFL.

(For the record i cant stand american football)

@Believer: did you not listen to the commentators in the video?

I believe that I heard them saying Cowan "milked it".

I think Bakkies Botha is a douchebag-and-a-half of a player, but the one moment I ever actually liked the guy was when he headbutted Cowan in the noggin. Cowan is the embodiment of an annoying/pestering scrumhalf.

I saw the Rebels game too. Waratahs were good, but not that good, yet they still won convincingly. I don't know if they're using rugby balls with less grip now in Super Rugby?

Rebels seemed to put all their forwards into every breakdown, leaving Cipriani very few options when he rarely did get the ball in space. It's a shame because i hoped he'd do well in Australia.

Oh well it's only the first day, let's hope the other teams aren't so rusty and can provide some great rugby for us to watch! If not it's only a week until we can watch England beat France :)

This is a disgrace. A player being carded for THAT!!! this would never happen in the SH, all you NH players and your soccer attitude with diving and milking stuff, you're all a disgrace, in the SH we.... Oh wait... This was SupeRugby?!?!

The SH vs. NH stuff on here gets so heated, sure a bit of light hearted banter is welcome but we're not soccer fans.

I started it. Sorry.
NH fan :)

' Anonymous said...
gosh what an atmosphere! i can see at least... 20 people in the stadium.

February 18, 2011 10:22 AM

Anonymous said...
^^^^^^

I can see at least...... 0 Northern Hemisphere teams competing for this years World Cup

February 18, 2011 10:27 AM'

That is how this bullshit all started... We can assume that if they are not the same person being a tool, that the second is most likely a SH fan... As for the first, it could either be a hurris hater or highlanders hater, or a NH little pleb just wanting a rise...

Either way the second comment just added a clear NH SH touch to it.....

And either way, they're both anonymous so let's admire good rugby from either hemisphere when it happens yeh?

Nah you didn't anonymous, I started it, it was stupid... Sorry guys... I'm a SH fan.

(:

I started it actually :) I'm gay.

@MagicMikey I'd wipe my arse with your mum's face again happily.

You twat

I don't know what's worse, the shoulder charge or the kicker missing the penalty

Filipe

sorry, im just trying to work this out.

The score at the end was 14-9 yeh? that suggests to me that two tries were scored, however, during the clip we see 11-6.

Therefore that means the highlanders must have scored 1 try, missed the conversion, then got the rest of their points from kicking penalties? and the hurricanes got all their points from kicking penalties?

Wasn't Super(10,12,14) supposed to be all about tries? I only know about this from what the fans say, but I thought you weren't even allowed to kick a penalty at goal? I thought it was only us lot up here that kick penalties?

Sorry its really confusing, only because, I am a scottish fan and when we drew with Australia and I was happy, I (and my fellow fans) got lots of abuse because we didnt score a try in that game and only kicked penalties. Then we were directed to the Super rugby tournament at the time it was Super14 i believe, and were told this is how rugby is played, and told that its try after try after try, but I only see 1 try in this game?

Wee Jimmy > Check out the Tahs and Rebels game, plenty of tries there, shame it was for only one team, nice and competative. Haha.

Nonu: As thick as a plank, and as thick as,..well a plank.

I can't believe how many comments this clip has got in comparison to an actual skilled passage of rugby that the video previous (Sean Lamont) shows.

Seriously guys.

Lots of knock-ons and bad hands, but its the first week of the season. That's normal. It'll get better pretty quickly.
Regardless of whether Cowan milked it or not, Nonu made late contact with his shoulder and up near the head and he was late. These days, that's yellow.

To be fair I'm on a lot of rugby forums and (not all, but) a large majority of SH fans are very quick to dismiss NH rugby as being inferior and have an elitist attitude about SH rugby and quite often claim that the Super 14/15 is the benchmark for how rugby should be played, scoring tries, attacking rugby etc but in reality is looks no more entertaining or better than any NH game I have seen this season, in fact this round of games has looked a hell of a lot poorer than most NH games I have seen - handling errors, knock ons, school boy errors....that's what plenty of SH fans were slating Ireland, Wales and Scotland for over the past couple of weeks on many forums, claiming they and NH rugby were sh*t etc etc, oh what what happens...the sacred Super 15 starts and surprise surprise, it's just as bad, if not worse. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for giving criticism where due and teams like Ireland deserved a lot of it after handing a poor French team a victory last week, but don't go on that the SH is far above the NH because you will get a humbling, like S15 rugby did this week.

30k attendance for a club match is nothing to be proud of for a NATIONAL SPORT. In fact it's pathetic. And what's more 30k seems to be the upper end of the scale, I would be surprised if there was more than 5000 at the hurricanes game. Rugby is the 3rd (was 4th) national sport in Ireland and we have on occasion got 82k capacity into a CLUB rugby match, and regularly got 50k and the national team was selling out the same 82k stadium (croke park - before we moved back to the aviva), each game for years without fail and tickets were still like gold dust. When I look at SH friendly or test matches they will be lucky to get 25 - 30k for international games. Also worth considering that Ireland are a nation of comparable size to NZ and have gaelic football and hurling ahead of rugby. Both are vastly more supported, in fact I'd say rugby only has 5%-10% penetration of the population, whereas every small town, community and city in Ireland has one or several Gaelic/Hurling clubs in their locality. The atmosphere at most SH games looks shocking, apart from the Currie Cup final in South Africa which draws a crowd to be proud of.

There is no doubt that SH international teams have performed better than NH in times gone by, the all blacks least year looked a class above everyone else, but in SH rugby there are a hell of a lot of areas that it lacks, so stop going on as if it's the holy grail of rugby, when in fact it's poorly attended and often poorly played.

This is why the ABs selectors very much have SBW in mind for the #12 jersey -- he doesn't suffer from the bouts of pure insanity that Nonu does.

Anyone else notice how awful Cruden was in this game? Henry has to look at other options to back up Carter.

Wait, why are people complaining about Cowans reaction? He got a shoulder to the face (and not any shoulder, Nonus shoulder...) He didnt dive", he was just man enough to get up and laugh at the fact that his fellow All Black did that to him. As for Nonu, he does stupid stuff like this all the time (offside constantly, annoys the hell out of me) and thats why I hope to see Sonny Bill starting a bit more for the ABs.

The way things are going now with citings and perfectly legitimate tackles being disciplined you wont be able to find a decent game with big hits to watch anywhere other than NFL."

.......

And the NRL(Rugby Legue).. In fairness this was still late and high and wouldn't be tolerated in League, probably be a citing

Jimmy Cowans the kind of player that will repeatedly keep having little quiet digs at you (behind the referee) then shouts 'REF' just as you swing at him only to have the referee see you punch him in the face.

He is the sort of 'cut of your nose to spite your face' kind of guy.

I don't quite get the attendance thing. Firstly, people saying 30,000 is bad are wrong.

30,000 for a game of rugby is an excellent crowd, be it the national sport or not. New Zealand is a small country, the people aren't as wealthy as Europe, there's no historical rivalries in the S15 etc. etc... there's just no reason to go.

A Heineken Cup game rarely gets 20k, let alone 30, and the times when they do are games that are either finals, hyped, moved to big stadiums and or have ridiculously cheap ticket prices.

Having said that, the crowd in the caketin was poor for the opening Friday night of the S15. I'd suggest that something needs to be done to get attendances averaging around 20,000, which is a good number for rugby.

Nonu and Coward, eh Cowan, are in the same AllBlack team, aren't they?! Nice way to screw each other over then. I mean, Nonu probably deserved a card but Cowan shouldn't be laughing out loud about it either. He can start a great carreer in soccer with that attitude.

As a NH fan, and supposedly a sworn enemy of the SH fans, (yeh, right)

I am somewhat in agreeance with the anonymous above.

I'd like to pose a question to you all. How many rugby matches (professional such as Internationals, baa baas, heinekin cups, superrugby, top 14) etc...you know, rugby with people who are famous, have you been to?

I for one can count the amount of professional matches I have been to on one hand.

My reasoning? I spent 50 something quid on the ticket (well i lie, it was a present, but someone spent 50 something quid.) I probably spent about 50 in travel, car there, car back, parking etc... 20-40 of *Stuff* (food/drinks) and then what? I watched most of the game on the big screen because I couldnt even see who was who on the pitch...

...now I know its an awful attitude and im not a great example, but heck, I'd rather sit in the comfort of my own home, with all the food I prepared beforehand close by, endless drinks, no q's for toilets at half time, on my own tv, with a great angle and at less expense...

Like i said, appalling attitude, but why would I pay for a 'not as good view'? (especially as ticket prices and everything else increases!)geez, its not rocket science guys...i totally get why crowds tend to dwindle...

lol, guy, thats nothing, check out Ali Williams trampling all over Richie McCaws head....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpnIenTjXUU

View Video

Maybe everyone on here needs to learn a thing or two about NZ rugby and realise Nonu and Cowan are friends and its a game... what happens on the field stays on the field. Not everyone holds grudges like alot of the people on here that obviously do

GRRR! My hemisphere's better than yours!
*INSERT MANLY ARGUMENTS*
*state figures to support whining*
etc

Get a life, everyone hates that BS.

True statement, Sam.

It's unfortunate, but you're right. I'd gladly pay 100 to go see a rugby over in Europe, but that'd be a one-time thing.

It's the same reason I don't go see NFL games. I'm not shelling out $75 unless it's a game I really care about (or really, a game that I care about saying "I was there" more so than actually seeing the thing).

I don't give two shits about baseball, but when tickets are less than $10, why on earth wouldn't I go see a few games a year?

I just wish rugby were that accessible. The cheapest game I've gone to was a $20 match between USA Select XV and the Argentina Jaguars....and that was worth it just because I couldn't see it on tv.

14 - 9 ; I love this high scoring, non-penalty driven super rugby!

Exactly Jay. There is the whole 'atmosphere' thing which I get (I've been to the HK 7's) but really, it's not my thing, it's just too expensive. I don't get hot/cold/wet/sweaty/hungry/thirsty etc sitting at home getting the best angles available for no cost (other than a tv licence I already paid for!)

If rugby was a few dollars/pounds a match then they'd have q's from the ticket office in NZ to here in England for any games! (like baseball) and then people would go for the atmosphere and for the game.

Interesting point actually, does anyone know how many people were at THAT game, how much ticket prices were, and how big the stadium is?

I only ask because I wonder if the prices we are faced with to watch these matches are the minimum they can afford (to cover costs etc) or whether they're being cheeky f*ckers!!!

how did he miss the kick??!!

I think that the attendance looks worse than it actually is due to the New Zealanders expanding their stadiums to handle the world cup crowds, which are expected to be much larger than the clubs normally get on a regular basis. After all, 20,000 fans packed into a stadium with a 19,000 seat capacity looks more impressive than 20,000 fans scattered about a stadium seating 60,000, but, it's still 20,000 fans either way.

Sam,

Attendance at the Hurricanes - Highlanders game was 11,091. Got the stats from http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/4677824/Highlanders-upset-Hurricanes-in-Wellington

When was the last regular round Super rugby match that attracted 77,000 fans? (HEC record attendance for a normal pool game between SF and Quins)

The overall record is the 83,000 fans that attended a semi between Leinster and Munster (Ireland has the same population as New Zealand).

(Ticket prices for both of those games were more than any Super rugby match).

lol what are these NH noobs crying about. wow Chris Ashton is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NdEMLLTpL0

View Video

Yeah, Anonymous, and those are one-off events.

What a dumbshit thing to have a pissing contest about...attendance records?

Good grief...

According to the all-knowing internet, it looks like the (then known as) Super 14 leads attendance averages, followed by the Heineken Cup, followed by domestic leagues, I'm sure. And it does look like the 6N leads the 3N.

But again...who gives a crap? I certainly wouldn't be going to games if every match I wanted to see was $50...hell, even if it's more than $20, I'd only be going once every now and then.

So what's your point?

Just trying to add to the debate about crowd sizes, and am wondering if the crowd sizes are smaller in NZ because of the amount of rugby played - interested in any feedback.

From what I can see NZ has four domestic competitions (that does not even include club / community rugby), Super Rugby is only one of those 4 competitions. That is a hell of a lot of rugby for a nation of only 4 million. With a huge amount of rugby available, you can pick and choose what rugby to go and see.

I tried to find out how many competitions Ireland has but could not find it, perhaps someone else can help me out here. I think the answer to this question may possibly shed a little light on the crowd size question.

Anonymous, pick a name, call yourself mr.x or whatever so it's not confusing. Whilst a few people are trying to debate I think most are trying to 'understand' as I said before, I prefer the comfort of my home.

Because most of the teams in super rugby are newish teams, there isn't the banter between them, like munster/Leinster etc...

I don't think Cowan milked it at all, might have been ebarassment, looked like a big hit to me. Hate the soccerisation of rugby, it's a better game than that.

All the NH fans commenting on the crowds, comment on the AUSTRALIASIAN CROWDS, not the South African Crowds, the Bulls, stormers and sharks get 50-60k every week.

lol SA tickets cost one wood carving and some beads per game

Blues v Crusaders, big game in NZ, national sport...spot the full rows of fans. Darts gets bigger crowds

Pity Nonu didn't hit him harder. That's what Cowan needs. But don't worry Nonu won't be banned, as it will be K$K, biased New Zealand officials!!!!

Lol to the anon, SA tickets cost more than you're worth. SARU = Richest union in the world.

Top South African sides draw the most people in world rugby, they also have the biggest and best stadiums in the world, that's why the soccer world cup was held there. 100k stadiums, jealous bitch.

Whats with all this 'who has the bigger crowds & NH vs SH' crap. Nobody cares what any of you think. NERDS!!

cheeky Jimmy Cowan, but hey, he's a scrum half, what else could you expect??

the ref made the right call, in the sense that a shoulder charge to the head in the motion of kicking results in a yellow card,

shame Ma'a Nonu had already been carded, but he should no better (indeed he already features on RD for several such charges, check out RB&TS he's in there)
and also he should know better, as such behaviour used to slow down his All Black career a couple of years ago

Anonymous said...
Lol to the anon, SA tickets cost more than you're worth. SARU = Richest union in the world.

Top South African sides draw the most people in world rugby, they also have the biggest and best stadiums in the world, that's why the soccer world cup was held there. 100k stadiums, jealous bitch.

yeah and if your really lucky on your visit you might get carjacked mugged beaten up or even killed for your wrist watch

'Lol to the anon, SA tickets cost more than you're worth. SARU = Richest union in the world.'

Is that why there was such an outrage over the ticket prices for the British Lions games? South Africans were complaining about having to pay 50+ per ticket.

Tri-Nations tickets cost between 8-30, good luck getting ticket for England v France for 8.

In reference to the soccer World Cup, FIFA twice had to inject extra capital to help fund the stadiums for a tournament that was deemed by a lot of fans to be the worst ever (most citing those terrible plastic horns for ruining any chance of an atmosphere). Everyone knows it was only awarded as a gimmick to begin with, got to be nice to poor old Africa.

RD I think we should just stop comments all together, its ruining the website by making it look like a gathering place for 15 year olds to come and throw childish insults at each other. I remember when the website first started there was no bickering like we are seeing on this comment board. There was a bit of banter but it was good natured, as banter between rugby fans SHOULD be

Agree with the previous comment, it's morelike a football/soccer forum at the mo.

NORTHERN MONKEYS

It'll be better come the day when you've got to register to make comments. At least then, the children who'd wish to remain anonymous have a harder time saying such garbage.

I like the comments. Sure it devolves into bickering often. I live in a place where rugby is not on tv. I've learned alot by listening to the guys' opinions.

Passion is a big part of rugby. Just cut out insults and profanity.

LOVE THIS WEBSITE!

The stupidity level would drop once you ban the unrefined Kiwis, Aussies and South Africans. You can't blame them, the internet is still a new and exciting luxury for them in their wooden shacks.

Come on guys, some of these comments are completely distasteful and an insult to the hard work that's done on this website. Please try exercise some self control.

Thanks.

While I don't think Nonu is a dirty player, he's prone to recklessness at times and this is a prime illustration...
Perhaps Cowan wasn't as badly hurt and as he seemed, there's no way u can justify going in with shoulders first. That's just not how u do a charge down and I think red for reckless play is fair. Whether it will suffice will depend on how he deducts his defence...

nonu is a muppet at times.

Sonny Bill will have his AB place nailed down in no time if he keeps doing stupid stuff like this. Plus SBW is better

I would love for the slow-mo shoulder to Cowan's head to be made into an animated gif. It'd be made into an avatar for sure.

lol ^^^

This is another nonu's big hit.

Very Impressive!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

View Video

^ I like what you did there

Anyone else think we should have a champions league style set up where top teams from England, SA, NZ and Australia play each other? P.s. stop the bitching and RD it's your site and think you should start deleting non clip related/trolling comments. :)

Nope Jimbo, I do not. Champions league=Soccer
Rugby>Soccer
Rugbydump comments= Soccer comments

So the less like soccer we become maybe the greater chance that:

Rugbydump comments will once again be > Soccer comments....

They only delete the anti SH comments. Feel free to post what you want about the north (little country syndrome).

Well, for me the comment section has lost it.

I used to enjoy watching the vids then actually discussing stuff on RD....then when the trolls came in at least they were only a handful. Now it seems there are more idiotic comments than genuine ones.

I mean now even the genuine comments seem to sound more idiotic... Luckily I haven't read one yet, but I am surprised that no one has one off on a rant about how this shouldn't be a card. Although part of me feels that if this was in a NH game, the majority of comments would be along the lines of 'this would never be a card in the SH.' and half you NH bunch, i've seen a couple genuine attendance questions but most of you are just bitching about the crowds....

It is pretty pathetic that this is said time and time again, but how is it that the one thing we ALL have in common, is the one thing we all use against each other...we all love rugby but it seems that no one wants the other hemisphere to be playing it because they don't seem to play 'we' play....

I don't expect this will make any difference to most of you trolls, but I think you'll find it more constructive to actually remove your heads from you behinds before posting and perhaps try having a civil conversation...

It's actually quite a good experiment on human behaviour. Because i'm sure most of the people writing these comments are nice as pie when in public but behind the anonymity of a computer people turn into bitches. I wonder why that is? I'm not innocent of this either but I'm wondering if there is something in our basic instincts that makes us do this. Competitiveness? Territorial?

And on the video, Nonu is a silly boy. I don't know much about either player but Jimmy Cowan just took a shoulder to the head (a Nonu shoulder!), there's no evidence of him milking it. He's got back up and Nonu got carded, is he not entitled to a smile?

The comments section will need to change to a sign in only type deal. It has been pretty poor here for a while now.

Go the Chiefs?

cowan has short-man-syndrome! Annoying little runt!

@DaveJ,
Your comment about munster weekly attendances is, to put it mildly, an exaggeration.
(i) They don't play matches every week
(ii) Thomond Park, which is where they play most, but not all, games has a capacity of about 25,000. The other location have lower crowd capacities.

Likewise, Leinster's RDS ground capacity is about 18.5k.

You can make a valid point without going OTT.

There are only 4 professional teams in Ireland, that leaves alot of people to fill relatively few seats. I do like Munster and Irish rugby but please be realistic! At the same time it must be said that i'd expect to see more people watching games in NZ, where i've heard rugby described as a religion.

Another full house at the wespac!

The worst thing about this clip is the penelty kick, WTF.

To the Irish statistics fans, don't you think that, just maybe, it's partly to do with the fact that you can drive to any part of ireland in 2-3 hours max? That's a little different to a Hurricanes - Highlanders game.

And for those (rightly) criticising the quality of the match, check out the Blues-Crusaders game. There are great and rubbish games in every competition.

whinge whinge whinge, whine whine whine.

it's partly to do with the fact that you can drive to any part of ireland in 2-3 hours max?

Point of information: this isn't true, although starting from the centre, probably 5 hours would be more-or-less doable (Athlone to Caherciveen, or Athlone to the Inishowen peninsula). That would be my guess anyway.

How the hell did we get sidetracked into the geography lessons? Big hit there from Nonu - probably deserved the red for being a) late and b) a shoulder, but on another day he'd have gotten a yellow for that.

Anyone else think we should have a champions league style set up where top teams from England, SA, NZ and Australia play each other? P.s. stop the bitching and RD it's your site and think you should start deleting non clip related/trolling comments. :)

Good one Jimmy. Why exclude the top European teams from you champions league?

The average attendence of the Heineken Cup last year was roughly 15,000 per game.
The average attendence of the Super14 last year was roughly 20,000.

Super 14 has the highest atendence of any non-international (non-international side) competition in the world.
Which is why it's very strange when people comment on the attendences.

But anyway, back to the video, I think there wasn't too much in this, but Nonu should have pulled out.
Only reason it was a red is that None had already gotten on the bad side of the ref.

And it's not 'thuggery', Nonu and Cowen are mates.

Oh, and for people trying to mock So0uth Africa for having poverty, are you guys for real?
Do you know anything about history or economics? Muppets.

If you want to get spiteful, the Australian economy is far stronger than any European countries at the moment, it's the only western country that didn't go into recession in the last few years.

But what the hell does that have to do with rugby.

Besides attendences at South African Super rugby games are far above any European rugby competition.

What does any of that have to do with Nonu shoulder charging Cowen though?

Dave, the Waratahs are one of the favorites for the competiton.
Their team is close to a Wallabies team, you know the same wallabies team that beat France 59-14.
The Rebels were playing their first game ever, there's no surprise they got well beaten.
You've got a backline with Barnes and Burgess in the halves, two junior Wallby centres in Horne (who's also capped) and Carter, and three of the best finishers in the entire game in Drew Mitchell, Kurtley Beale and Lachlan Turner. Tries are no problem for these guys.
And their forward pack is tough too, their game is really focussed on tough defence and set-pieces.

It's a good point about the Rebels bunching in the middle of the pitch.
They have only had about five games together ever so they were trying to keep it simple and drive guys like Mortlock, Vuna, Delve and Somervile up the middle of the park.
The Wartahs were just too good for that.
And Cipriani was ineffectual, his passing was slow, and he didn;t threaten the line. To be fair his pack didn;t help him.

Attendance blah blah blah.
Imagine re-opening your national stadium after a multi million rebuild. Playing the World Champs and calling the occasion "rugby is coming home", only for 35k to show up.
Yes Ireland, your attendances are fantastic.

@ Mike, firstly I'd love it to be MY champions league style competetion but unfortunately I don't have the funds for such an event and secondly it wasn't intentional to leave out the other NH competetions I just couldn't be bothered and presumed that people would include them in the competition automatically. My mistake, your fault. And the anon below my previous comment...it's called Football :)

@ anonymous two above.

to purchase a ticket for that game you also had to buy a ticket to the samoa game,with an overall price of 200 euro.i don't know about your country,but that's just a little bit excessive for the average income of the irish rugby fan.

I hate the Highlanders player clapping when Nonu gets sent off and Cowan laughing.

Where has the gentlemanly aspect of rugby gone? Getting more like soccer every day.

This is why the refs must be strict on the Kiwis during the RWC as this is the cheap shit they will hand out to win at all costs

off the topic:

Just would like to present my sincere condoleances to the New Zeeland people following the devastating earthquake.

^ Agree with the above.

Re the hit - yellow card no question.

Second yellow, therefore red, no question.

Can't see that there's any issue with it.