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Sonny Bill Williams praises 'special' Crusaders but fans upset at sly dig
The Crusaders won their seventh Super Rugby title in a row at FMG Stadium over the in-form Chiefs but the home crowd was left feeling hard done by Ben O’Keeffe and the match officials.
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Boos rang out around the ground from the Waikato crowd during the post-match presentations, something even Chiefs head coach Clayton McMillan referred to in his post-match comments.
“I don’t want to bag the referee. The crowd did that at the end of the game, maybe that says something,” he told the media.
Former All Black Sonny Bill Williams, who represented both the Crusader and Chiefs during his career, also weighed in with an unfiltered view of the game and took aim at the referee.
Williams, who was a Super Rugby champion with the Chiefs, praised two ‘best ever’ Crusaders in Sam Whitelock and Richie Mo’unga in their last game’s for the club.
But the 37-year-old signed off with a dig towards O’Keeffe, saying the most influential man on the field ‘was not a player’, a reference to the whistle blower.
7 championships is special. What a way to send off the two best players I believe to have ever donned a Crusaders jersey in big Sammy and the uso Ritchie.
Only downside to what was a special contest was the most influential man on the field not being a player. #CHIvCRU…
— Sonny Bill Williams (@SonnyBWilliams) June 24, 2023
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Williams’ public expression of criticism was not well received by fans and media who did not like to see a former All Black blame the man in the middle.
Only downside I see is a former player of this stature coming out and blaming the ref.
Great match, Chiefs their own worst enemies. https://t.co/jy60g0wko8
— Dewi Preece (@DewiPreece1) June 24, 2023
Won't wear a BNZ logo but will publicly attack a referee? Weird moral code this one. https://t.co/9PGDVG8Fo8
— Mark Currie (@MarkCurrieNZ) June 24, 2023
The Chiefs ended up on the wrong side of a 15-6 penalty count and received three yellows at separate times, playing 30 minutes of the game down to 14 men.
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Anton Lienert-Brown can consider himself somewhat lucky to only have recieved a yellow for his shot on Dallas McLeod as the tackle was cited following the game as being of the red card threshold.
But the biggest call that upset McMillan was a missed forward pass in the passage before Richie Mo’unga try which gave the visitors a 15-10 halftime lead.
“I honestly think the biggest call, momentum-swinger, was what I thought was a clear and obvious forward pass just before halftime,” he said.
“That gives us a scrum, we apply some pressure down that end of the field. [Instead], they score off the play after. That’s a big moment.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
10 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
81 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
81 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
5 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
10 Go to comments