Clearly not a forward pass, but we weren’t great anyway and should have won the game before that. After showing amazing form at the start of the season we haven’t looked great since the loss to the tahs.

Scott Barrett totally dominated physically and at set piece by etzebeth, he’s never going to be big enough to be a dominant international lock.

We missed Reads presence from last week, Whetu Douglas and Romano showed good physicality when they came on. I think Douglas has surpassed Taufua as our best 6.

Backline looked way better with ennor on instead of Crotty (who looked slow). Ennor is going to be a great player, he’s improved so much this year.

Ollie Jager is a weakling.

If a Stormer threw that pass and it wasn't called forward there would be a meltdown on here. It went two metres forward.

That last high tackle he hit him on the chin.

The real crime was why the hell didn't the Crusaders take the 3 right on halftime. Turning down 3 and going for a lineout drive after the hooter was super dumb and high risk. Same error the Blues made last week.

Bloody good crowd. A real atmosphere.

Very poor call from the TMO - no big deal in the greater scheme of Super rugby 2019, but in a World Cup knock out match, worse than Wayne Barnes.

It's somewhat concerning how much the Crusaders have struggled with the physicality of the Jaapies in the last few weeks, given the number of All Blacks in our pack. That Peter Steph du Toit is a bloody good blindside.

I guess the scrum was always going to be a worry with three of our top four props out. Bower struggled to keep it up - Allan and Jager are currently no better than NPC props and Jager possibly only a bench prop at that level. After three years in the squad, he should be able to step up to replace Owen Franks, but he's clearly not ready for that.

First 20 minutes were terrible from the Crusaders - full of forced and unforced errors. Looked like they'd found some form through the middle stages and were about to run away with it. Stormers hung in there, but in the last 10 minutes we should have scored twice (did of course score once) as we started opening them up a bit.

No Crusaders stand out as having great games - Bridge, Ennor and Whitelock probably the best.

@KiwiMurph feels like we have entered the Twilight Zone and gong back a dozen or so years with that discussion...

@Stargazer Jonker does not know or understand the Law that makes a forward pass a forward pass if anyone thinks the Ennor pass to Reece was forward you are a complete idiot and have know idea what constitutes a Forward pass.

@Chris To be fair, one of the reasons people become rugby referees is because it's not rocket science.

"Ground control to Marius, you've missed your re-entry window by 40,000 kilometres!"

Marius to Ground control, "I don't understand. I've been very keffle with my kalkulation".

@KiwiMurph said in Stormers v Crusaders:

If a Stormer threw that pass and it wasn't called forward there would be a meltdown on here. It went two metres forward.

That last high tackle he hit him on the chin.

The real crime was why the hell didn't the Crusaders take the 3 right on halftime. Turning down 3 and going for a lineout drive after the hooter was super dumb and high risk. Same error the Blues made last week.

Bloody good crowd. A real atmosphere.

You'd hope there wasn't.

It was clearly back relative to the passer.

It's not rocket science, but it is physics.

@KiwiMurph Now now don't ruin the mood, it's the cool thing to do to blame the officials on this forum. I thought the pass was ok but shit happens, move on and still, the Crusaders had plenty of time to wrap the game up regardless of that call.

@African-Monkey is a difference between blaming an official and calling them out when they are blatantly wrong, which some people dont think we should do...people can abuse players for playing rubbish, but not officials.

@taniwharugby said in Stormers v Crusaders:

@African-Monkey is a difference between blaming an official and calling them out when they are blatantly wrong, which some people dont think we should do...people can abuse players for playing rubbish, but not officials.

Yeah agree, refs should be a protected species on the field, and everyone should respect that, but this is a forum and they're fair game to cop the shit the players cop.

@taniwharugby We'll agree to disagree. Don't get me wrong they're human and make howlers at times but I feel that it's a cop out to blame them a lot of the time when personally I'd rather focus on what the players/coaches are doing wrong instead.

@African-Monkey Which is influenced by the incompetent. officials

@African-Monkey so you are ok with pointing out what players/coaches do wrong, but not officials?

I could put this in the Highlanders thread too...

@Machpants A rather damming Article. you could also as far as terrible Referring performances add Pickerall and O'Keefe who have been highlighted as being Shit this year and the standard of officials this season has been shocking.
I would hate to see The SR or WC Finals decided by these incompetent muppets,Or Some Northern Hempishere muppets the French officials come to mind.

@SammyC said in Stormers v Crusaders:

Scott Barrett totally dominated physically and at set piece by etzebeth, he’s never going to be big enough to be a dominant international lock.

We missed Reads presence from last week, Whetu Douglas and Romano showed good physicality when they came on. I think Douglas has surpassed Taufua as our best 6.

They probably should have started Douglas at 8 when Read pulled out - simply to give us a bit more height in the lineout.

I think Read's been the world's best third lineout option for a number of years and it's easy to take the work he does there for granted. Whitelock, Read and Scott Barrett is a pretty useful jumping unit - especially if there's a 'decent fourth jumping option playing blindside - e.g. Douglas.

But, Barrett, Blackadder, Todd and Taufua are lacking height compared to those big Jaapie units.

I think the only steal we got was Whitelock late in the game- when Romano was on and Barrett had gone to blindside. A bit more height pressure.

Just seen the so called forward pass leading up to the Sevu Reece try..to me it was not clear and obvious..Saders can feel very hard done by..TMO had already made his mind up.

@taniwharugby Yeah tbh. Take the refs out of the equation bydominating your opponents in the first place.

@African-Monkey said in Stormers v Crusaders:

@taniwharugby Yeah tbh. Take the refs out of the equation bydominating your opponents in the first place.

See to me that is a bit of a cop out.

So what happens when two teams that are evenly matched and play to their ability and it’s a close contest? The ref is still very much part of the game still.

Anyway in relation to this game there weren’t many opportunities for either side with both bringing a strong defensive game. Lots of errors from both sides and it felt like a playoff game.