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Highlanders run riot in Smith's landmark appearance
By Peter Thompson
Malakai Fekitoa scored a try in each half as Highlanders thrashed Rebels 51-12 in Aaron Smith's 100th Super Rugby game on Friday.
Highlanders had to come from behind to beat Brumbies last Saturday, easing to victory at a canter six days later in Dunedin against a Rebels side that has now lost five in a row.
New Zealand scrum-half Smith pulled the strings in his landmark appearance as Tony Brown's men put on a show despite the absence of injured captain Ben Smith, running in six tries at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Rebels made far too many sloppy errors in the first half and were somewhat fortunate to only trail 20-0 at the break after Fekitoa powered his way over and Luke Whitelock took a lovely offload from Tom Franklin to go under the posts.
#Legend pic.twitter.com/dC7EsVNRDL
— The Highlanders (@Highlanders) March 31, 2017
Richard Buckman and Gareth Evans also got in on the act with five-pointers after the break as Rebels continued to be guilty of basic errors, while centre Fekitoa helped himself to a double with a late intercept try.
Tom English and Reece Hodge came up with consolation tries for Rebels, but they were blown away and Marty Banks' 19-point haul with the boot ensured Highlanders racked up a half-century as they coasted to a third win in four games.
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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