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South African fans are still not happy with Marika Koroibete after latest hit
By Sam Smith
Marika Koroibete continued his run of dishing out punishing tackles with a beaut on his opposite number Caleb Clarke in the first Bledisloe Cup test in Melbourne.
Chasing a kick into the All Blacks backfield early in the first half, Clarke had to jump in the air to catch a high bounce which left him slightly vulnerable to a charging Koroibete.
The Wallabies wing timed his contact perfectly and smashed Clarke over backward just after the All Black landed back on the Marvel Stadium turf. Pinned near his own try line, Australia almost turned the ball over with a counter-ruck.
Listed at 107kg, Clarke is no slight figure to move highlighting the force that Koroibete can bring at speed.
Clarke became the second winger to feature in a Koroibete highlight tackle in this Rugby Championship after Springbok Makazole Mapimpi was stopped in a heavy collision near the goal line in Adelaide.
South African fans were less than impressed with the Wallabies left wing, feeling aggrieved that the flying Fijian failed to wrap his arms in the contact in this week's tackle.
Replays of Koroibete's tackle did show an attempt to wrap both arms around Clarke but the All Black bounced off Koroibete in the process.
What about this Illegal tackle from Koroibete... he makes no attempt to wrap his arms just shoulder vibes it's becoming a habit from him pic.twitter.com/M3SFQm3BjX
— Lord Stig-rus (@Lord_Stirus) September 15, 2022
There seemed to be no issues with the Clarke tackle from Kiwi fans or journos, with New Zealand Herald writer Chris Reive describing the hit as 'beautiful'.
The Koroibete tackle that was raised by New Zealander fans in the social media court of opinion was an aerial challenge on Will Jordan that went unpunished late in the game.
The All Blacks right wing fielded a kick in the air before having his legs taken out by a reckless Koroibete challenge. Referee Mathieu Raynal let play go on and the tackle was not reviewed at the time.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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