Vikings upstage Spirit

[JediKnight]

Bet Pek wished they'd suspended him after last week's citing now!!

[Evie]

Because of the late finish the story didn't make the Saturday papers over here... Not that it was news I really wanted to hear! Though it does bring up an interesting point about the injuries and fatigue.

Vikings' pleasure and pain
Julia Whyte - The Canberra Times

THE Canberra Vikings could be without hooker Saia Faingaa and inside-centre Gene Fairbanks for the rest of the Australian Rugby Championship after both players limped from the field with injuries on Friday night.

The Vikings scored an upset win against title favourites Perth Spirit in the second round of the competition but injuries to the ACT Brumbies Super 14 players marred the hard-fought 17-8 victory.

The side arrived back in Canberra last night and Faingaa and Fairbanks will undergo further tests in the coming days, but coach Nick Scrivener expected both players to be out for a number of weeks, and perhaps the remainder of the season.

Faingaa came off in the 30th minute of the match with a hamstringstrain, while an ankle injury forced Fairbanks to the sidelines with 20 minutes to go.

The duo join a long list of players who have been sidelined by injury in the first two rounds of the competition. Scrivener suggested the increased physical pressure on the players and the faster game due to the new laws may be taking their toll.

"It's interesting ... I'm not sure if it's because the running loads are increased or what, but there's been a lot of injuries so far, most teams are suffering injuries," he said.

"Talking to our medical staff the potential for injuries is going to increase just because the players are under so much more fatigue.

"There's soft tissue injuries because of the running load and also just being actually fatigued and all the attacking at the breakdown and they get their knees and all sorts of things in funny positions ... I hope it doesn't continue."

Aside from the injuries, the Vikings had an impressive night, bouncing back from their 32-27 loss to the Melbourne Rebels the previous weekend.

Flanker Jack Vanderglas, who won ACT rugby's MacDougall Medal for premier division's best and fairest player on Friday night, earned man of the match honours despite spending 10 minutes in the sin bin for back-chatting the referee. It was one of three yellow cards for the Vikings who finished the game with 13 players after Nick Haydon and Peter Kimlin were sent to the sin bin.

Vanderglas and Julian Salvi wreaked havoc at the breakdown and Matt Carraro capitalised on some good work from the Vikings backline to score under the posts.

Christian Lealiifano scored the team's other try after picking up a loose ball from Perth and running away to score untouched.

Scrivener said the team had produced a better performance than against Melbourne, but needed to continue improving if it was to win the competition.

The Vikings play the Ballymore Tornadoes in round three at Manuka Oval next Sunday.

[gotheforce]

If anyone goes to club bay view in Claremont, you'd find Ratu working there as a bouncer. And a pretty bloody scary one as well. Didn't know it was him until the conversation switched to rugby and he mentioned he was in the Perth Spirit.

And the ref for the night, Andrew Lindsay, is actually a WA ref. He's living in perth now and does all our 1st grade games. So if he has to favour a team, shouldn't it be the Spirit. But then again, he had a pretty bad game on friday.

[Ecky]

Not defending anyone, BUT.... Yes, Andrew Lindsay is now based in Perth, and yes he (obviously) does 1st grade games (he doesn't do "all our 1st grade games" but, just one game per week!), but he, like the Spirit, has had quite limited exposure to the ELV's in match conditions. I guess it's a learning curve for him as well as the players.

Also, I was rather bemused that a bloke who was sin-binned was awarded/voted man of the match! I'd have thought a yellw card might have cost him some votes......

[travelling_gerry]

I agree Ecky...was very surprised at that.....

[frontrow]

I once got sin binned in a game against Merrylands back east, of which i was having an absolute blinder, but in the first scrum the opposite prop collapsed the first scrum and as i was getting back to my feet he grabbed both my ears and kneed me full on in the face....Well, you can guess i wasn't too pleased with that and proceeded to retaliate( rather well i might add) until my second rower grabbed my arm behind my head to stop me throwing them, giving the other bastard free range on my scone, so i elbowed my second rower and got back into it with the opposite number....Anyway, needless to say i was pretty pissed off after that and proceeded to play one of the best games of my life, but also one of the dirtiest games of my life....Now the reason i am telling this yarn is that after the match concluded and we beat the bunch of thugs, we formed a group and warmed down while the coach backslapped and banter was abounding, apart from myself who backed up for first grade, but before i left i was informed that i was by far the choice for best on ground that day, but seeing as how the award was actually for best and fairest, i was declared to be ineligable to receive the award as i had most certainly not been at my most squeaky clean fairest....(ps...the second rower i elbowed agreed he deserved it later over a few beers)
So what i am trying to say is that if you are carded you should reneg on your right to accept the award in the sense that the award should be based on the sporting theme of Best and Fairest....
That is my take anyway...

[Jamie_S]

I was sure the ground announcer called them the Canberra Bikies at one point!

[Burgs]

I guess it comes down to the definition then, certainly I was surprised when told he had won.
Through Juniors etc to my knowledge it is always "Best & Fairest" (or vice versa) but I'm pretty sure the title for S14 and ARC is "Player of the Year" so maybe the fairness aspect isn't part of Pro Rugby.
Would be a sad day if that has become the case.
Titles like "Best on Ground" and "Man of the Match" could be interpreted either way too.

[shasta]

I was sure the ground announcer called them the Canberra Bikies at one point!

A tad better than the ABC newsreader who had the "Perth Vikings taking on Canberra at MES tonight"

[shasta]

Titles like "Best on Ground"

That's an AFL-ism isn't it? It sounds more like a "dunce" award when they give it the usual abbreviation "BOG". Gotta love that

[Burgs]

BOGs and MOMs
I think it came about when you weren't allowed to man and men anymore...

[brokendown gunfighter]

Not defending anyone, BUT.... Yes, Andrew Lindsay is now based in Perth, and yes he (obviously) does 1st grade games (he doesn't do "all our 1st grade games" but, just one game per week!), but he, like the Spirit, has had quite limited exposure to the ELV's in match conditions. I guess it's a learning curve for him as well as the players.

Also, I was rather bemused that a bloke who was sin-binned was awarded/voted man of the match! I'd have thought a yellw card might have cost him some votes......

what was he carded for? a bit of friendly banter with the ref ,perhaps?

[JediKnight]

Just a litany of errors, if you ask me.

[Ecky]

I was sure the ground announcer called them the Canberra Bikies at one point!

Nah, he just had a posh voice. Sort of.

I was in the announcer's box (I was the one feeding him the lines about "Experimental Law variation: At a scrum all non-oarticipants must be 5 metres from the hindmost foot" etc.) And was trying to help him with some of the players' name pronunciations as well, but can't really help how he says "Canberra Vikings"...

(By the way that bloke is an ABC bloke - a producer I think he said)