As I watched on not knowing when to cheer and itching to shout out 'Too high!' and 'Legged!' I couldn't help but be impressed by the Wallabies and All Blacks ferocious tackling. While a lot of what I saw would be considered illegal in our game deep down I desperately wished we could lay a tackle half as well as they could.
It was no less than 24 hours later on a warm August afternoon battling Brisbane at the Gabba I found myself happily applauding our own tough tackling. It was the same sort of intensity that saw us over the line last weekend against the Power.
There in itself was a vital part of the cog we had been missing all season up until the past fortnight, consistency.
At three quarter time as the steamy late afternoon sun slowly began to set I seriously doubted our chances against the charging Lions outfit. Let’s be frank, we haven’t exactly been known for our momentum swinging last quarter comebacks.
While Brisbane had outscored us in the third, kicking 3.1 to our 1.6, we had had more disposals, greater contested possessions, double their clearances, more marks inside 50 and importantly a further 12 inside 50 entries. Yes the pendulum needed to swing our way for our fortune to change but we had already done a lot of the hard work ourselves.
One of the last players I would have expected to get the ball rolling was defender Graham Johncock. No less than a minute into the final quarter did he bob up in the forward pocket to squeeze through a goal.
“What’s he doing down there?” I turned and asked the Crows fans around me. In the past such so called match-winning moves had been reserved to when the game was well and truly out of reach.
The belief began to build after skipper Nathan van Berlo slotted our second for the term from a free kick but no sooner had I sat down from celebrating had Brisbane booted the square up down the other end.
Time was ticking away as was our chance of getting four goals on the Lions.
Shortly after, an opposition behind was enough to keep us in it as we were able to successfully rebound the ball into our forward 50 and into the safe mitts of Taylor Walker. He notched up his third and we were right back in it.
Our continuous drive forward was giving us an abundance of chances near the goals. The persistence we played with eventually paid off with Ricky Henderson, the substituted player on for Chris Knights, converting.
The margin narrowed to a solitary behind when Walker waltzed into an open goal and slotted his fourth. It was Brisbane’s turn to sit on the back burner, as we seemed more determined than ever to stitch up a come from behind victory.
What I liked was that we were playing some seriously smart football. The Lions, who were up until the final term reliant on switching sides of play, struggled to clear the ball from their defence. Again, a move was made to ensure we had the upper hand in the game.
So it was only fitting that the ball found its way to Johncock sandwiched between two Brisbane players deep inside our forward 50.
There we had it. Our very own match winning moment.
We managed to hold the Lions off for what seemed like an excruciating long 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Johncock’s goal was complemented by a last gasp Patrick Dangerfield tackle on Brisbane’s Andrew Raines saving a goal.
When the siren finally sounded I leapt out of my seat and celebrated by singing the club song with a legion of following fans.
Finally we had won a game from behind, finally we had won on the road and finally we had made a proactive match-winning move.
So that’s two wins and two 100 point plus games in a row. Things are certainly looking up and perhaps the next time I happen to watch a game of rugby I’ll be wishing I were watching a game of our attacking stuff instead.
