My sporting weekend

The best sport I watched this weekend was by chance the Tri Nation’s rugby international in which Australia beat New Zealand 24-22.

I was surprised to see a crowd of over 30,000 in the Brisbane stadium which made me think how much they add to the spectacle. Brisbane has a significant nunber of Kiwis known as Briwis who made their vocal presence felt.

I would describe the rugby  as “ fast and loose”.

It had much better tempo than the often stodgy Northern European fare but it was more violent too.

A player from each side was red-carded, the challenge of Wallaby debutant Lachlan Swinton bordered on ABH and at one stage it was 14-13 on the field.

Great stuff. The All Blacks featured again the three Barrett Brothers.

I could not think of any other international team that has fielded 3 brothers.

I was not going to miss Manchester City v Liverpool.

The first half had great movement and crisp passing.

I like to compare teams across the era and this Liverpool side is as good as any. Often two such powerful sides can cancel each other out and this is what happened in a dull second half.

VAR raised its head again.

Liverpool defender Joe Gomez was trying to get his arm away from the cross when it struck him and after consultation on the monitor ref Craig Pawson awarded it which deBruyne missed.

Gary Neville made the pertinent comment that Jon Terry made 40 such saves, I remember seeing a two-arm effort against Fulham, but I cannot recall  him getting red-carded.

So now, in correcting a manifest injustice, VAR has made the game worse.