Force v Blues - 2011R04

[The Mayor of Perth]

Wanted! Someone to wear the 22 jersey for the Force this week.

 

[eastman]

His name is Paddy Dellit

 

[Shiggins]

Should be a interesting game. Brown and shep rack up 50 caps. If we can keep 15 men on the field we should do alright. I'm looking forward to seeing who Is in what position. We need oconnor to play 2nd five but who can jump into 10.
Maybe sheehan plays the full 80 and standard can come on at 10 and then occonor move into 13 In the second half that is


Go the force!!!!

 

[spectator]

Wanted! Someone to wear the 22 jersey for the Force this week.

Plenty of good backs at the Reds and a couple of decent ones at the Brumbies not getting some game time at the moment.

 

[The Mayor of Perth]

His name is Paddy Dellit

He's 21.

 

[The Mayor of Perth]

Should be a interesting game. Brown and shep rack up 50 caps. If we can keep 15 men on the field we should do alright. I'm looking forward to seeing who Is in what position. We need oconnor to play 2nd five but who can jump into 10.
Maybe sheehan plays the full 80 and standard can come on at 10 and then occonor move into 13 In the second half that is

Go the force!!!!

The Force need Ripia out of that moon boot. Don't know about Chucky at 10. Cummo might have to slot in to 13 (hey Tyrone, you wanna game?)

 

[mudskipper]

An extremely brave effort against the Sharks by the Force lads but I fear one Paddy won’t be enough… Need a couple of Big Macs to stop the Blues train this weekend… Sadly Blues by as many as they wont.

The lads must have been in ice all week.

 

[Ash]

Only thing to be wary of for the Blues is that they are heading back from SA.

Force are up against it, really. Both outside centres gone, Pocock gone, Ripia still gone.

Blues should be too strong for the Force, although the Force loosies are still a good unit even with Pocock out.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

I think we are going to struggle against a Blues outfit that looks pretty good this year. With effectively no midfield, I haven't the faintest idea how we are going to score, let alone stop them from doing so.

 

[The Mayor of Perth]

I think we are going to struggle against a Blues outfit that looks pretty good this year. With effectively no midfield, I haven't the faintest idea how we are going to score, let alone stop them from doing so.

Defense has been much better in the first two games. The Force need to get the ball into the hands of Shep and David Smith. The 50-cappers both scored in the only win against the Blues...but that's really grasping at straws.

 

[Hawko]

Defense has been much better in the first two games. The Force need to get the ball into the hands of Shep and David Smith. The 50-cappers both scored in the only win against the Blues...but that's really grasping at straws.

I'm not so sure that is grasping at straws. If Shep, Smith and Mafi are running a second line behind the centres they are good enough to penetrate. Maybe not as good as Kurtley, but not completely horrible. Assuming Cummins is at 13, then use him as a crashballer in a similar way to that which Carter is used at the Tahs and then use Shepherd and the blindside winger behind the frontline.

For me, the key question is not "Can the Force attack through the backs?" but rather "Can the Force backs defend against a backline with the quality that the Blues have?" The Blues have so many attacking weapons in their backs, as was on show in round one against the Crusaders. Take out SBW and the backs were very similar and the Blues were clearly dominant. If they are on their game the Blues are very classy (but with the Blues there is always the "if").

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Our defence has been terrific, but we have to score too and I just can't see where it's going to come from, absent some JOC (James O'Connor) magic. We rely too much on that kid.

 

[ChargerWA]

It all depends on what sort of game the referee lets the players play (who is the ref?). In the first round we got away with competing at the breakdown (and let's face it, with Pocock in the side that's our greatest strenght), but by the end of the third round it appears that competing at the breakdown is being policed much more heavily again, not to 2010 standards mind you.

As The Chocolate Wasp correctly points out^^^, can the Force find a reliable offensive weapon. We have a few good weapons, just none reliable game breakers like Drewster or Rene for the Blues

 

[Shiggins]

Who is this Matt Brandon. Can any qld people vouch for him. Lol


Go the force!!!!

 

[Bullrush]

The Blues have big names and firepower all over the park. Offensively and defensively they should be very very hard to take on.

Consistency has always been our problem so fortunately for the Force, we won last week so we're due for a loss.

But I don't think it will happen.

 

[Lance Free]

Who is this Matt Brandon. Can any qld people vouch for him. Lol


Go the force!!!!

You'll notice that he's a five eighth, not a centre. Does that suggest Ripia will be out for some time yet?

A lot of people rate him up here in Queensland.

From the press release:

Emirates Western Force Coach Richard Graham has moved to bolster the club’s backs by offering a short term deal to Queensland flyhalf Matt Brandon.

The 24 year old arrived in Perth on Tuesday morning and trained that afternoon. He’ll have a few more opportunities to familiarise himself with the game plan on Thursday and also the Captain’s Run the following day before suiting up on the bench against the Blues on Saturday night.

Brandon has been brought in a four week deal after an elbow injury to Mitch Inman and Rory Sidey’s suspension in last weekend’s clash with the Sharks left Graham short of numbers across the backs with a total of seven players in that area unavailable.

While the club’s starters still boast the quality of James O’Connor, Cameron Shepherd, Gene Fairbanks and David Smith, Graham said there was a need to add further back-up.

“With a relatively small squad size of 36, including four academy players, the seven injuries have put pressure on our back line playing stocks and left us with relatively little room to manoeuvre,” Graham said.

“Matt has played in some good quality competitions including the Magners League and in Japan and will bring those experiences with him to the Emirates Western Force.”

Brandon has taken his rugby across the globe, plying his trade in Ireland for Connacht before teaming up with former Force star Scott Staniforth at Yokogawa in the Japanese competition. He returned to Australia last year and most recently stepped out for the Reds 2nd XV in matches against international opponents including Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

 

[Godfrey]

I've only see him play one game, the recent Reds 2nd XV game against Tonga, but he looked pretty handy and was probably one of the better backs after Tapuai.

 

[Bullrush]

From Pat Lam:

Coach's Corner
10 Mar 2011

Pat Lam talks about last week's game, Jared Payne's close encounter with a Lion and the upcoming Force matchWe were really pleased to get the win last week against an impressive Lions side that’ll certainly upset a few teams in the competition this year.

It made a difference being settled in Johannesburg all week. Normally in the past we would have stayed down at sea level and gone up to Johannesburg the day before the game but we made a conscious decision as the management and leadership group this year that we would go straight up to Johannesburg after the Sharks match and just embrace the whole altitude thing and guts it out. So right through the week we trained in Johannesburg, prepared up there and while we acknowledged the altitude initially, we said it wouldn’t make the difference and that we’d just get on with it. Like I mentioned in my previous blog, the selection of the team was very much with that in mind and knowing how tough it would be, using the whole 22 and adding some experience in the second half and I think it worked out really well.


The other thing we did differently in Jo’burg was that, in the past we stayed out in a place called Leriba Lodge which is a beautiful resort and a safer sort of place, but this time we chose to stay right in the centre of Jo’burg and again part of the whole preparation was dealing with everything face on.


These are only small things and the only test of whether it worked or not was the result but I think they made the difference and it just signalled to the boys that we’re here to do a job. It can be easy at times to get a bit distracted by the beach and lifestyle in Cape Town but we knew the challenge ahead and our total focus was on beating the Lions.


On the game itself, I’d like to congratulate Luke McAlister on scoring 1000 points in first class rugby which is a brilliant achievement. It was made even more special by the fact that he reached the figure by landing a drop goal, the only one he’s done to accumulate his 1000 points.


Sherwin Stowers and Luke Braid made their first ever starts for the Blues while Peter Saili and Kurtis Haiu made their first starts for the season.


One of the big things to come through so far is that the leadership by the players on and off the field is working really well. Often when you go on three week tours it can be a bit strenuous but I can’t really see any of the guys being overly homesick at the moment and the whole trip has been really well balanced. Anthony Boric our Culture and Activities man has ensured the team has had plenty of options to keep them busy and entertained when we’re not on the training field. A highlight for some was the visit to the Lions park where there was concern at one stage that we might be a few players short for the game as Jared Payne decided to leave the mini-van side door open so he could get a better picture of a fully grown Lion only a couple of metres away. The Lion didn’t take too well to his interest and it's fair to say when it gave a bit of a growl and stare, that door was closed faster than Joe Rocks in full flight for the tryline!


The leadership boys have a pretty good input in what we’re doing and make sure everything is pretty well planned. On the field they drive a lot of the standards too so as a coach you get a lot of confidence from that because it doesn’t matter if you make too many changes because the players are driving a lot of the decisions and the culture and when we’re under pressure, which we were in previous games and which we’re going to be later on in the season, it really helps when you know those leadership guys will step in and deal with it.


Following the match against the Lions we were straight on the plane the next day. We had an eight and a half hour flight to Perth so now it’s another case of adjusting to a different time zone. We’ve gone from 11 hours behind New Zealand to five hours behind and we’re in the mid thirties temperature wise so it’s pretty hot here at the moment.


We had a light run yesterday and it’s fair to say that some boys have adjusted well to the time difference and others haven’t quite got there yet; some guys woke up on time and were out there waiting for the bus at 9.30am while others were only just making it. As coaches our expectations weren’t too high that they would be bang on so after a day off yesterday we should be right for our one day of training today.


This week we’ve got an eight day turnaround compared to when we went over at the start of the tour which makes a difference so we had a good day off yesterday. Some of the players were resting, some went out shopping and the others were off sightseeing. The main thing the team doctor has emphasised is getting out in the sunlight and not hanging around in the room and sleeping too much. As far as the management went, we just cracked on and it was a good chance to get some paperwork done before we get back to Auckland and also do some analysis on the Hurricanes for next week as again it will be a shorter week.


Looking at the Western Force who we’re up against on Saturday night (12.05am Sunday morning NZ time), they were impressive in their first game against the Reds and while they weren’t as flash last week, any team is going to struggle when they lose a player who is sent off 17 minutes into the game and suffer injuries to two key players. But these sorts of things can go either way; they can drop off the pace or it can really galvanise a team. Although Pocock is a big loss for them, they’ve still got a quality back row with two Wallabies in Brown and Hodgson and other Wallabies throughout their team including their experienced captain Nathan Sharpe. James O’Conner is a quality player and a big threat so we’ve got to ensure that we’re right on our game from the start.


One thing we did do last week which made a difference and possibly helped us with our start was monitoring the players’ workload pre-game. With the GPS systems that the boys are currently using we identified that before the Sharks game some of them had done quite a bit of work before the game actually started in the warm up and a lot of them were out warming up or wandering around the field earlier than normal.


So we’ve trimmed our warm up right down and we did that against the Lions to make sure we hadn’t overdone it before we went into the sheds so we shortened it by about five minutes and we got off to a better start so we’ll try it again this week because the start is going to be crucial for us.


The boys are in good spirits, they’re looking forward to getting home to their families next week but before that they know there’s a job to do and we’re intent on coming back to Auckland with another good win under our belts.


We get back into Auckland on Monday morning and we’ll be straight into it with a home game against the Hurricanes at Eden Park on Saturday night. I’ve been really impressed with how the Highlanders have been going so far which just emphasises how difficult the New Zealand Conference is going to be, so with an important local derby against the Hurricanes coming up it would be awesome to pack out Eden Park again and see you come and cheer us on – the atmosphere at the opening game against the Crusaders was brilliant so it would be great to beat that next week with another bumper crowd.


Until then,


Pat Lam
Head coach

Future All Black coach....

 

[Lance Free]

Coach seems more interested in getting home to 'broTown and the Hurricanes challenge next week rather than Saturday's game?

 

[The Mayor of Perth]

Coach seems more interested in getting home to 'broTown and the Hurricanes challenge next week rather than Saturday's game?

And a bird just shat on my shoulder so I'll put a few quid on the Force. Matt Brandon straight into the 22, Cummo to 13, McCalman to 8.