Force v Hurricanes Super Rugby R3 2012

[tallboy]

Exhibit A) that stray ball out the back of the maul just sums the slapstick nature of play up perfectly.

I just hope they can claw it back in the next 12 mins

 

[AngrySeahorse]

I think Force fans can consider themselves lucky that here in Oz we have services like lifeline....

I was hoping for a Force victory but too bigger gap now surely.

 

[Bowside]

God the force were shit.

Badly in need of a second play maker, or even a first one.

Apart from Pocock I think their back row is a tad over rated. Especially brown and hodgeson's running games.

 

[AngrySeahorse]

Harsh on the backrow IMO they were fine but as per usual they kept coming up with errors. Mafi kicking the ball out on the full whilst under no pressure was just one of many examples where they just made dumb mistakes.

 

[Utility Back]

Wow, that was bad.

Stannard has dissapointed, crabs more than giteau. End of last year I thought he was promising.
No team cohesion, or confidence.

 

[tallboy]

God the force were shit.

Badly in need of a second play maker, or even a first one.

Apart from Pocock I think their back row is a tad over rated. Especially brown and hodgeson's running games.

I thought Pocock worked his ass off and was a step above as he is every time he
laces the boots, but I'd disagree with you re the over rated tag on the backrow. I thought Hodgson had a solid game. Was very busy all game, defensively and in attack. Copping one big hit doesn't mean he can't run the ball. Brown was just short of a gallop and then got hurt.

 

[vidiot]

Start Seymour. Stannard seems to have convinced himself that he is shit, it's become a self fulfilling prophecy.

 

[Bowside]

I thought Pocock worked his ass off and was a step above as he is every time he
laces the boots, but I'd disagree with you re the over rated tag on the backrow. I thought Hodgson had a solid game. Was very busy all game, defensively and in attack. Copping one big hit doesn't mean he can't run the ball. Brown was just short of a gallop and then got hurt.

I thought Cotteral was a visible improvement on brown when he came on.

Sure the force have pocock who is arguably the best player in the world; but the rest of the back row are "not-ers" as lee grant would say (not a 6, 7 or 8), and are defiantly not in the same class as Reid, Higginbotham, Kaino, Thompson, Palu, Burger etc. Especially on attack.

I dont think it is a major problem for the force, just an observation.

Where they really got shown up was in their basic skill execution and inability to create opportunities to score. On casual viewing the force seem like they are plain unlucky, but as the saying goes - the harder I work the luckier I get.

 

[Slim 293]

They had all the possession, and couldn't do anything with it...

 

[Charlemagne]

Very difficult to be a Force supporter at the moment, they seem to panic when they get behind and loose the structure of the game. As Cam Sheppard said at half time they are not capitalizing on the opportunities that they are creating. I agree with Bowside they are desperate for a playmaker.

 

[ChargerWA]

I never had high hopes for the Force this season, but I am now truly concerned for the viability of the franchise due to a shit house culture and complete lack of ability to evolve.

I am sure in time we will be able to build a grassroots culture and develop our own stars to make the franchise viable, but if we continue to play this error riddled uninspiring rugby will we be around long enough to enjoy the fruition of those plans? Two of my workmates (both long term expats, one kiwi one saffer) were on board as Force supporters since their inception, have slowly drifted back to supporting their original provincial S15 teams. I have fairly hammered them for being fair weather sailors and told them we don't need them.......but the truth is we do! WA is a rugby wasteland compared to most other provinces and we really rely on that expat support to keep Rugby in WA viable. The ARU supports the Force while they make a profit every year, but what happens if this this goes on for another 5 years and Force crowds drop to unproffitable numbers? The ARU has a poor track record of supporting financially unviable entities (ARC).

These backwards restrictions the ARU enforce on the aussie teams (squad sizes, salary caps) while good for the long term health of Australian rugby are going to cause alot of pain to the Australian S15 teams in the short term (especially the two provinces with out a large grass roots system behind them, Force and Rebels). It would be a shame to be looking so far forward into the future that you miss what is happening right now.

The Rebels are following the same pattern as the Force did. Throwing around alot of money and being able to recruit good players, but if success doesn't follow that 3rd party money will dry up and they will end up with a backline that looks like the Force's and a coach in over their head like RG.

 

[Shiggins]

What the fuck is wrong with most of you

The force are doing quite bloody well considering they have a back line of 1 old wallaby. Look at the hurricanes. They have how many all blacks and they are considered shit this year ? Conrad smith, Corey jane. Fuck me I would b stoked to have just 1 of them in my team.

Rebells = JOC (James O'Connor) beal Gerard Huxley phips mortlock, an international in cips.

Brumbies = respect. A young back line of up an comers with Mcabe to return.

Waratahs = AAC (Adam Ashley-Cooper) barnse Horne Mitchell turner

Reds = Davies digby genia QC (Quade Cooper) A.Fainga'a Hynes

I am only talking about backs because this is where the force are lacking. I also realize that some of the guys i have mentioned are injured ( hynes, QC (Quade Cooper)) but its still experience in the squad. I don't want to take anything away from guys like cummins but let's me serious about who we see an international standard backs ATM.

Let's get To the game.

IMO one of the best trys so
Far this year could of been scored if a stupid call of obstruction wasn't called on pocock. It was great to see Shepard set the start of the play up.

Off feet at the breakdown penalty with 5 meters to score a try was a pain. I think I will start a thread to here everyone's opinion on this. I see this happen at every other breakdown in every game. How can refs be consistant in this ? Unless we see rugby turn into a penalty fest.

How many penalties did it take for the ref to warn the hurricanes when we were in there 22? Unfortunately Stannard was not kicking well. The game for the force went to shut after that. I can see points In the force game that I hate. Shepard try that was diss aloud for example. Why did we try to shift the ball when a couple of pick and drives would of most likely seen us over the line. Maybe a inexperience scrum half? I saw the game as done when cummins sheean and nalaga got subbed at the start of the second half personally.

Apart from this stuff the force had 2 lucky try's scored against the when we had the run of the game. Very unlucky. I thought the hurricanes were worse then the force. And somehow the scored 6 try's? I think it was 6. Fuck. Lol

I will support the force all the way. Even in a no win season. I hope Perth does to or we might see the force in a financial crisis very soon.
Then again I'm not going to write them off. They are defiantly getting better every game.

I would love to here everyone's opinions on what i have said.

Thanks for reading.



Http://www.youtube.com/shiggins316

 

[Moono75]

Richard Graham is a coaching moron. I have been a Force supporter and member since day one. Into the 7th year along with my brother. Both rugby nuts. But this is just shit. Don't keep making excuses. Teams are passing us by year after year and we serve up the same old "fair weather supporter" crap if you dare make a negative comment. I shook Sharpies hand after the game and you could tell he was fkn embarrassed to accept any praise after his team let him down so bad. Bloody dissapointing for a champion of the game, playing at home against a team coming off the back of a 2 game tour of South Africa and playing in hot conditions. We have trained in this shit all summer long but a NZ team comes in and plays better in the conditions. Wake the fk up, this is shit. We deserve better, Rugby WA make some tough decisions. Graham is a coaching moron.

 

[Shiggins]

Richard Graham is a coaching moron. I have been a Force supporter and member since day one. Into the 7th year along with my brother. Both rugby nuts. But this is just shit. Don't keep making excuses. Teams are passing us by year after year and we serve up the same old "fair weather supporter" crap if you dare make a negative comment. I shook Sharpies hand after the game and you could tell he was fkn embarrassed to accept any praise after his team let him down so bad. Bloody dissapointing for a champion of the game, playing at home against a team coming off the back of a 2 game tour of South Africa and playing in hot conditions. We have trained in this shit all summer long but a NZ team comes in and plays better in the conditions. Wake the fk up, this is shit. We deserve better, Rugby WA make some tough decisions. Graham is a coaching moron.

I accept your anger lol. It's hard not to be pissed off.


Http://www.youtube.com/shiggins316

 

[Moono75]

Can I spell it out any clearer. Anger is one thing but accepting the same crap game after game is rediculous. The team has regressed from the performance against the Reds in wet conditions last week to what we had tonight. That is the result of coaching and the selections. Keys factors. RG didn't start with Seymour and Stannard as his halves even though they were the guys that brought us back in the second half against the Reds. Shep in at fullback even though Mafi had played well there in the first two weeks. Nah lets play Mafi on the wing instead. Shep hasn't played for 7 months. Field position kicking was terrible. Indecision, witness the Canes try where Force players didn't attack the ball and let the opposition run onto it and score an easy try. Cummins just hasn't progressed enough. Better in the centres. Does RG know who his best starting 15 players are. I seriously doubt it. I've had enough of this chump. Fire him or whoever is coming up with this game plan.

 

[Dan54]

Shiggins, I am glad you stated you will support the Force all the way, it's what being a supporter is about. I got laughed at a bit by a few mates when I said I was still a Canes man after their big loss of players last year.
I actually quite openly say this year I think the Canes will lose to the other 4 kiwi teams and any decent teams from Aus and SA, as that forward pack will get really hurt against top teams. After watching game I did think that Reds and Waratahs would have to bank 4 points for games against Force, unless a bloody good 10 and 12 are found at least.
Also apart from agreeing about how well Pocock went, I also thought Sharpie showed that he just never lies down even after 150 games, he was still working away whole game.

 

[ACT Crusader]

I thought the two biggest problems for the Force last night was the 9/10 combination, and despite having most of possession, kicked the ball away at strange times.

Yes the Canes backs were able to exploit some poor defence as well, but when you have so much possession and your 9 and 10 either dither around with it or crab sideways or stand too deep and shovel it along to stagnant backs it's difficult for any backline to get going.

I don't get the criticism of the loose forwards. The Force don't need the likes of Hodgson and Brown to be up there with "Higginbottom, Read, Kaino, Thomo, Burger etc...." they have one world class player, all they need for these guys is to work hard and do the little things effectively. I didn't see alot wrong last night under the circumstances.

But fix the 9/10 situation. My team isn't playing great footy right now and the major factor IMO is that our rookie 10 is not offering any variation in his attacking game and that creates pressure on others big time.

 

[Running Rugby]

2 talking points for me out of last nights game.
The first one has already been mentioned- but why with an outstanding back row and when playing a team that has been on the road for 3 tough weeks would you kick the ball away? Non contestable, aimless kicks- even after your backrow (read Pocock) has turned ball over and created a perfect counter attack opportunity.
The second one was the cadence of the scrum calls by the referee. The time between the touch- pause and engage was unbelievable. I had time to get a beer, check out the scores in all the other codes being played at the same time and remember it really didn't matter because the force were just going to kick the ball away anyway.

 

[Torn Hammy]

I thought the Force forwards played very well. Their scrum and lineout were solid and at times dominant. The percentage of possession was proof they were doing a good job.

The backs on the other hand were very poor. Their defence was brittle and they almost seemed to be running from the heavy collisions. This was a game which required urgency in defence as the Hurricanes have ball runners right across the field.

The forwards took up the challenge while the backs weren't up to it.

 

[cyclopath]

If the Force had a decent backline, they'd be a battle for most teams. Their pack is pretty good - scrum looked good, lineout fine, phase play OK, but absolutely, lay-down, fucking clueless once the ball leaves the hands of Sheehan, and sometimes before it does too. And not just in attack, where they obviously lacked anything, but also in defence, where the most glaring lapses were from the backs. Apart from Cummins, nobody else really looks like being able to break wind, let alone the line.
Hurricanes took all their chances, and they have the players to do so. Force butchered most of theirs, and elected for the old chestnut of Oz rugby too often, the brainless, poorly directed midfield kick straight to a noted counter-attack merchant.
I don't know if it's Graham, or that the players are just not up to it, but that performance was just not good enough.
Sharpey deserved better for 150.