SRAU RD 10 - Force v Reds Friday 23rd April HBF Park

[RugbyReg]

Ahh Reg, Reg, Rugby Reg. How does it feel?

ha. Good one BR. Congrats on your team's win over us. It was good hard footy. They scrapped hard. You should be proud of them. First team to win over the Reds this season.

I thought we were exceptional for the first 20. Those three tries were each brilliant pieces of footy. The pass by Stewart and Paisami's strength. The freak of nature that is Tupou. And then Daugunu. Wow. Danger all over the place. Even putting aside the the knock on for the intercept, I didn't think we'd be troubled from then on by your Force boys, BR. Perhaps the Reds thought the same? I actually would like to confirm but I don't think we gave away a penalty in that first 20? Was Petaia's yellow our first? Might have been damn close. I think that was a bit of a turning point. Definitely gave the your Force men a lift.

The ASY (Angus Scott-Young) at lock experiment didn't work. While his workrate was as excellent as always, the balance with Wright and him and Wilson and McReight was just wrong. Thrush read us like a book in the lineout. Like I said on twitter, your experienced lads led the way. Cubelli, Thursh, Kuridrani, and then Kahui when he came on sealed the deal.

On the flipside, young Kalani Thomas was found out a little. Thought he was painstakingly slow at the base. And even those last few plays, putting aside we should have taken the three, I think it was Kalani's pass that really cost us. In saying that McDermott was pressured while he was on too.

I thought LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) was fantastic - the best he's played this year. He owns the kick off receipt now. Wilson was fantastic too as was Daugunu out wide.

As I said, the experienced campaigners for the 4s were terrific. While Robertson has perhaps been the best, most consistent performer all year?

It hurt to lose most definitely, BR. Didn't enjoy it at all. But I think Brad will use that to our advantage in a couple of weeks. Against who, we won't know until your Western Force men take on those pricks the Brumbies. How do you think it will go?

 

[TSR]

I feel like the thing Australian rugby has been missing is some spicy rivalries.

 

[The_Brown_Hornet]

Agree TSR. With the rejig of the competition I feel like we're getting closer to there being some genuine buzz and interest in the fame. I've not enjoyed Super Rugby as much as this since the heyday of the Brumbies in S12.

 

[Brumby Runner]

ha. Good one BR. Congrats on your team's win over us. It was good hard footy. They scrapped hard. You should be proud of them. First team to win over the Reds this season.

I thought we were exceptional for the first 20. Those three tries were each brilliant pieces of footy. The pass by Stewart and Paisami's strength. The freak of nature that is Tupou. And then Daugunu. Wow. Danger all over the place. Even putting aside the the knock on for the intercept, I didn't think we'd be troubled from then on by your Force boys, BR. Perhaps the Reds thought the same? I actually would like to confirm but I don't think we gave away a penalty in that first 20? Was Petaia's yellow our first? Might have been damn close. I think that was a bit of a turning point. Definitely gave the your Force men a lift.

The ASY (Angus Scott-Young) at lock experiment didn't work. While his workrate was as excellent as always, the balance with Wright and him and Wilson and McReight was just wrong. Thrush read us like a book in the lineout. Like I said on twitter, your experienced lads led the way. Cubelli, Thursh, Kuridrani, and then Kahui when he came on sealed the deal.

On the flipside, young Kalani Thomas was found out a little. Thought he was painstakingly slow at the base. And even those last few plays, putting aside we should have taken the three, I think it was Kalani's pass that really cost us. In saying that McDermott was pressured while he was on too.

I thought LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) was fantastic - the best he's played this year. He owns the kick off receipt now. Wilson was fantastic too as was Daugunu out wide.

As I said, the experienced campaigners for the 4s were terrific. While Robertson has perhaps been the best, most consistent performer all year?

It hurt to lose most definitely, BR. Didn't enjoy it at all. But I think Brad will use that to our advantage in a couple of weeks. Against who, we won't know until your Western Force men take on those pricks the Brumbies. How do you think it will go?

Well played Reg. For the record, I think the pricks will be too hard for the red ones.

 

[emuarse]

Hard pricks usually go slack after a Force encounter.

 

[wamberal]

ha. Good one BR. Congrats on your team's win over us. It was good hard footy. They scrapped hard. You should be proud of them. First team to win over the Reds this season.



It hurt to lose most definitely, BR. Didn't enjoy it at all. But I think Brad will use that to our advantage in a couple of weeks.

Maybe I am wrong, but I reckon Thorn would be delighted, secretly, that they lost. The 15 that took the field was absolutely not the best 15 he could have chosen. ASY (Angus Scott-Young) at lock? One jumper against two quality and highly experienced locks? If they had won, they might have started to believe in their own invincibility.

It's not nice to lose but it gives the coach a fair bit of material to work on, and shows the players that they will all need to step a gear.

 

[emuarse]

I think the Reds will step up a gear against the Brumbies/Force in the Grand Final anyway, where they were runners up last year

 

[Kevin77]

ha. Good one BR. Congrats on your team's win over us. It was good hard footy. They scrapped hard. You should be proud of them. First team to win over the Reds this season.

I thought we were exceptional for the first 20. Those three tries were each brilliant pieces of footy. The pass by Stewart and Paisami's strength. The freak of nature that is Tupou. And then Daugunu. Wow. Danger all over the place. Even putting aside the the knock on for the intercept, I didn't think we'd be troubled from then on by your Force boys, BR. Perhaps the Reds thought the same? I actually would like to confirm but I don't think we gave away a penalty in that first 20? Was Petaia's yellow our first? Might have been damn close. I think that was a bit of a turning point. Definitely gave the your Force men a lift.

The ASY (Angus Scott-Young) at lock experiment didn't work. While his workrate was as excellent as always, the balance with Wright and him and Wilson and McReight was just wrong. Thrush read us like a book in the lineout. Like I said on twitter, your experienced lads led the way. Cubelli, Thursh, Kuridrani, and then Kahui when he came on sealed the deal.

On the flipside, young Kalani Thomas was found out a little. Thought he was painstakingly slow at the base. And even those last few plays, putting aside we should have taken the three, I think it was Kalani's pass that really cost us. In saying that McDermott was pressured while he was on too.

I thought LSL (Lukhan Salakaia-Loto) was fantastic - the best he's played this year. He owns the kick off receipt now. Wilson was fantastic too as was Daugunu out wide.

As I said, the experienced campaigners for the 4s were terrific. While Robertson has perhaps been the best, most consistent performer all year?

It hurt to lose most definitely, BR. Didn't enjoy it at all. But I think Brad will use that to our advantage in a couple of weeks. Against who, we won't know until your Western Force men take on those pricks the Brumbies. How do you think it will go?

That's a good post. I think what was so pleasing as a Force fan was how well QLD played for large spells of the game. At 21-7 down I thought we are in real trouble. Your big guns were firing as you said. But we then started to hold onto the ball, got territory and made some smart decisions.

What's noticably different from our early games is our error count is down. Early in the season we were turning over the ball, knocking on in the opposition 22, losing crucial lineouts when we're in good attacking positions - that's if we found touch with penalties. So often we were killing our own momentum.

In the last three weeks we've started to manage those situations better and when we've created pressure, we've been able to sustain it.

Queensland didn't play poorly. Yes they took some big guns off at the end and they did go for the win rather than accept the draw (and extra time) but from about the 25th minute on, we were the better team - in a great contest.

How will we go against the Brumbies? Well they're the only side we haven't beaten. We weren't too far off here in Perth but got totally blown away in Canberra. Sadly I think they match up with us (and excel) in our areas of strength. Their pack is very strong and their backs are big, well coached and physical.

We're also coming off the back of three weeks in a row of uber physical rubgy where we've had to go to the well late in the game to win. That can go either way. We could be exhausted or we could be battle hardened. I'm hoping it's the latter but given the age profile of our big game players, have they got another big game in them?

 

[eastman]

Card aside, I've been really impressed with Kuridrani's form this season. He's passing the ball better than I've ever seen, hitting hard in defence and just making smart plays.

It feels like he's 38 but he's only 30. Probably behind Ikitau and Paisami but we could do worse in a Wallaby squad.

He's passing more than ever but a lot of it seems to be early distribution without real intent or actually committing defenders. His defence has been strong (as always) but his attack is still as lackluster as his last few seasons at the Brumbies.

For mine, including Kuridrani in the Wallabies squad would be a regressive and overly conservative option, especially when we finally have 3/4 better options - including Petaia and Perese.

 

[Slim 293]

Yeah, I haven't actually been impressed with Kuridrani at all this year..............

He doesn't really offer much in attack anymore and seemed to make a lot of errors, so I was glad that the Brumbies moved him on for Ikitau.

Between Paisami, Ikitau, Perese and Petaia we've got the 13 position well and truly covered.

 

[Brumby Runner]

I beg to differ on Kuridrani. Like Barbarian I have been impressed with the big fella this year. While he might not make the big line breaks, he invariably gets over the gain line, and this year particularly, he has made extra good metres with his straight running. His defence has been a strength again, and he has upped his passing game to the benefit of the Force attack. Some offloads have gained good metres for the supporting player, some early passes were designed to get the ball wide to outflank the defence, while mixed in there were some that had little impact, but that is hardly different to all other backline players.

He has been a different player to his last couple of years at the Brumbies, which, while not outstanding, were enough to keep him in consideration for a Wallabies spot.

 

[Kevin77]

I beg to differ on Kuridrani. Like Barbarian I have been impressed with the big fella this year. While he might not make the big line breaks, he invariably gets over the gain line, and this year particularly, he has made extra good metres with his straight running. His defence has been a strength again, and he has upped his passing game to the benefit of the Force attack. Some offloads have gained good metres for the supporting player, some early passes were designed to get the ball wide to outflank the defence, while mixed in there were some that had little impact, but that is hardly different to all other backline players.

He has been a different player to his last couple of years at the Brumbies, which, while not outstanding, were enough to keep him in consideration for a Wallabies spot.

Agree with this. I think a lot has been made of his form this year but to be fair it took the Force 4-5 games to get a settled-ish backline. Initially he was outside Prior, Lance and Kahui. Then it was Cubelli, McIntyre and Kahui. Then Cubelli, Miotti.

Add to that that the Force have started Brache, Ralston, Kahui, Pulu and Olowafela on the wing and mixed up between Kearney and McGregor/Strachan at full back it's no wonder the backline hasn't clicked entirely.

Even when Kahui is on the wing it changes the defence. Teams know he hasn't got the pace to burn out on the touchline so they can narrow up a bit which makes it more difficult at 13 to get breaks. it's no coincidence that the Force's most cohesive attacking game was against QLD with two pacey wingers in Pulu and Olowafela and the settled Cubelli, Miotti and Godwin partnership inside Kuridrani

 

[ForceFan]

I reckon fans have forgotten/or didn't know that Tevita's mother died mid-season and because of Covid restrictions he was unable to travel to Fiji for the funeral.
Family means a lot to our Fijian brothers and sisters.

 

[Shiggins]

I reckon fans have forgotten/or didn't know that Tevita's mother died mid-season and because of Covid restrictions he was unable to travel to Fiji for the funeral.
Family means a lot to our Fijian brothers and sisters.

That's heartbreaking