Forum is getting on the bus with Rex

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22-05-11, 12:38
Rex Messup

Forum is getting on the bus with Rex

I have noticed a lot of comments about how shite Ripia is especially in the front page news thread regarding Force V Brumbies.

Great to see the penny has dropped.

Ripia is rubbish. Who signed him and why?

Great to see him get hooked and rabbit to 10. Make it permanent

Time to pick some local boys. The public transport system to the game shows that the sub culture of rugby is alive and well in Perth. Lots of saffers and kiwis and their kids in transit to the games. There is plenty of rugby stars in the making.

It was great to see under 8 teams from around the traps and two teams from Bunbury dressed in kit and providing a guard of honour for the Force onto the field.

The future is in our backyard. The fullback for Guildford high school in the curtain raiser showed more attacking skills and decision making than Ripia.

Time to stop hiring dead wood rejected from other franchises because they were rubbish and get a few local lads into the jersey.

There was more passion in the schoolboy game than the main fixture. The lads really went at the breakdown and the pick and drive and the post game celebration showed they were playing to and proud to win.

The main event was pretty hard to sit through with the only real passion coming after the siren as both teams got a sniff of winning. The match ended fittingly with Giteau punting the ball into the crowd to boos and jeers from a bored sh1tless crowd who had waited 80 minutes for something to get excited about. For a dead rubber, it might have been worth having a go.

I suppose the Brumbies have been so farking bad, they were happy to escape with a draw.
22-05-11, 12:50
shasta

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rex Messup

There is plenty of rugby stars in the making.

The future is in our backyard. The fullback for Guildford high school in the curtain raiser showed more attacking skills and decision making than Ripia.

Your'e on the mark. Have been making a point of watching the local u18's this season. They are a well drilled side with lots of potential. They run the ball brilliantly, have won 5 from 7 and are only in 6th spot on the ladder. The ones above them are obviously well worth a watch too. Let's hope that our academy being shipped east doesn't cause too many to fall off the bus.
22-05-11, 14:14
zimeric

there was a Schalk lookalike no 8 from Guildford in the curtain raiser that absolutely slaughtered Hale.. I'd be surprised if hes not picked up by a team soon.
22-05-11, 14:28
Engage!

Quote:

Originally Posted by zimeric

there was a Schalk lookalike no 8 from Guildford in the curtain raiser that absolutely slaughtered Hale.. I'd be surprised if hes not picked up by a team soon.

Guildford beat Trinity, not Hale.

The Sunday Times says Hale beat Wesley 81-0, Christchurch beat Scotch 31-17
22-05-11, 15:25
todd4

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rex Messup

Ripia is rubbish. Who signed him and why?

.

Actually Rex I beleive it was your mate John Mitchell. One of the last things he did before he left was to contact Ripia and convince him to come west....
22-05-11, 15:57
todd4

When it was announced that Ripia was coming to the Force I watched all the Taranaki games to take a look at him and my observations where similar to what James said in a previous thread;

He rarely if ever took the ball to the line himself

He either kicked the ball or threw long cut-out passes to his outside backs. This worked well in the NPC but super rugby is on another level again and you can't afford to be so predictable, he certainly needs to add a bit of variety to his game.

I'm not writing this to bag Ripia as I think he is a young man with skills and talent.

I think the under-performance of Ripia and the backs in general is the responsibility of the coaching staff. If it was good enough for the fans to watch the Taranaki games to get an idea of his game surely the coaching staff did the same?

Did the coaching staff think to themselves - our most potent attacking player will be one out from Ripia so maybe his constant cut-out passes are not what we need perhaps we should design some moves to enable Ripia to put JOC through a gap now and then? should we coach Ripia to have a run himself at times just to mix things up a bit and - heavan forbid - should we practice some moves whereby the 11, 14 or 15 chime into the backline at a different angle to try and create - what do other teams call it? - a line break?.

Writing this I had to look up the Force web site to see who the backs coach is, and no surprise there isn't one, so I guess RG is our resident genius in charge of fancy backline moves.

I think by and large we have the cattle to make things work but the coaching staff need to step up to the plate and take resonsibility for making things happen.
22-05-11, 16:56
James

I'd say give him a chance but pick up a quality 10 or 12 as a marquee if one comes onto the market.

How many times was our outside centre (or whoever else was standing there in attack) swamped because everyone knew the ball was going straight there? Buggered up our 'attack' so many times.
22-05-11, 17:47
zimeric

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engage!

Guildford beat Trinity, not Hale.

The Sunday Times says Hale beat Wesley 81-0, Christchurch beat Scotch 31-17

sorry my bad... i heard before the game that they were playing Hale and for some reason even after being told it was trinity i still posted the wrong name.. :loser:
22-05-11, 21:19
shasta

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

I'd say give him a chance but pick up a quality 10 or 12 as a marquee if one comes onto the market.

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason the coach gave for subbing him was genuine. Still having problems with the original injury or complications from close to 3 months in a moon boot. Guess we'll find out - next season.
22-05-11, 22:09
James

I don't know, I mean sure I am trying to be optimistic, but I did think something looked dodgy (legs/feet wise) early on in the game around the time that Speight scored. Ripia spearheaded the Hurricanes to two wins over us and I firmly believe we have a better pack now than they did when he played for them. He isn't an awful player. I really liked that pop pass he threw to David Smith in the first Brumbies/Force game. I don't get why we don't have our backline running onto the ball off both of his shoulders and have O'Connor stand at 13 on set plays- that way he can draw attention and redistribute to our guys outwide or Ripia can pass to Sidey or Cummins or Dellit or whoever for a crashball at inside centre.