Western Force recruit David Hill to make debut against Queensland Reds

Western Force recruit David Hill to make debut against Queensland Reds

By Jon Geddes
March 12, 2010 Former All Blacks five-eighth David Hill faces the big challenge of marking in-form Queensland Reds No. 10 Quade Cooper when he debuts for Western Force in Brisbane on Sunday.
The performances of the two playmakers and how they lead their teams around the paddock will be crucial in deciding the winner of the Australian derby.

"Quade has come a long way in the past couple of months from the end of the Wallabies season last year to where he's at now," says Force and Australia assistant coach Richard Graham.

"He has played exceptionally well and a credit to him because he was obviously under a lot of pressure early."

Reds coach Ewen McKenzie says Cooper has a new-found maturity building on where he was last season.

Hill recently joined the Force after a stint in Japan as a replacement for their injured marquee player, former Springbok pivot Andre Pretorius. And Graham says he will provide the team with a lot of experience, direction and control.

"He is physically a big man so he is going to get over the gain line -- whether he carries the ball himself or uses the people around him," Graham said.

With Hill to start at five-eighth, it is likely that Wallabies utility James O'Connor will switch to No. 12 - at least in attack.

While the Force have yet to win, McKenzie says his side learnt in their surprise win over the Chiefs last week that the position on the table means nothing.

"And I don't think you can take anything for granted in a local derby," McKenzie said.

"We are giving them the utmost respect. We have watched their three games and they were right in it in all of them with 15 to go."

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I am disappointed with the starting front 3
We have surrendered a massive advantage. We could have taken them apart up front in the first 40 minutes with Dunning at loosehead and Cowan at hooker. With a bit of niggle likely, we needed the Dunning fire and desire for testiness. One of Dunnings under rated skills is his fighting ability. He throws some very powerful blows and is a handy man to have next to you in a brawl. The lightweight Reds front 3 will know it and they will be very relieved to see Dunning benched. They will believe they can intimidate Tyrrell and pressure him. Cowan and Dunning would have given us some more grunt and intimidation and more oomph in the expected snotclap.

Gooooooooooo Hill! I predict a big game from the bloke, he's not journeyman flopper!

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Originally Posted by Rex Messup

I am disappointed with the starting front 3

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Let me guess, you wanted 1) Hunt 2) O'Connor 3) Cummins ? ;)

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Originally Posted by Rex Messup

I am disappointed with the starting front 3
We have surrendered a massive advantage. We could have taken them apart up front in the first 40 minutes with Dunning .

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I haven't seen anything special from Dunning yet
The first game he only played 40 min and gave away 2 penalties
Against the Hurricanes he gave away 2 penalties and played 60 min
He could not handle the heat against the Chiefs, he gave away a penalty after playing of the bench for 30 min It did not look as if he wanted to be there either

He has not busted 1 tackle so far this year.
He has not missed any tackles because he has not attempted any

The only good thing he has done was to win a tight head against the Brumbies

I would not even have had Dunning on the Bench this week I would have gone with Kieran Longbottom I know he hasn't got the experience but he sure as hell wants to play for the Force not like Dunning that at this stage is only here for the ride

I tend to agree about Dunning, Pieter. And I am somewhat surprised by this talk of a weak Reds front row. This is an area where the Reds are actually getting quite strong and building depth. They have held their own so far this season against some very good packs.

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Originally Posted by tic

I tend to agree about Dunning, Pieter. And I am somewhat surprised by this talk of a weak Reds front row. This is an area where the Reds are actually getting quite strong and building depth. They have held their own so far this season against some very good packs.

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I think that overconfidence could be what allows the force to dominate their tight 5.

They absolutely smashed the chiefs, but the chiefs didn't have a forward pack for 60 minutes last week, they just had 8 big blokes wandering around the park dropping the ball, and relying on the backs to do most of the ruck work.

Rex "They will believe they can intimidate Tyrrell and pressure him"

Bring it on!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rex Messup

I am disappointed with the starting front 3
We have surrendered a massive advantage. We could have taken them apart up front in the first 40 minutes with Dunning at loosehead and Cowan at hooker. With a bit of niggle likely, we needed the Dunning fire and desire for testiness. One of Dunnings under rated skills is his fighting ability. He throws some very powerful blows and is a handy man to have next to you in a brawl. The lightweight Reds front 3 will know it and they will be very relieved to see Dunning benched. They will believe they can intimidate Tyrrell and pressure him. Cowan and Dunning would have given us some more grunt and intimidation and more oomph in the expected snotclap.

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Yes I'm sure Cowan will be better in a fight now that he's injured!

Rexy I can forgive you for not knowing Ryan's history since you obviously know nothing about WA rugby but Tyrrell's from Rocko, he'll do OK in the fisticuffs department! as a matter of fact, if he doesn't at lest carry his weight he'll be disowned by his hom club:loser:

The Reds front row have a lot of talent - dont be surprised to see Weeks and Daley in the extended Wallaby squad this year. However, they are both babies. Fairbrother and Henderson have been around the park. They know every trick there is in the black arts of front rowery, and some. Plus they will use them all. I expect the Force front row to win this battle. The loose forwards are very even - Hodgson shades Braid, McCalman is probably a little below the west aussie poach Higgenbotham and Stanford is probably also a little below the fat bloke at #8 for the Reds.

The glaring mistake I can see in the backs for the Reds is there is very little experience. Hynes is the only player there who could be considered a leader, and he is out of the play at 15. They could really do with Turinui calling the shots a bit closer to the action at 12 or 13, but have chosen not to. Win for the Force there.

Weeks and Daley remind me of another unfeared pudgy and incompetent QLD prop and wallaby Nic Stiles, the least feared prop in the history of rugby. With Robinson, Kepu, Baxter (Tahs) Ben Alexander, Shepherson (Brumbies) Cowan, Dunning, Fairbrother, Henderson (Force) I'd be surprised to see Weeks/daley in the wallabies

Dunning is farking huge and blokes that big aren't going to set the field alight running around in a rugby jumper when the celcius is nudging 40. He's also coming back from a very serious injury and a long break

Dunning has a lot of critics but gee he can scrum. He was butting heads with the worlds best props when Longbottam was in nappies

If Cowan can start on the bench, he can start the game

An opportunity missed. Hopefully, we won't be behind when they come on

---------- Post added at 14:25 ---------- Previous post was at 14:24 ----------

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Originally Posted by GIGS20

Yes I'm sure Cowan will be better in a fight now that he's injured!

Rexy I can forgive you for not knowing Ryan's history since you obviously know nothing about WA rugby but Tyrrell's from Rocko, he'll do OK in the fisticuffs department! as a matter of fact, if he doesn't at lest carry his weight he'll be disowned by his hom club:loser:

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I find it amusingly ironic that a grown man using emoticons is calling me a loser

yeah, probably should have left it unsaid....you prove it better yourself anyway!

we got a book on tyrell for a yellow? ;)

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Originally Posted by GIGS20

yeah, probably should have left it unsaid....you prove it better yourself anyway!

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Queen of the comebacks
Dead set nothing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rex Messup

Weeks and Daley remind me of another unfeared pudgy and incompetent QLD prop and wallaby Nic Stiles, the least feared prop in the history of rugby. With Robinson, Kepu, Baxter (Tahs) Ben Alexander, Shepherson (Brumbies) Cowan, Dunning, Fairbrother, Henderson (Force) I'd be surprised to see Weeks/daley in the wallabies

Dunning is farking huge and blokes that big aren't going to set the field alight running around in a rugby jumper when the celcius is nudging 40. He's also coming back from a very serious injury and a long break

Dunning has a lot of critics but gee he can scrum. He was butting heads with the worlds best props when Longbottam was in nappies

If Cowan can start on the bench, he can start the game

An opportunity missed. Hopefully, we won't be behind when they come on

---------- Post added at 14:25 ---------- Previous post was at 14:24 ----------



I find it amusingly ironic that a grown man using emoticons is calling me a loser

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Deadset Messup, you are a hard man, hard but fair.