Young guns scare Mitchell
Young guns scare Mitchell
Peter Fitzgerald, Canberra Times | May 15, 2008 - 9:17AM
Forget Stirling Mortlock and co. Western Force coach John Mitchell is more concerned about what impact the ACT Brumbies' youngsters will have in tomorrow night's Super 14 clash in Perth.
Mitchell has been impressed with Brumbies flyhalf Christian Lealiifano, inside-centre Tyrone Smith and reserve scrumhalf Josh Holmes this season and believes their flair and enthusiasm pose the greatest threat to his side at Subiaco.
"They're very enthusiastic the young guys and have played some very good rugby this year," Mitchell said.
"The Brumbies have been the benchmark of Australian rugby for a long time now and they still have that aura about them and these youngsters have adopted it.
"Obviously Stirling and George Smith are a handful and they bring huge presence to the group ... but in a game where the ball will probably be thrown around a lot, some of the young backs will really be involved."Retirements and long-term injuries this year saw the team's back line dubbed the "Baby Brumbies" earlier in the season.
At one stage Holmes, Lealiifano, Tyrone Smith, Francis Fainifo and Anthony Faingaa all lined up in the same run-on team. Between them they had 15 games of Super rugby experience.
The team has had the services of Mortlock and Adam Ashley-Cooper for the majority of the second half of the season, adding valuable experience to the starting XV.While the youngsters have failed to lead the team to the finals this year, they haven't lacked the ability to create opportunities in attack.Force flyhalf Matt Giteau expected a lot of ad-lib rugby tomorrow night in a game where the result meant little to either team.
"They give themselves a lot of chances and they're an exciting team who play an exciting brand of football," Giteau said.
"We've got to stop them making line breaks and stop them creating try-scoring chances and if we can do that, we'll give ourselves a much better chance of winning the game."
Mitchell agreed tomorrow's game would probably have more off-the-cuff play than normal but predicted the Brumbies would ultimately stick to their game plan. As they scored mostly from phase play, the Force would need to be patient in defence.
http://www.rugbyheaven.com.au/news/s...764999159.html
