Super Rugby Pacific Round 4 Western Force vs Highlanders

Definitely better than expected. As Chiraag said captain was not even on the pitch. Kicking still seems to the first thought but both teams were as bad as each other and I suppose the conditions may have lead to bit more kicking. If all our penalties and conversions had gone over that was our game. For a team that seems to love kicking you’d have thought we would have found a couple of good one by now! ;)
The next couple of games are going to be a darn site harder than that one and we can’t afford to have our defence crumbling like today or it will be cricket scores.

Contrary to popular opinion, I thought we were a rough chance against the least tough Kiwis. Played OK but never really looked likely after the YC.
I was really pissed at missing the BP. Did X slip him a V-brown paper bag to save line bets??

https://youtu.be/sZ8R589vE2s

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shasta

Contrary to popular opinion, I thought we were a rough chance against the least tough Kiwis. Played OK but never really looked likely after the YC.
I was really pissed at missing the BP. Did X slip him a V-brown paper bag to save line bets??

---

Agreed, I most definitely thought this game could have been a win. The highlanders were anchored to the bottom of the ladder. Next couple of weeks are a right-off tho!
Missing the BP was definitely lazy.

Inept at best.

Fed up with hearing how we’re suffering from lack of cohesion.

Coach or squad ain’t as flash as we’d hoped

Wells is not captain material. Speaking bluntly does not a leader make! His appointment was made without a true understanding or acknowledgment of what makes us tick! Rebels are way better without him.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by WFDom

Inept at best.

Fed up with hearing how we’re suffering from lack of cohesion.

Coach or squad ain’t as flash as we’d hoped

Wells is not captain material. Speaking bluntly does not a leader make! His appointment was made without a true understanding or acknowledgment of what makes us tick! Rebels are way better without him.

---

Took the words right out of my mouth Dom. 3 kicks under no pressure yesterday after scoring good tries, and 3 tries to the Landers. We are achieving not much with Wells as captain! It’s just plain dumb logic. We hold the ball we created tries!

For a young group going to Invergargill in the deep south to play a motivated Highlanders side (also need to bear in mind who their losses were against) with the wind blowing and a bit of rain, unlike the weather they have trained in for the past six months, it was not as fustrating for us supporters as it looked. We learnt a lot more and despite the result and fustrations we are experiencing, small green sprouts are starting to show. Yes, not enough to win consitently yet but getting there.

* Aaron Smith was too street smart for us.

* With Rodda and Fainga'a out, we did not have too many big bodied players to play with against a physical Highlanders side.

* The Highlander players natural rugby instinct showed the gulf we need to overcome between NZ players and Australian rugby union players.

* A lot of good things were said about Simpson. From what I saw he did some great things to make the five minute highlight real look good, however I felt far too often he was missing in action and too slow to get to a ruck that started to get pressurised and / or a crumbling maul.

* Poolman is a big young lad and so far this season has been thrown into the firing lining under pressure and again this was the case with Hegarty needing to be subbed off. He does not shy away from the task and he will grow and get better as he gets more and more game time. I suspect he will be pushing for a Wallaby spot next year or not too far after that.

* Steward needs to stay at 12 and Hegarty at 10.

* Kunzele despite that wretched miss at the end has taken on the difficult task of outside centre. He is improving in what is a considered one of the more difficult positions.

* Rahboni needs to be signed to as long a contract as we can give him.

* Anstee seems to coming back to the form that put him on the Wallaby radar.

* Having watched Siosifa in a club game and being underwhelmed to what we are seeing this year is like chalk and cheese. He is showing an incredible growth and hats off to both him and coaches.

* Tom Horton reminds me of Heath Tessman, gives everything has the heart and fighting attitude, if he had a slightly bigger body he could be something special.

* As I say every week we need to keep Tony Pulu fit and on the field. Kiribridge looks useful especially while Manasa seems to still be getting over his recent niggles.

* Tiatia is starting to impose himself. As I said in a post when he first signed for us, he is the player that will elate us at times and fustrate us at other times. He is always giving it a go and we need to accept thats the way he plays.

In nutshell keep the faith, we have two hard games ahead of us and the boys need to use it to continue their learrning journey.

Agree with most of what taz says,

I thought the Landers read the ref far far better than we did, cleanouts of unbound players 3m past the ruck (coming from the side) seemed to be OK, the landers made it their bread and butter, we didn't try it once!

I thought both Lomax and Poolman were clear red cards am waiting to see what the judiciary says, Peyper is getting heat for doing the exact opposite call on head contact, so it'll be interesting to see where each of these lands.

I thought Simpson played well, looked very assured and had a good eye for the field, was late to rucks when he was held down, but hard to blame him for that, I thought the rest of it was how quick the highlanders got over the ball after taking out potential participants in the ruck (I would say illegally) We never addressed that and they owned the ruck.

Scrum was clearly weaker without Doctor Robbo, no shame in that Gus knew he had to play 70-odd minutes and probably needed to save himself for the important ones. Horton played 80 as well didn't he?

Yes we're missing Rodda and Fainga'a, but I thought that side of things went OK considering, losing Robbo for at least another game will really test us, but Siosifa looked a lot more comfortable this week than last week so maybe we have found a diamond.

I thought cohesion looked better but they're not there yet and they needed to be there yesterday so it might be a long year!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tazzmania

* As I say every week we need to keep Tony Pulu fit and on the field.

---

Pulu has been great, that bump off was awesome on the weekend. I didn't realise he was born in USA. I wonder why he has never played a test for them, he is a better player than Marcel Brache. I guess probably considers himself a kiwi (or an Aussie?)

The defence against Moana and the attack against the Highlanders will give a very good game ( combo of ) ….Go Force !

How many games did Rodda play last year for us?
Has Rahboni now been signed on a full contract?

How long is Sam Spink out for?