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Sun, Jun 2, 2024, 8:59 AM
by Nick Taylor
The Western Force season is only just done and dusted but the rebuild for the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific campaign has already started.
The foundations are in place and coach Simon Cron said: "It's not the house we're in, it's the house we're building," after they fell short in the battling 24-19 loss to the Brumbies at HBF Park on Saturday night.
A forensic review will be done of every game and players will be given individual performance plans.
Cron said they had identified areas that need improvement, where players needed to increase size and power.
"Boys staying for next year will stay with us training," he told reporters after Saturday’s defeat.
"We have identified a few areas for power and some size, growing some of our players, giving them a chance in the gym.
"A number of our boys played quite a lot of minutes this year.
"We'll look at certain positions, you can see that week-on-week starts to grind them down a bit, so we've got to look at how we can build some depth, where guys can step on and keep adding.
"We've got some really good in our game, but we've also shown we've got some bad in our game at times. We just need to rid of that."
The squad will continue training up until the Super Rugby Pacific final and return after a July break.
"At that stage a few people will be joining us who are coming next year," Cron said.
"We'll start working on combinations pretty early on. Constantly learning, constantly developing, constantly growing.
"I think you can see some key fundamentals starting to grow within the team: mateship, trust and respect.
"What I'm observing in our group is growing those relationships, growing the mateship, the trust in each other, trust to keep fighting back.
"That's really important for us going forward. The boys are constantly working on ways we can get better."
The Force are planning a series of games for later in the year, similar to last year’s Toyota Challenge against the Cheetahs.
"We'll come back in and look to play some more rugby ideally," Cron said. "These guys will be pretty hungry for games."
The Force farewelled two former captains after Saturday's game - 100-game player, club stalwart and fan favourite scrum-half Ian Prior and back-rower and 2023 club captain Michael Wells.
Cron said they would both would be Western Force players for life.
"The more we grow this place the more those ex-players will be involved," he said.
Cron said Prior had been a massive part of the club for a decade and praised his off-field work, particularly this season, when he did not get much game time.
"People don't realise what he has done for us, training against us at 9 and 10," Cron said.
"Even though he didn't get an opportunity on the field as much as he would have liked, he has done for a number of years.
"He wasn't in the starting team, he didn't complain about it."
Cron first coached Wells 12 years ago.
"He's a great man and he'll be connected to us forever," he said.
https://westernforce.rugby/news/simo...-season-202462
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Originally Posted by wholetruth
