NICK TAYLOR, The West Australian
May 2, 2011, 7:30 am

The Western Force need a quick fix to eliminate flaws that were exposed by the Crusaders as they head into this weekend's Super Rugby match against the Waratahs.

Their kicking game misfired, one-on-one tackles were not effective and attacking breakdowns were cause for concern in Saturday night's 42-30 loss at nib Stadium.

A clearly unhappy Force coach Richard Graham had repeatedly warned about the dangers of the Crusaders counterattack but his worst fears surfaced as the visitors did exactly what they do best and too often, particularly in the first half.

"The first 30 minutes was like a training exercise for them. We kicked poorly and just gave them free shots at us." he said.

"With Zac Guildford, Sean Maitland and Israel Dagg exceptional at the counterattack, it hurt us. Clearly we weren't good enough in that area."

Graham was pleased with the way his side dragged themselves back into the game after going 12-0 down after only eight minutes, but, as has too often been the case, they could not hold on to a lead late in the game.

"A couple of critical errors at the end hurt us. Ultimately…not good enough," he said.

While Graham thought some of the breakdown and line defence was outstanding he was unhappy with the unstructured defence, particularly when the Crusaders backs came up against front-rowers.

The Waratahs may not have the blistering counterattack of the New Zealanders but the Force still need to improve if they are to avenge last month's 31-3 loss in Perth.

And Graham was particularly blunt about the weekend opposition at the Sydney Football Stadium.

"Honestly, I couldn't care about NSW. I don't care," he said. "We're proud, we're competitive people. We have to prepare well ourselves and we need to go there and play well. It would be nice to rain on their parade wouldn't it?"

Graham will also hope for more consistency from the referee than he received on Saturday. In the 55th minute and with the Force ahead for the first time, New Zealander Vinnie Munro penalised winger Nick Cummins for not releasing the ball in a tackle.

Soon after Crusaders centre Sonny Bill Williams and hooker Corey Flynn went unpunished close to the Force line for the same offence.

Munro made Force scrum-half Brett Sheehan feed an untidy scrum that gave the Crusaders an advantage in that build up, when earlier he allowed a similar Crusaders scrum to be reset.

"What you want from the referee is consistency," Force captain Nathan Sharpe said.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...d-a-quick-fix/