Spent Force?

[BeeJay]

Again we reach the business end of the season with semifinal hopes slipping away and a reliance on mathematical chances and what OTHER teams do as our only hope.

Last year Mitch said we have to get tougher to win this competition and though there are some positive signs we are not there yet.

The season so far began so well with 9 points from South Africa, a narrow loss to the pace-setting Crusaders, and a clean sweep in New Zealand.

In retrospect some may say we were lucky to win the close ones (Bulls, Lions and Cheetahs). I don't entirely agree. But coming close against the Crusaders, Sharks and the Tahs is just not good enough.

The best performance of the year was against the Blues, and especially in the second half. The wheels fell off against the Stormers, and the car went backwards today.

It seems when we put in a couple of good performances the intensity falls away. Time to face a few brutal facts.

1 Our scrum has been going backwards, and has been doing so for a while.
2 There is an over reliance on Gits - some of the other in the backline need to read the play and initiate more. This includes O'Young.
3 Our fowards relish certain elements of the ELVs but we lack old fashioned SIZE and BULK
4 Our front row (Taipan excepted) are yound and learning are not up there with most other franchises

What can be done? Hopefully the break will be used to fire up the intensity again. But as professionals, and with such a loyal crowd behind them, should that be necessary? A rectangular stadium that the players are used to and can call home, and where the crowd is on top of the play and can intimidate the visiting team is surely a must.

[pieter blackie]

There is a similar thread running

What went wrong - Western Force Rugby Supporters Site

[Happy]

we pass too quickly, we need to suck the opposition players in before offloading the ball.. and when passing too many of the receivers are standing still, they should be sweeping through to take advantage of a hole which might appear...

[chook]

You need someone like Lote to draw the defenders and make huge gaps in opp. defence and offloaders like Tahu who pretty much rocks, when fit.

[laura]

Seeings as though the forwards need to bulk up...is this be an excuse for them to eat more?

I think clearance from the tackle is a problem to. The ball is out and just sits there for a bit, quick ball won't give the opposition time to pre-empt our play.

As for relying on Giteau...I think thats a hard call. John Mitchell said Lachy played well (in the first half) and I cant see how it can be said he missed Giteau on the field, becuase he was Giteau's replacement!

I also notice that in today's paper there is a picture of Fava jumping in the lineout (which he ends up getting) but his eyes aren't on the ball. Obviously I can't watch the players eye contact with the ball all of the time, but maybe this is something simple that they can work on?

[pieter blackie]

They are soft really soft there was someone on the ground injured after every brake down

[chiselhead]

After so much promise, the last month has been disappointing and frustrating. One win from our last 4 starts was not in the script. Last nights second half was abysmal.

To my surprise, the scrum has become more imporatant under the ELVs. The Force suck at scrum time. Without wanting to seem unkind to our frontrow who are making the best of their opportunity, they don't have the size or technique to be dominant in this competition. AJ has the mobility since he used to be a backrower but he gets dominated at scrumtime.

After the Auckland match where our backrow dominated the breakdown I felt we were really a chance in this competition. The Stormers and Reds absolutely owned us at the breakdown. We lost so much ball which does not allow continuity. It's hard to keep getting set in attacking formation when you lose the ball and have to chase back downfield. The Tahs also gave us some trouble here but the last 20 mins against the Tahs was actually a quality performance but we just couldn't get over the line.

Similarly, the second twenty minutes of the first half last night against the Reds saw some sparkling attacking rugby with fantastic phase play. It seemed like the Reds would open up and get blown away. I expected them to go belly up in the second half but we seemed to spend the entire second half in our own quarter defending.

Brown and Pocock are fantastic players and will get better and better. We still need a hulking blindside for impact. Horua was supposed to be the man. I have been disappointed with him on the bench. He should be starting. Fava has just not been the player he was at the Brumbies although his experience is invaluable.Horua got badly injured last night unfortunately. Injuries disrupted our rhythm last night.

The super 14 is a tough competition. Constant long haul flights and the injuries sustained in an elite contact sport must make it very difficult to play at your peak every week. If you are mentally off anybody can beat you as the Chiefs proved last night against the Crusaders. The standard of all teams is exceptional.

I have been surprised by our inability to score tries this sason. There is no shortage of speed and skill in the backs. During the season there has been some sparkling spells of attacking rugby with mouting phase ball and line breaks but we don't seem to be attaching points to them. You have to take every opportunity in this competition and although the Force have looked pretty at times they aren't dotting down.

The contact situation is a problem. The kiwis are the best at taking the ball over the advantage line in traffic and offloading to men in motion. The Force get bogged down and are floppers. They fall over and protect the ball rather than take on the defence and continue forward momentum with leg drive and look to promote the pill rather than dieing with it. Sharpie is spending too much time at first reciver and trying to do fancy passing. That big unit should be smashing into them and popping the ball to speed men. Sharpie is farking huge and tall. He should be able to get his arms free and promote it. He does it sporadically with devastating effect. It breaks my heart to see him getting the ball at first receiver and throwing cut out passes. It also breaks my heart to see them standing at the back of a ruck waving men in to try and drive the ball forward. They are toilet at it. It is telegraphed and slow. I would prefer them to hit the deck and place it to a guy in motion picking up the ball and immediately driving forward increasing the momentum. It's easy to talk about it I suppose. The better teams do it.

Another thing that cheeses the Chis is the drop off at the breakdown. They tackle someone and everybody surrenders the ball and drops back fanning out in defence. There is no challenge for the ball and a meek surrender allowing the opposition to plan their next phase. The ELVs are a free for all. They should be going in harder on the ball to steal it. The Reds did it with devastating effect last night against us. That bald head of Croft was a constant menace. Every time we were building phases and momentum we lost it because of his balls and tenacity at the breakdown. We didn't do it back. The Stormers also owned us at the breakdown. They killed our ball and stole it easily. It's so frustrating when you are on the front foot and you concede a shortarm for hanging on. That has been the main problem for mine. Our backs just aren't getting enough front foot ball. We lose the ball or concede too many short arms at the breakdown. We don't do it enough to our opponents.

The scrum is toilet. Fix it. The scrum is more important than ever. There re now more scrums than lineouts. Opponents are dominating us. We lose attacking ball because our scrum gets busted up, wheeled, collpased, shunted back, laughed at, toyed with, moved left, moved right, bored in on. Its like watching a folding pack of cards. Even the Reds which are over rated scrummagers in my opinion were licking their lips at scrum time. Squeakey Moore is a gimp against most teams but he muscled up with relish against the Force. It was too easy.

The breakdown is a massive problem. see above

The lineout is pretty good. Sharpie has this sorted

[pieter blackie]

That was a whole mouth full but I enjoyed reading it

[BeeJay]

Excellent analysis Chis