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March 27, 2008 - 4:08pm
Story by: Sportal
Force winger Drew Mitchell
The Force are back at home this week after a fruitful two-match-Trans-Tasman mission while the Stormers will look to finish their own four-game Australasian sojourn with another victory.
VENUE & TIME: Subiaco Oval, Perth, Friday March 28, 20.00 (local).
HEAD TO HEAD: Played 2 – Force 1, Stormers 1.
LAST TIME: February 9, 2007 (Bloemfontein) – Force 22-3 Stormers.
WALKING WOUNDED: Force scrumhalf Chris O'Young has been named in the starting XV but will have to prove he has overcome the shoulder complaint that saw him miss the clash with the Highlanders on Saturday. The Stormers welcome back hooker Tiaan Liebenberg after three weeks on the sidelines with a thigh strain.
Liebenberg is the only change to the tourists' 22 and will start the match on the bench.
FORM: The Force sit in fourth spot on the back of consecutive victories over the Blues and Highlanders. No doubt can be cast over the fitness of John Mitchell's men who piled on 20-unanswered-second-half points against the Blues and 16-straight in the final 20 minutes to topple the Highlanders. The Perth-based side also pushed runaway leaders the Crusaders to their limit before going down 29-24 in round-four - no other side has finished within 20-points of the Cantabrians this season. The Stormers have also made a move up the table in recent weeks after a slow start with emphatic victories over the Reds and Chiefs before falling by three points to the Blues.
WHO'S HOT: John Mitchell has his men operating as a cohesive unit with the likes of Ryan Cross, Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell in fine form out wide. But the forwards - led by skipper Nathan Sharpe who will play his 100th Super Rugby fixture this weekend - have shown they can more than hold their own this season. For the Sharks Schalk Burger and Luke Watson are both in blistering form in the backrow while flyhalf Peter Grant did enough against the Blues to hold off former All Black Tony Brown, who showed glimpses of his best from the bench in his first appearance for the men from Cape Town.
TEAMS:
Force: 1 - Pek Cowan, 2 -Tai McIsaac, 3 - AJ Whalley,
4 - Tom Hockings, 5 - Nathan Sharpe (c), 6 - Scott Fava, 7 - David Pocock, 8 - Richard Brown, 9 - Chris O’Young, 10 - Matt Giteau, 11 - Drew Mitchell, 12 - Scott Daruda, 13 - Ryan Cross, 14 - Scott Staniforth, 15 -Cameron Shepherd.
Reserves: 16 - Luke Holmes, 17 - Troy Takiari, 18 - Sam Wykes, 19 - Tamaiti Horua, 20 - James Stannard, 21 - Lachlan MacKay, 22 - Nick Cummins.
Stormers:1 - JD Moller, 2 - Schalk Brits, 3 - Brian Mujati, 4 - Ross Skeate, 5 - Andries Bekker, 6 - Schalk Burger, 7 - Francois Louw, 8 - Luke Watson, 9 - Ricky Januarie, 10 - Peter Grant, 11 - Sireli Naqelevuki, 12 - Jean De Villiers (c), 13 - Gcobani Bobo, 14 - Tonderai Chavhanga, 15 - Conrad Jantjes.
Reserves:16 - Tiaan Liebenberg, 17 - Brok Harris, 18 - Adriaan Fondse, 19 - Robbie Diack, 20 - Conrad Hoffmann, 21 - Gio Aplon, 22 - Tony Brown.
Just triple checking. Kick off is 8pm right?! Foxtel has the force game on at 7.35pm, and its unusual for a game to be this late, so im really worried i get it wrong.
7:35 is probably just when they start the show and talk about the teams etc etc and at 8:00 they'll kick off.
I sure hope Chris O'Young is good to go because Ricky Januarie is a little pain in the ass and having just one scrum-half play 80 minutes or so on him would be telling.
after watching stannards defence last week, the fitness of o'young could be pivotal to our success tonight.
the last thing we need is a former bok half finding his sneaky, cheeky best against a half who is relatively inexperience and has shown some signs that he doesnt like tackling much
So of course we'll be good tonight but shut Januarie down and we'll be on fire!
My offer still stands with Shep!
I think Chrisso will be able to handle Januarie. Didnt think much of stannards defense last weeks as well. If we can stop januarie, we stop the ball going into the backline, then we basically kill off the stormers. I'm counting down the hours to the game tonight.
happy days....home game again, and don't have to wait 3 weeks for the next game.
HOpefully the boys can have a win - they have not really established a 'home ground advantage' yet, home results have tended to be a bit inconsistent - hadn't realised they had only won 3 games at home to date.
The best thing with a late game is a full hour or two to tune up prior to the game - i should hopefully be able to be very loud and obnoxious tonight
Errr 4 games at home- Sharks, Cheetahs, Reds and Hurricanes. Hopefully an extra one today.
I hate Subiaco Oval...I am sure our boys do too....they perform well away...they have corners...they come home...they don't...we have to do something soon...
Fox commentators said the same thing our record at home is 3 from 13
61 years between Grand SlamsWas the wait worth it - Ya betta baby
Well I mean its their job and so often when you watch commentators who seem clueless about everything they get names wrong, they get stats wrong, some of them just get everything wrong. I remember watching the 2005 Australia v Wales match and listening through a whole game of the Welsh commentator calling Tuqiri 'Tumqiri'. And don't even get me started on the South African commentators.....
Why can't we just get someone who is actually half good at the job?