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The Emirates Western Force has fallen short in their bid for back to back wins at home as an in-form Chiefs side called on all their big guns to conjure a 20 – 12 victory and elevate themselves to the top of the FxPro Super Rugby standings.
After scoring nine tries in the past fortnight the Emirates Western Force weren’t allowed to find their attacking mojo by a stubborn Chiefs’ defence, however the boot of fullback David Harvey ensured they didn’t let their Kiwi opponents get any significant breaks on the scoreboard during the opening 40 minutes.
To their credit the Emirates Western Force was resolute in their defensive assignment against a side that from the outset showed their willingness to spread the ball wide and run at the defence.
While the efforts to restrict the Chiefs attack pleased Coach Richard Graham, the lack of creativity and awareness in the Emirates Western Force backs created an imbalance they were unable to recover from.
“I thought our efforts as a team defensively were outstanding,” Graham said.
“I thought we really supported each other in that respect of the game. In attack our forwards were outstanding again; they worked really, really hard.
“But there was no balance. Our backs didn’t offer anything when the opportunity was there and it appeared there wasn’t a willingness to get involved.”
Lelia Masaga ‘s 16th minute converted try was the only score for the visitors in the opening half while Harvey nailed two penalties for the Emirates Western Force as they went in to the break trailing 7 – 6.
The Chiefs attacking intentions following the restart were clear and they were celebrating shortly after as Sonny Bill Williams, despite the close attention of several defenders, produced a customary offload and winger Tim Nanai-Williams trotted over the line.
Harvey brought it back to just a five point defect for the West Australian’s a short time after but the home side would have been kicking themselves as they gave away a soft penalty to let Chiefs flyhalf Aaron Cruden answer with a penalty of his own to restore the eight point buffer.
That would be the margin at the close of 80 minutes with the Emirates Western Force unable to make any further inroads while the Chiefs were unable to turn their possession into points.
Graham said the lessons of playing against numerous New Zealand internationals would serve his young back brigade well, while experienced reinforcements could be in action next Friday night with Cameron Shepherd and Fijian star Napolioni Nalaga both chances to return from injury.
“Obviously every time you get to start and play a side with the number of All Blacks that they had in it you’re going to learn from it and I think that’s obviously the important thing for us,” said Graham.
“We’ve got another game here next week against the Waratahs so it’ll be important that Seymour, Harvey, Stanley and so forth take the lessons from tonight and put those towards our preparation and look to get a result next week.”
2012 FxPro Super Rugby – Week 7
Friday, 6 April 2012 at nib Stadium
Kick-off: 7.40pm (AWST)
Emirates Western Force 12 (Pens: D Harvey 4/5)
Chiefs 20 (Tries: L Masaga, T. Nanai-Williams; Con: A Cruden 2/2; Pen: A Cruden 2/3)
Emirates Western Force: 1.Pek Cowan, 2.Nathan Charles, 3.Salesi Ma’afu, 4.Toby Lynn, 5.Nathan Sharpe, 6.Richard Brown, 7.David Pocock (Captain), 8.Matt Hodgson, 9.Brett Sheehan, 10.Ben Seymour, 11.Alfie Mafi, 12.Winston Stanley, 13.Nick Cummins, 14.Samu Wara, 15.David Harvey, 16.Elvis Taione, 17.Kieran Longbottom, 18.Phoenix Battye, 19.Ben McCalman, 20.Josh Holmes, 21.Rory Sidey, 22.Patrick Dellit
Chiefs: 1.Arizona Taumalolo, 2. Mahonri Schwalger, 3.Ben Tameifuna, 4.Craig Clarke (Captain), 5. Brodie Retallick, 6.Liam Messam, 7.Tanerau Latimer, 8.Kane Thompson, 9.Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 10.Aaron Cruden, 11.Tim Nanai-Williams, 12.Sonny Bill Williams, 13.Richard Kahui, 14.Lelia Masaga, 15.Robbie Robinson, 16.Hika Elliot, 17.Josh Hohneck, 18.Michael Fitzgerald, 19.Sam Cane, 20.Augustine Pulu, 21.Andrew Horrell, 22.Jackson Willison
Yellow Cards: nil
Red Cards: nil
Referee: Jonathon White
Crowd: 17,112
By the clock
Min Details Score
9 David Harvey Penalty Goal 3 - 0
16 Lelia Masaga Try 3 - 5
17 Aaron Cruden Conversion 3 - 7
21 David Harvey Penalty Goal 6 - 7
32 David Harvey Missed PG 6 - 7
45 Aaron Cruden Missed PG 6 - 7
48 Tim Nanai-Williams Try 6 - 12
49 Aaron Cruden Conversion 6 - 14
51 David Harvey Penalty Goal 9 - 14
53 Aaron Cruden Penalty Goal 9 - 17
57 David Harvey Penalty Goal 12 - 17
69 Aaron Cruden Penalty Goal 12 - 20
Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
So RG says the backs aren't doing their job!
Well it's about time you started teaching them then
Have we got a backs coach because at the moment it doesn't look like it. Even a baboon gives up trying the same thing if it fails all the time.
Still a better result than was honestly expected at least they played with passion.
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Don't be too quick there Snob, it's refreshing after a defeat not to hear "tactically we were spot on" and crap like that.
You can't suggest he was wrong, and it was good to hear an honest and improvement-focused assessment of the game.
It tells me that he reckons the team is ready to have those messages spoken publicly, which indicates that the earlier tripe might have been to save fragile egos.
Bring on the performance culture I say!
To be specific, Harvey was pretty bad last night, showed up for speed, kicked badly and didn't tackle well enough. Question is, do we have another ballplayer for fullback, because the option of two ballpalyers standing either side of the ruck might not have been enough, but it's an improvement.
C'mon the![]()
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bigger bodies won the game for the chiefs........................
Gigs can't agree more about our kicking. Out of hand kick abismal. Tactical kick the same.
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It's a good job we were playing against a bunch of individuals last night.
Just imagine if we played a cohesive team and what score they might have got.
Soft penalty my ar$e! The ball was clearly out.
speaking of which:
1) Chiefs slowed our ruck all night by having a player on our side, only blown late in game. Pocock needs to get in ear of ref (Sheehan waved arms a bit).
2) Chiefs bored in on Maafu, got pinged after 3rd. Pocock and Browne shifted a bit to held support him. Smart.
3) Chiefs offside all night, well inside last feet. Pocock needs to get in ear of ref.
4) at least 6 penalties against attacking team for trivial reasons. Cr@p reffing.
Not whinge or rant, observations.
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Some players are slack. When Harvey cleared the ball with a great kick warra chased like a demon to prevent the quick throw in but over ran a little and another chiefs player ran up and they ran back 50 meters to put us under pressure again. Where were the other players running up to help out? Coach will not be happy seeing that on replay. Seems to be a tactic to have a player loiter on our side of the breakdown to give that extra time for their players get over the ball or slow ours down.
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
not a lot of highlights in that for us...
Not so sure about that Gigsy
RG's quotes from Perth Now web site:
I thought our effort was outstanding. Our defensive effort was really good, and we frustrated them,” he said.
“Every time they made a break there was someone to tackle them, and when they passed there was someone there to tackle that guy, and as a consequence they turned the ball over a lot.
“I think you can take a lot of heart and positives out of that. There were opportunities to win that game.
“It's a close competition … and for us it's about putting ourselves in a position at the end of the game to win it.”
Classic - we had so many opportunities to win the games for the past 2 years. Problem is we dont!!!!
LOL - lets hope the game is better tomorrow.
Also disappointing to see they haven't given the young fella Kyle Godwin another run.
5 Minutes against the Reds at the end of game was hardly an opportunity.
Have you come back down to earth DBro ?... this was last week / previous week...
This week the game is on Friday the 13/04/2012 at NIB Stadium against the Tahs.. catch up boy.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
What drugs are u on?
I was commenting on last weeks game, bit hard to comment on a game that hasnt been played yet. Yes it took a week to comment but I have a life
and in relation to the Kyle comment ir was a general observation made on the fact he didnt play last week and he isnt listed to play against the Tahs.
Please be more specific if u want to slam me![]()