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Western Force face Tonga with ambitious targets in mind
The Australian12:00AM May 12, 2018
WAYNE SMITH, Senior Sport Writer, Brisbane@WayneKeithSmith
The average ball-in-play stat in Super Rugby is 33 minutes, which makes it highly ambitious of the Western Force’s World Series Rugby coach Tim Sampson to set his goal at 40 minutes.
It’s not likely he will achieve that tomorrow against Tonga in the second WSR match at nib Stadium but after getting up to 38 minutes last week in the win over Fiji, it looks achievable, particularly if the Force make better use of the provisional laws which allow them to throw into a lineout the moment their line is formed.
Even a 40-minute figure would mean the ball would be in play only one minute in every two, but in a game as exacting as professional rugby, that’s still a clattering pace.
The world record stands at 42 minutes, but not to the men. It was achieved in a women’s World Cup match. Asked whether his players are fit enough to sustain such a pace, Sampson admitted that they were not there yet.
“I’d be lying if I said we were there right now because of the staggered arrival of players in Perth. But by the end of WSR, I’d like to think they would be fit enough,” he said.
The Force arrivals continue, with prop Cameron Orr arriving this week from his commitments while star signing, All Black lock Jeremy Thrust, will not land in Perth for another three weeks, hopefully in time for the June 23 clash with the Crusaders.
Sampson has made two changes to the side that downed Fiji 24-14, with Perth local Clay Uyen taking over at fullback from Peter Grant, who took a heavy head knock last week, while Alifeliti Kaiut’u coming in to replace Heath Tessmann.
Tongan head coach, legendary former Wallabies No 8 Toutai Kefu, has not made it to Perth for this match but all indications are that the Tonga A side provide the basis of the visiting team.
“All Tongan teams prefer a confrontational style of play,” Sampson said. “They like to rumble up the middle of the park with their forwards and then run their backline plays off that.”
There was no way this game could hope to match the opening-night crowd of just under 20,000 last week, but ticket sales point to a crowd of 12,000, which is still likely to be the biggest rugby audience in the country this weekend.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/spo...0e81754f9663eb
May 11, 2018
Two days out from World Series Rugby Game 2, two Australian under-20 players are ready to make their starting debuts for the Force.
Local star Clay Uyen will start at full-back replacing Peter Grant, who has recovered well from the concussion he suffered in last Friday’s win over Fiji. Hooker Alifeleti Kaitu’u will start on the park replacing vice-captain Heath Tessmann who will miss with hamstring soreness.
Into the squad for his first taste of Force rugby comes wing/full-back Henry Taefu and young scrumhalf Elliott Turner.
TEAM
Western Force vs Tonga:
1. HARRY LLOYD
2. ALIFELETI KAITU’U
3. CHRIS HEIBERG
4. FERGUS LEE-WARNER
5. JOHAN BARDOUL
6. TEVIN FERRIS
7. CHRIS ALCOCK
8. BRYNARD STANDER (VC)
9. IAN PRIOR (C)
10. ANDREW DEEGAN
11. BRAD LACEY
12. RODNEY IONA
13. MARCEL BRACHE
14. ROD DAVIES
15. CLAY UYEN
16. HARRY SCOBLE
17. TOM SHEMINANT
18. KIERAN LONGBOTTOM
19. LEON POWER
20. HARRISON ORR
21. ELLIOT TURNER
22. AJ ALATIMU
23. HENRY TAEFU
https://www.westernforce.com.au/youn...ready-to-fire/
PRECIS
"We've got four times the population, but we can't get half the crowd you get, even after we totally screwed over your state.
It's not fair!"
'I may be a Senator but I am not stupid'
https://omny.fm/shows/the-alan-jones-breakfast-show/cameron-clyne
Link to Senate Report http://www.aph.gov.au/senate_ca
https://www.change.org/p/rugby-australia-petition-for-cameron-clyne-to-resign-as-chairman-of-the-rugby-australia-board
Its not really how it works.
You get an email and it says you have free tickets to the Force but you need to redeem them through ticketmaster if you wish to come by a certain date or they must end up on-sold. So you click the link and certain sections of the grand stand in silver class has sections of seating for juniors which you can chose the 4 seats for the family pass in. You basically end up buying the tickets through the website like any other event except the ticket prices come up as $0 and do not require a credit card. So if a family doesn't do this process the tickets will not be allocated to them and the general public must be able to purchase them after the nominated date. But the junior seats are random spread around all the silver class areas and are generally some of the best seats in silver.
I'm trying not to nitpick, but this double-header has not been marketed as a separate entity too well, unlike the first game; a lot of people I know thought the Fiji game was a one-off for the year. Hopefully with the break after this, we can see some more fixture-specific ads around the media; especially at the Horseshoe Bridge screens.
Would be good to see coverage of the Mauritius Tens, we have a chance of winning that.
Japan and the Pacific Islands for Aussie Super 9's!
Let's have one of these in WA! Click this link: Saitama Super Arena - New Perth Stadium?
Still at work!
All the very best to everyone involved today. Really hoping for a good crowd and a good result
Big opportunity to give RA a big FU! Especially with yesterday's results and poor attendences!!!
Great game, Fucken battled right through to the 80!
Can't agree Chibi.
It's not going to be as big as last week - but it was well covered at the ground last week and in between.
The bulk of the advertising has been for ALL of the games not just the 1st game against Fiji.
I reckon that we'll get >15,000 at this one - which will be very good for a Mother's Day.
It's a shame that there hasn't been coverage of the make-up of the Tongan team but I hear that they've brought back their Internationals from Europe etc.
Looking forward to the Women's game.....
Does anyone know if it is on 7 Two again?
Great game, Fucken battled right through to the 80!
Anybody need updates here during the match?