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The Good
The Force scrum has come along in leaps and bounds this year; hats off to Nick Stiles for that effort. While it was worrying to see Pek Cowan go off with what looked like a broken jaw (Graham says it looks like season over for him), watching Dunning, Charles and Longbottom stick it up the Brumbies front row was a joy to watch. Charles did his Wallabies prospects no end of good tonight and you have to wonder how much more Longbottom could do before he comes onto Deans’ radar.
The breakdown was also an excellent aspect of play for the Force tonight. The Brumbies simply couldn’t hold onto the ball and a lot of that came down to David Pocock and Matt Hodgson. It almost seemed like the Brumbies were giving it away for free in some parts of the game. It wouldn’t surprise me if Pocock leaps to the top of the Super XV pilfers table after that effort- and that’s despite missing half the season with injury.
The Bad
We had mountains of territory and possession and yet we did nothing with it. How many 5 metres scrums did we have? How many 5 metre line-outs? You need to come away from the opposition red zone with points at least one time in three and, for all the possession we had, we only managed to score three times. How do you fix our attack? It reminds me of a Simpsons quote from Ned Flander’s mother: “You gotta help us, Doc. We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.” Credit to the Brumbies- their defence was good- but if we ever want to become a top half of the table side we need to be far better than we were. Although I enjoyed seeing the early kicks for touch instead of for goal, when it was clear that wasn’t working, Sharpie should have pointed for the posts and built a buffer before declaring an all-out attack. I suppose the good news is that we have all the potential to become an amazing team: A powerful scrum, a well functioning line-out, a backrow that can cause havoc at the breakdown. We just need that last piece of the puzzle to fall into place in the backline and get our players to turn all of that into points.
The Ugly
The vBookie must have cleaned up pretty well on this weekend’s book. Boo.
Man of the Match
The official man of the match was Sam Wykes and that’s a pretty fair call. Almost all of the Force forwards put their hand up for this one, while it is hard to pick a standout amongst the backs. Harder still to pick a standout amongst the Brumbies. Matt Dunning was a rock in the scrum and put in some good hits. David ‘the Vulture’ Pocock had an excellent game and gave the Brumbies numerous headaches. Matt Hodgson was his usual quiet, yet effective self. But Wykes ran the ball well, scored a try, was reliable in the line-out and popped up everywhere around the field.
Notes:
Willie Ripia has been struggling with a calf problem. Richard Graham said that his lower leg muscles haven't returned to fitness since being in the moon boot and that partially explains why he has lacked form recently. Thats why he was subbed in the second half. O'Connor looked good at 10 but we really need a Scott Staniforthesque 12. Power and pace.
Tony Rea didn't have a spray in the post-match interviews. He was pretty happy with the draw. Clutching at straws. It sounded like the Brumbies were signing the team song after the game. You've got to take what you can get. I'm surprised the players hadn't forgotten the words.