Chiefs prove too strong for the Western Force, winning 37-19 in Perth

[Woody]

Composure and cohension, out with the lights. It seemed every time we got into a position to score everyone hit the panic button.
With Spanner being the exception, all the 'rated' returns played poorly. The guys who filled in the last couple of weeks actually didn't do too bad in comparsion.
Composure and cohension

[zimeric]

From my position there were three things that let us down..

lineout throws
frightened/panicked in defence - looked a bit like stage fright to me for some reason
sliding off tackles - the missed tackle count must of been horrendous!!

i will give credit where its due and not blame the ref.. the Chiefs back line looked sensational, they were easily 10kg's heavier per man than ours and had more agility and every time they got the ball everyone held their breath as they knew something was about to happen. As opposed to when ever we got the ball out wide..

The first 10 mins were great but then ....

[oxleymoron]

Fundamentals were missing last night - kicking ball out of full from restarts or outside the 22 (4 times I can remember), lineouts lost on own throw and missed tackles.

Just as an aside, how many times to we train at MES every week? It almost appears like the first time we see the ground is gameday.

[brokendown gunfighter]

tactical kicking was apalling,O'Connor still has alot to learn in this department
fullback caught out of position on numerous occasions(I know, turnovers were a reason)
missing first up tackles
serious lack of pace in some of our backs
poor throwing at our lineout
failure to capilise on our chances through poor handling
Bronski Beats ringing of the cowbells putting off our players
all adding up to an insipid display

[The InnFORCEr]

Fundam

Just as an aside, how many times to we train at MES every week? It almost appears like the first time we see the ground is gameday.

This week it was McGilvray Tuesday and ME Bank Thursday & Friday (Captains Run).

[BDAVEY]

Am now at home eating chocolate cake

I am consoled by the memories of Sharpie's defence and Cross's intercept, but I don't understand just HOW FORWARD a pass has to be before it's called.



Anyway. Back to my cake...

exactly there heaps of forward pass' the ref missed and illegial knockdowns and the touchy missed a out of touch in front of us which lead to the first try... no consistency at all

[SNOB]

it seemed as though Sharpie, JOC, Spanner and Sheenan were the only ones who thought they could win the game.
Shame I thought they could do it but some very basic school boy errors, Knock ons,throw ins, kicks out on the full, missed tackles.
Oh well maybe the buy will help and we can look forward to a big improvement in two weeks time.

[The InnFORCEr]

Without it sounding like an excuse, it does seem to me that almost everytime a situation like a forward pass or knock is missed against us, the opposition almost always get points out of it. It may be that I pay more attention to our games and those decisions, but it does seem to happen a hell of a lot to us.

[BeeJay]

OK Time for my rant.

There is no way in the world you can win a game of rugby by giving away so much set piece possession. Lineouts have already been mentioned, but the scrum went backwards when Dunning came on. There was not enough nous in the front row to combat the Chiefs time wasting collapses and the tendency to pull back on one side.

Tactically, the one thing you don't want to do against the Chiefs is to give away possession in open play - and that is exactly what we did by our "tactical" kicking. THEY were coming back from South Africa and into the heat, yet WE were made to run around!

Pek needs to get more throwing practice or get Tyrrell on instead.

Bartholomeusz needs to spend a week on the tackle bags, focussing on going LOW.

Crossy needs to put in for the full 80.

Hodgo and Sharpie were awesome. JOC had to do heaps yet again. Wykesy certainly did not disgrace himself. Sheehan was fantastic.

But all our optimism about our forwards preseason again amounted to little. At best there was parity there, but whenever we were in their red zone, we just could not get over the line. It looked so easy for the Chiefs and the Canes!

I am sick of all the hype surrounding us picking up some over the hill veteran, way past his best, as some sort of solution. Australian rugby needs more depth - its time to bleed Hunt. Put Haylett-Petty at fullback. The Chiefs had some youngsters come off the bench and perform really well. Why have Harris on the bench if you are not going to use him?!

The reality is, even if we had a full squad with Pocock, Brownie and Shep back, winning would still be a struggle.

[shasta]

Not the result I was hoping to see. But after all that's happened nobody should be surprised. The Chiefs are in white hot form just now so what else would you expect? There is plenty of room for improvement and quite a few teams that the boys are capable of beating. Suck it up and stay solid.

Its starting to look like 2006...

What, you mean the Ponies will not make the semis, again? That would make it 6 seasons in a row.

[Brumby_jack]

I think you guys are in for a long season. Two home games and both losses which isn't good. I think is time for John Mitchell to go, maybe the message is getting old.

[Elf1]

I think you guys are in for a long season. Two home games and both losses which isn't good. I think is time for John Mitchell to go, maybe the message is getting old.

Welcome Brumby Jack now piss off to the glue factory

[James]

This season may not be great but no need for all the gloom and doom. I reckon we'll still win at least another 4 games. The break will give us time to settle in a get things back on track. Quit moaning.

[Sheikh]

The cons (as I see them):
Pek's throwing was awful, and no-one seemed to be able to think up a solution. Surely, if he's struggling with the wind, get him to throw low and hard to the front of the line-out. Otherwise, get Tyrell in.

And seeing how p*ss-poor Dunning was, Pek should have been moved out to prop and Ryan brought on for Dunning. That would have woken the slug up - being subbed off.

I don't know if it was co-incidence, but the defence turned to jelly once Dunning came on - not enough people committing to the ruck, and happy to line up in defence. Rabbit kicked too much, especially in the second half, and Sheehan was too slow getting the ball out of the few rucks we did win. He seemed to want to run set plays constantly, but the best running rugby happens when you don't give the defence time to set.

The pros:
Our locks and the 'second-string' back row of Ben, Hodgo and Wyksey were brilliant. I'd have given Wykes man of the match.

Spanner played like he'd never left. If Hill can make a similar start we'll be in a good position.

Rabbit didn't look completely over-awed at 10.

What we need to do:
Use the bye to integrate Hill into the backs, and tell Dunning to harden up or be dropped from the 22.

Give Pek intensive throwing practice.

Tell Sheehan to speed up the ball.

[welshrugbyfan]

I don't think the players believe in themselves that they can win with all the injuries.

All except a handfull, Sharpe, Hodgo and even the kid who play like we can still win.

Some of the tackling was terrible, well most of the tackling actually.

What does Cummins have to offer? Or is he a confidence player and only plays well when others around him are playing well?

No heart shown last night by most of the boys.

We need a Masaga or two, that's how you run at the defence. Not a big man just believes in what he can do. Players were crapping when he was running towards them.