Force v Rebels: Match Report

[jombi]

What the *#$@.

I want to qualify this post by saying I have had 5 white russians so far, so if it doesn't make sense pretend you're pissed.

There were 3 main problems that I saw the with game tonight;

1) We miss Pocock

Now I don't mean his ruck work, we're one of the luckiest clubs in the world in that we have 5~ players who can cover the pilfer role. But what we missed was a 190kg bloke smashing the ball up flat footed from the ruck along with Sharpe.

With Sharpe doing it by himself it slows the ball down too much and we have the worst flat footed backline offence in the comp.

2) O'Connor is not Carlos Spencer

The backline is too flat on attack. Spencer could do it (until the 03 semi when it blew up in his face) but O'Connor is not the same sort of player, he's a running 12 with good forward vision - he's not a player who can set up a 5 phase play like King Carlos could.

The 'canes have been trying to emulate it for years and look where it's got them!

3) Charles didn't do the robot

I donated $10 to his charity with the note to do the robot when he scored a try, and he didn't bloody do the robot!

Now there were lots of things that cost us the game, but it was obviously the lack of a lock n pop hooker that ultimately cost us!

And Sharpe in the post game interview - he deserves better.

[Jambooi]

What can I say. This year I miss two games being out of town for the Bulls & Crusaders games. At first I was sorry about it but after every game I am starting to be glad I will not have to sit through this weekly agony!

[jazza93]

Not a great performance, but maybe this will give them the kick they need for next week.

[theforceguy]

At this stage I am to scared to thing about next week

The issues we have cannot go away in one week. The stupid game plan we had was exactly the same as against the Stormers we made the same errors. If we not going to chase the ball when kicking then we should not kick. If we want to play with the forwards then they should form pods running in 2's and 3's not his one forward trying to run through the opposition back-line on his own crap that they were trying tonight and also against the stormers. And maybe we need to buy someone that can f?@#ng kick accurate on distances further than 40 meters.

[jombi]

Not a great performance, but maybe this will give them the kick they need for next week.

It's coaching not a player issue. I doubt you could name 1 force player on the field that didn't give 5000%.

Our main problem is that we have not had a settled backline in our existence. Graham should just give himself an uppercut and accept that whenever we sign a playmaker, he's going to break his leg taking a piss. So we need to just play like the bulls/storks/poms.

Everytime it's chucked wide the outside backs are wrapped up as they get the ball because of the flat backline. Run it primarily through the forwards ant chuck it wide if the opportunity presents itself rather than randomly.

Rambo can't beat 3 defenders by himself!

nd maybe we need to buy someone that can f?@#ng kick accurate on distances further than 40 meters.

We need a proper five eight at 10.

Is Stefano Hunt still in the system or was he released? If so pluck someone from the Perth comp (pref from ARKS!).

We need a flyhalf urgently, not someone who can just cover the position.

[theforceguy]

It's coaching not a player issue. I doubt you could name 1 force player on the field that didn't give 5000%.

Our main problem is that we have not had a settled backline in our existence. Graham should just give himself an uppercut and accept that whenever we sign a playmaker, he's going to break his leg taking a piss. So we need to just play like the bulls/storks/poms.

Everytime it's chucked wide the outside backs are wrapped up as they get the ball because of the flat backline. Run it primarily through the forwards ant chuck it wide if the opportunity presents itself rather than randomly.

Rambo can't beat 3 defenders by himself!



We need a proper five eight at 10.

Is Stefano Hunt still in the system or was he released? If so pluck someone from the Perth comp (pref from ARKS!).

We need a flyhalf urgently, not someone who can just cover the position.

Double Praise for the rambo comment

[beige]

God damn it, if there was one team I didn't want to lose to this year... They better show some more composure in the return fixture.

[jazza93]

It's coaching not a player issue. I doubt you could name 1 force player on the field that didn't give 5000%.

Yes the players are too blame for part of the loss. So many unforced errors, and i would like to see anyone say with a straight face "There is not one player not giving 5000%" watching that piss-weak cross kick try.

Don't get me wrong, i think the players are doing fine. But i hate this irrational blame game after every loss. It's always someones fault....

If anyone actually had a problem with the coaches selection, before the game is when i'd listen to complaints. Because coach's don't get the benefit of simulating how the backline will go when making their selection. You have to criticize them based on the information they had at the time of selection, not how the players ended up performing on game day.

We need a proper five eight at 10.

Yes. O'Conner can either be a world class outside back, or a fairly close to benchmark fly half.

We could really use someone like Halangahu as a reserve inside back. The Waratahs wont know his real worth until they look at our situation.

[jombi]

Yes the players are too blame for part of the loss. So many unforced errors, and i would like to see anyone say with a straight face "There is not one player not giving 5000%" watching that piss-weak cross kick try.

Don't get me wrong, i think the players are doing fine. But i hate this irrational blame game after every loss. It's always someones fault....

If anyone actually had a problem with the coaches selection, before the game is when i'd listen to complaints. Because coach's don't get the benefit of simulating how the backline will go when making their selection. You have to criticize them based on the information they had at the time of selection, not how the players ended up performing on game day.






Yes. O'Conner can either be a world class outside back, or a fairly close to benchmark fly half.

We could really use someone like Halangahu as a reserve inside back. The Waratahs wont know his real worth until they look at our situation.

The thing is that they followed the gameplan. If you'd read my posts in the WF sub-thread-menu-thingymajib you'd note me whinging about the flat backline for the last 50 games!

The flat backline has not worked at all in the force' history. We don't get quick ball and without quickball you can not have a flat backline.

It's one thing to aim for a flat backline and launching inside centres off it, but you need to actually get the quick ball going in the first place. You can't run with that plan and chuck the ball around as if the backline isn't settled when they are - or you get what happened tonight & last week.

There is no contingency plan for when quick ball isn't working, and then we get swamped by people in wheelchairs like Mortlock.

We need a 10 to direct play in the traditional five eight role ala Mehrtens. We don't have the go forward (especially without Pocock) to play like the Auckland blues of 03.

Just look at the bulls and how they won tonight - it wasn't pretty, but the fact remains they won. I'm sick of the force losing by 1 bloody point! They need to win by playing like dickheads rather than losing bravely.

[jazza93]

You have some good points, but i'm not sure if much of it contradicts anything i've had to say.

The Force made a lot of unforced errors tonight, more than a coach can plan for. Without the rather unnecessary errors such as wingers not keeping an eye on their opponent's when a penalty is given, i think we may have got the 4 points with ease.

I don't disagree that there is lots of room for tactical improvement. But maybe make a new thread if you want to discuss tactics.

[James]

What do you say about a game like that? Sharpie, Richard Graham, and pretty much everyone in the post-match interview room were pretty flat. Noone really wanted to saw much because there wasn't a lot ot say. The same old lines came out of the Coach's phrasebook 101: We lost our shape in attack. We played too loosely. We didn't respect our opponents. But none of that really matters. What matters is how are we bloody well going to fix it? A task made more difficult with Matt Hodgson likely to spend a stint on the sidelines after his nasty shoulder injury. At least David Pocock, who reportedly will be another 3-4 weeks, will have someone to keep him company. I think what makes this game hurt so much is that this game was the point at which we could have turned the season around. I never expected much more than mid-table this year, but even that is looking distant now and it leaves little to build on for next year.

It is pretty hard to be a Force fan on nights like this. I suppose it could've been a lot worse; it could've been like the Waratahs vs the Cheetahs. But in my opinion we didn't actually play that badly. Sure we left a lot of opportunities begging and our handling was average but it all just came down to that terrible intercepted pass and that moment of insanity that was the Cipriani cross-field kick. I feel my teeth grinding away just thinking about it. I wondered, on my way home on the train, if we shouldn't change our name to the Western Whatifs. I agree with a lot of what has already been said: Our backline was too flat, our forwards aren't working well as a team, we need Pocock back (although I want him back mostly for his tackling), JO'C needs to be moved to 15 to organize our counter-attack. Maybe having Willie Ripia back will fix that.

Anyway, enough dwelling on the negatives. Time to look at a few positives and look forward to next week. I thought Sam Wykes was the stand out amongst a pack that didn't perform to the highs of previous rounds. Nathan Charles was also good in the beginning but he disappeared a bit after about the 20 minute mark. Amongst the backs I thought David Smith had his best game in Force colours. He looked dangerous on a few occasions and ran the ball well. James O'Connor was also good, but you get the sense that those talents might be better utilized elsewhere. His case of the "Giteaus" with his kicking made the difference between winning and losing. I imagine he will be pretty filthy with himself for his 3 missed shots.

We should lift for next weekend's game against the Tahs. We always seem to play better at home against the tougher opponents.

Force team for next weekend:
1. Pek Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Tim Fairbrother
4. Tom Hockings
5. Nathan Sharpe
6. Sam Wykes
7. Richard Brown
8. Ben McCalman
9. Brett Sheehan
10. Willie Ripia
11. Cameron Shepherd
12. Gene Fairbanks
13. Nick Cummins
14. David Smith
15. James O'Connor

[BeeJay]

Not a great performance, but maybe this will give them the kick they need for next week.

How many do we @#*^@@#! need?

[AndyS]

This team is such a frustration! There were actually some things to like out of that, particularly seeing players running onto the ball on a number of occasions. But it is like they can only address one thing at the cost of something else. They finally generate some penetration bursting onto the ball, but the ball defense evaporates and we have the backs doing all the clean-out while the forwards seagull around.

But it was mostly the same problems as usual. The constant issue of flat lines, aggravated by slow telegraphed passes. Maybe a single kick that was actually chased, where most of the oppositions were received under pressure. Not a single one of our restarts contested or even contestable. Pop passes that aren't fast and instinctive, but are clearly the product of conscious thought making them slow, late and pushed to try and compensate. Forwards running alone rather than in pods (although I generally thought our carry was better). Ultimately though, the best description was lazy. Lazy when we kicked ball away and didn't bother chasing it, mentally lazy on that cross-kick defense, and lazy on the defense of possession.

One of the few bright spots was again seeing Shepherd continue to improve. He was very secure under the high ball, which is why I would always keep him at fullback rather than put O'Connor back. He hit the ball moving fast a few times too, which is almost always a line break for him or to whoever he offloads the ball. But the moment that really caught the eye was the seemingly effortless pick up of that Cipriani chip, not just defending but instantly putting us on attack with O'Connor's break. When he starts doing that stuff again, making something out of little or nothing, then he starts looking like a bloke for which the national team could find a use. Also, really nice to see Longbottom again come on and show himself more than adequate to the task of playing at this level.

[GIGS20]

The thing that posses me of is two out of three high kicks which we diffused from deep and decided not to kick back down their throat with no chase ended up in 80 metre line breaks. Yet we persisted with giving them the ball back in reasonable position with nobody able to tackle for 20m. We were holding our own in the line out and blocking up their run off it so if we were going to kick without chasing why the he'll weren't we looking for the line?

[Kimbo Moz]

Bad Luck Force, well done Rebels. It was always going to be a close match - Rebels couldn't win away and Force can't win at home. From a Wallabies point of view it was great to see Stirling Mortlock smashing our relatively tiny centres and the new guy Pyle run amok. The try-making chip across the face from the Pommy bloke after he pretended to prepare for a penalty kick was a fantastic move and I am surprised it doesn't happen more often.

I think the Force played with heart but they are simply not good enough to be up there. If you don't believe they played with heart just watch Nathan Sharpe's post match interview, the guy was almost in tears. Its good to see Wykes stringing some good games in a row and also West Aussie Longbottom getting some decent game time. I thought he played pretty well with some good breaks through the lines.

It's time for Richard Graham to open up the game plan now and let the backs run wild. The season is over. Time to entertain the fans with some tries. If we are going to lose we might as well lose in style!