Western Force vs Cheetahs

[fulvio sammut]

That was a pretty ugly and ordinary win.

Unless something happens very soon we're going to end up thirteenth on the ladder just in front of the Orange Free State.

Picking the best run on side would be a start ...

[slomo]

ordinary win but i'll take it..........drew mitchell has to work on his kicking he's no fullback....crowd numbers?......

[James]

Line-out blew, Scrum was reasonably good. Defense was pretty good- unlucky to concede that try. Decision making was a fair bit iffy. Couple of kicks taken that were absolute brain explosions. Will need to be better to beat the Brumbies next weekend. I thought Ben Castle and Josh Valentine did pretty well for their debut games.

Ref was pretty shitty but then again they always are.

[Ecky]

Ref was pretty shitty but then again they always are.

Now now James - you should know that you need to back that up with some sort of evidence/hard facts.

In what way was he "pretty shiity"? What did he get wrong that affected either (a) the result, or (b) your enjoyment of the spectacle?

[fulvio sammut]

Well, Ecky, for a start he had a whistle ...

[James]

Now now James - you should know that you need to back that up with some sort of evidence/hard facts.

In what way was he "pretty shiity"? What did he get wrong that affected either (a) the result, or (b) your enjoyment of the spectacle?

Look I respect the fact that refereeing is a bloody tough job and that you can't win. He didn't end up affecting what should have been the result but it easily could have. There were a number of pretty average calls.

That shoulder charge call on Brownie was an absolute joke- the guy smashed straight into Brownie (who was practically stationery) and he didn't even get the chance to wrap his arms around. Brownie certainly suffered more than the tackled player.

Late on in the game he pinged Ryan Cross for a knock-on when they were 20 out from the Cheetahs line and would've scored and it happened right in front of me and I didn't see any knock on.

He also made a dodgy offside call that would have lead to a try pretty early on too. I'll watch the game again and see if I can add to this. I want to look a bit closer to the line-outs because from where I was sitting the Cheetahs often didn't throw particularly straight but that could just be the Subi-effect.

[TOCC]

messy game. did nick cummins do his knee? i dnno.
glad to see Spanna back and the crowd was behind him all the way!

pretty sure Cummins was just cramping up

[oxleymoron]

Obviously Crossy and Cummins both go the same hair salon, Drew's got a lot to answer for

The paralax error of watching rugby at Subi made them look identical

[TOCC]

even on tv it was hard to tell the difference between Cummins and Cross at times

[Swee_82]

even on tv it was hard to tell the difference between Cummins and Cross at times

Mrs Jargs and I christened Cummins "The Cullet" i.e. Curly Mullet.... Crossy's doesn't have that distinctive shape. Remeber that and it's easy enough to tell who's who.

[chiselhead]

It was very hot at the game
Steak eating rugby monoliths aren't designed to run around in rugby jumpers in cricket season. If you did it to an animal the RSPCA would get you put in jail
It was hot. The players were struggling after 15 minutes.
The game seemed pretty slow when watching it live at the ground. It didn't seem so slow on the TV replay.
It's hard to judge form in these early season games. The environmental conditions vary tremendously between the countries.

Is Giteau the most over rated 10 in world rugby? He runs sideways almost every time he gets the ball and his decision making isn't wonderful. His kicking game was poor last night. Do the Force have a game plan of kicking it after 4-5 phases if they are not going anywhere? Time after time last night they were on the attack in reasonable territory and when seemingly not under pressure at the breakdown they would just kick the ball away. I'm not sure whether it's a game plan or whether Giteau has brain explosions. You have to build pressure by building phases. The Cheetahs were walking all over the field from 15 minutes. They were taking turns stalling the game so they could all get a drink and suck them in for a few minutes. They must have been delighted when Gits kept kicking the ball to them. That conservative play just plays into the hands of the South African teams. The Force will have to do more with the ball to beat the better teams and be finals material. It was frustrating watching them get to 4th or 5th phase and appear to be building something in good field position and then seeing Gits just put his slipper to it.
I hate 10's that cramp sideways. Gits seems to think he's being creative. He just seems to cramp the backs and throw hospital passes. The Force backline doesn't seem to have great structure and there doesn't seem to be a lot of imagination in the running lines and plays. It was pretty ordinary from a backline directed from the wallaby 10. He sure is fast and is a gifted ball runner but he isn't a great 10. The Force would be better served having someone else directing play and getting Giteau running with the ball in his hands more..........straight instead of sideways

[jargan83]

having discussions regarding the attendence last night, according to the article on page 135 of todays newspaper it was 16,500
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[brokendown gunfighter]

The Force backline appeared to be too shallow whilst on attack,often failing to breach the advantage line

[zimeric]

very true BG... although that may have been to allow for the nimble guys to try find gaps in the cover defence... when youre deeper you rely a lot on momentum to bust through.. when youre flat you rely on the step.. we didnt have the biggest players in the back line last night it and it sorta made sense to stand shallower.

not that it was effective though.

[GIGS20]

It looked to me like the slide was the only defence required last night.
Precious little running back on the angle made it easy for the defence to just crab across the field and tie the ball up on the sideline.

I wonder if we shouldn't be throwing Crossy in on the angle to switch off Gits and Rabbit, at least it'd keep the inside defenders honest.

As for the kicks on phase 5, I guess there was no guarantee of more than 5-6 phases the way Leckie was reffing last night.

All the grubbers were at least positive, attacking kicks, in hindsight, many of them were poorly executed, beating the chasers to the sideline by a long way.