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After everyone, including me, has calmed down. I thought that I would post my thoughts on the first Force match of 2022.
Prior. He had a game. He takes us from ruck to ruck. Goes thru the motions. Leads us up the field until we have a turnover. There is no spark, there is no hunting for, nor creating a gap. His Box Kicking is fine. He could do with some support from his Forward pack in the way of charge down prevention. Rodda was particularly guility of working hard to get in to position to then do absolutely nothing in preventing Swain from running around him and charging down the kick. Goal Kicking was excellent.
Rodda had a great game, as did the back row of Koteka, Lee-Warner and Stander. Their hard work on and off the ball kept us in the hunt all day.
Tim Anstee continues to impress. His ability to back up his own hard work with involvement in multiple phases is impressive and something I hope that become contagious within the Force pack.
I thought the pack was missing the leadership and guidance of Jeremy Thrush. I have been saying this for a while now. The Force play better with Thrush on the field.
Pulu and Mataele were brilliant at times. They need space (and more ball) to really show off their abilities.
Godwin was a little disappointing. Should he have kicked that ball away in the dying minutes. Without a doubt yes. Kicking the ball to the other end of the field is most definitely the correct call. Execution was not so flash. Could we have survive 3+ minutes of pick and punch is tough hard work.
We played against a team that is (currently) better than us. But, the gap is closing. We were up against 13 Wallabies - and at time it showed. We need to prevent the Brumbies from scoring every time we score. We must break that cycle.
This is a very good start to our 2022. I have real hope for this season. Brumbies will be the team to beat in the Australian conference. They have set the bar high.
Exile
Port Macquarie
"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!" - Rocky Balboa
Agree with most of that. But, while I've always been a big Jeremy Thrush fan, I thought FLW was one of our best on Sunday. Between he and Rodda they picked apart the usually unflappable Ponies' line-out. Rodda lived up to expectation and then some.
I really don't like the "caterpillar", but as SH teams seem to be employing it now, I suppose we have to join the race to the bottom to help Prior out. I'd like to see a directive for Sirs to crack down on it's use. It's been frustrating to watch quality refs like Luke Pierce & Wayne Barnes in the English Premiership continually call "use it" then calmly allow more players to join the ruck while the 9 just as calmly taps the ball back past each one. Blow the whistle FFS!
Godwin hashed that kick, sure. It happens. But I could easily believe there was an instruction given to kick it back. Had he nailed it, he's be everyone's best mate.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
I agree with that, but bringing Thrushy in doesn't mean Fergus hits the pine. More likely Stander sits the bench and Fergus becomes our 6. Now Brynard didn't do anything wrong by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd vastly prefer Rodda Thrush and Lee-Warner to fill those numbers!
We ere employing the caterpillar ruck, we just didn't have the blockers standing just forward of the last feet for the halfback to duck behind and obstruct the defensive runner from attacking the box kick. The Brumbies were notably better at that and their active obstruction was allowed to continue for the whole game. You could maybe have a bit of a whinge about Samu obstructing Kuenzle, but that was a lineball decision, and Bayley WAS the one holding onto Samu, not the other way around. If you're talking about that, why not talk about both the Brumbies locks actively engaging and pushing back our tacklers from a clearly offside position as White was kicking the leather off the ball?
100% was the right play, executed horribly. He owes everybody a carton
C'mon the
left footer kicking it up the left touchline,not a good option
When receiving the ball from the kick off, we shouldn't have taken it out of the 22. We get a kick for touch and force them to win ball off their shaky line-out.
Mataele was good on attack, but I wasn't impressed defensively.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
I have been impressed with Harrison Lloyd coming off the bench, looked strong in the scrum
Be interesting to watch the line outs in second half again to see if its a throw issue or calling or rebels just reading what we were doing