Force v Brumbies Round 4 - Pre Game Thread

[G_Beard]

WF Ruck stats from last night's game against the Brumbies.

Attachment 3697


Also the breakdown by each 10 mins of the game.

Attachment 3698



Steve Mafi seems to have stepped up and found his place in the team and become used to the pace of the game.
Impressive ruck stats, plus try, plus turnover. Would like to see him carry the ball more.

Another good ruck performance from Sam Wykes.

Solid ruck performances from Chris Alcock and Nathan Charles.

Significant improvements across-the-board in intensity and getting to rucks earlier to either support the ball carrier or pressure a turn-over.

Another impressive ruck performance by Junior Rasolea - the best of the Backs.
Others: Holmes - 13; Brache - 11; Godwin - 11.

Outstanding ruck effort off the bench from Kane Koteka and Chris Heiberg.

Your stats are incredible, huge effort, thank you for compiling them.

[valzc]

WF Ruck stats from last night's game against the Brumbies.

Attachment 3697


Also the breakdown by each 10 mins of the game.

Attachment 3698



Steve Mafi seems to have stepped up and found his place in the team and become used to the pace of the game.
Impressive ruck stats, plus try, plus turnover. Would like to see him carry the ball more.

Another good ruck performance from Sam Wykes.

Solid ruck performances from Chris Alcock and Nathan Charles.

Significant improvements across-the-board in intensity and getting to rucks earlier to either support the ball carrier or pressure a turn-over.

Another impressive ruck performance by Junior Rasolea - the best of the Backs.
Others: Holmes - 13; Brache - 11; Godwin - 11.

Outstanding ruck effort off the bench from Kane Koteka and Chris Heiberg.

Great work again! I think our new mantra should be - "pass the ball to Mafi!"

[valzc]

Their intensity has certainly lifted but the attack is still way too slow & predictable. I wish Alby could distribute the ball from the ruck quicker, unless it's because the backs aren't aligned quick enough to give him options. It gets too like Genia, and we subsequently lost the ball to the Brumbies a couple of times.

[WFDom]

Godwin needs to come up with some new tricks. Way too predictable

[jono]

Looking @ the positives the line out was better - comparatively to the last few weeks

[GIGS20]

Continuing in the vein of positives, when we bothered to get some defensive line speed going we dominated their attack, it looked really promising at some times, not consistent yet, but when we develop the desire/fitness/mental ability we will have a bloody good defense.

[AndyS]

Personally, the only real positive for mine is that they have 40 minutes of real life footage to review...hopefully a lot. They had the ball in attack for most of the second half and they should go through it over and over to look at ways they might have broken down the Brumbies defense. If I could suggest a starter for 10, it would be to look at how often the ball found a player moving forward and then perhaps compare that with the hard straight gap running display the 'Canes put on last week. Also, perhaps do an analysis on what came of the toe-pokes and chip kicks...

[chibi]

Lots of standing start hit-ups are creeping into our game again unfortunately. Makes us look clueless in attack with a platform like that. The Force can maul and drive, so I wouldn't mind seeing them set up a few more mauls and two or three-man drives in open-play and phase-play, to break up that monotony.

We had a few nice second-man backline plays against the Tahs and the odd variation against the Brumbies, so the team knows where their work needs to be done. It'll be good when the ball starts to stick.

[Macattack]

Continuing in the vein of positives, when we bothered to get some defensive line speed going we dominated their attack, it looked really promising at some times, not consistent yet, but when we develop the desire/fitness/mental ability we will have a bloody good defense.

Very, very impressed by the Tahs defensive line speed yesterday, and how they kept it up late into the game, they completely shut down the hapless Reds yesterday. Would be worth watching the game as a team and see if we could do likewise - IF we are fit enough.

[GIGS20]

Yeah, i think we're fine when our pick n drive game is getting us momentum. We don't seem to have any variation to cope with the times where our forwards are getting pressured at the breakdown.

I think we need to start looking for the first pod to pass it to a second pod wider out. We've never tried that, so teams pressure our forwards hard to the first pass and hold back a bit more wider out in case it goes to the backs.

Also Alby wrapping around that forward who gets the first pass. Even if he doesn't get the ball, he puts doubt in the mind, and it might open some of those gaps that he's so good at exploiting.

[Macattack]

[QUOTE=andrewg;394420]WF Ruck stats from last night's game

Thanks very much for the stats, well done

Sam's attacking play lacks penetration, however, his ruck stats probably show the value Foles sees in having him on the park, plus our scrums have improved significantly - looks like his work rate is solid in these areas

[GIGS20]

Re-reading my last post, I've also realized how easy it is for guys like Mafi to stroll through the middle of the ruck with the ball. It appears that our one-pass-to-a-stationary-pod-who-trucks-it-up has been figured out. Teams appear to be flooding the first pass with all their muscle, leaving one or none at the breakdown, stretching their pillars wider to help and lining up pod and key on the first pod out. Surely there's gaps around that, possibly an inside ball or a couplle of pick n drives until they start to commit to the breakdown again.

Alby should be the eyes of the pack in that situation and he should be telling them what system needs to run from time to time. We're being beaten by our own dumb at the moment.

[Rex Messup]

Very, very impressed by the Tahs defensive line speed yesterday, and how they kept it up late into the game, they completely shut down the hapless Reds yesterday. Would be worth watching the game as a team and see if we could do likewise - IF we are fit enough.

The Tahs were very physical in defence. It was helped by the poorly aligned, unstructured and ineptly coached Reds backline...Richard Graham has his fingerprints all over the Reds.

[GIGS20]

The Tahs were very physical in defence. It was helped by the poorly aligned, unstructured and ineptly coached Reds backline...Richard Graham has his fingerprints all over the Reds.

Not to mention a halfback at 10 and a bloke who doesn't pass at 15.

It would. Be pretty easy to break down that attack, which is why I can't abide the fact that we didn't do it.

[Buddha Handy]

I thought Morahan was a great signing when we got him but he has been a dud, missing a lot of tackles and showing little on attack.
Also hoping one day we will see a forward pack with Coleman, Mafi, Cottrell, Hodgo and McCalman. That will do the job