Match Report: Western Force vs Sharks

[blueandblack]

Anyone else notice the UFC headlock on pocock when his legs were pinned in the ruck? surprised he didnt have a broken neck or back to go along with the bung knee.

I noticed many infringements against "us" the ref and/or touchies missed....He was not consistent, and I hope he watched the game afterwards....rookie ref..he has to start somewhere, but why not a a touch ref for a while until he get more experience....For the Sharks to get away with no yellow cards was unbelieveable...

I did notice 3 Sharks rubbing JOCs face into the turf on the eastern side

[jazza93]

on another note, As Fairbanks has only played 2 games.. if we multiply his stats by a third what does it look like then?

Yea sorry, i should of given his stats an approx 1.5x boost.

Tries - 0
Try Assists - 0
Runs - 22
Tackles Bust - 5
Offloads - 2
Linebreaks - 0
Tackles made - 27
Errors - 2


Yea, pretty similar to Carter.

I think 240 minutes of rugby can give us a good indication. But by round 6 we will have a better picture, usually one month is a good period of time to judge form. If you think its too early i don't disagree. I was only using the point about Coleman playing well to say there is still a place in the game for agile 12's!

[BeeJay]

Anyone else notice the UFC headlock on pocock when his legs were pinned in the ruck? surprised he didnt have a broken neck or back to go along with the bung knee.

I think the Shorks had it in their game plan to smash our best players (Poey and JOC, for eg) and if they got injured in the process, well and good. If this is done fairly, fair enough. Rugby is a hard game. But I can't help but wonder of Bam Bam's injury would not have been as bad if he wasn't pinned and headlocked so.

[Sheikh]

AndyS is the voice of reason around these parts!.....

God help us all!

The ref was diabolical, ... Even a Shark supporter stated the ref was biased and wrong.
Ruined the game and set us up for a loss.

Not sure if it was the same guy, but I was chatting to a group of Sharks supporters as we walked out and they were asking where the ref was from, as they couldn't believe how one-sided he was.
Mind you, even if the ref had been perfect from the red card onwards, I don't think we would have won with our tactics playing 14 against 15. Sharpie had a bit of a mare, lining up as first receiver and then passing half the time and dropping it half of the rest. I can see the purpose of our best runner passing when it was 15 vs 15, as he was committing two defenders, but when we were a man down it doesn't produce the overlap it is supposed to. In that instance, better to keep ball in hand and try and tire them out with repeated phases of ball. Instead, they tired us out and we weren't bright enough to change the game plan.

[Hoolly Doolly]

On a side note watch the Highlanders game from last night, thats how you win a game, simply brilliant. Bashed the school yard bully, behind his own bike shed as well.

I wouldnt describe it as bashing.......more like running them off their feet. The highlanders were recycling the ball so fast the Bulls had little time to set their defense. I was amazed by the level of intensity and high tempo pace of the game they played. What was excellent to see was they pretty much used the entire 22 to maintain that intensity. Bloody great.

[James]

How funny is it that pretty much everyone thought the Highlanders would be the shittest team in this year's competition, along with the Rebels and Lions of course. Kudos to Jamie Joseph. I wonder if they'll consider him as a replacement for Graham Henry.

[slomo]

.....rookie ref..he has to start somewhere, but why not a a touch ref for a while until he get more experience....

what makes you think he's a rookie ref?.. He's been around since 2008 in super rugby, and he officiated the south afican italy game last season, .
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[welshrugbyfan]

I wouldnt describe it as bashing.......more like running them off their feet. The highlanders were recycling the ball so fast the Bulls had little time to set their defense. I was amazed by the level of intensity and high tempo pace of the game they played. What was excellent to see was they pretty much used the entire 22 to maintain that intensity. Bloody great.

The Bulls would have sat in the change rooms after the game and wanted to know "what the f*** just happened out there".

I watched the bulls warm up and thought who is ever going the knock this team off with the size of most of their players. Little beats big when little is smart.

Watch it again, the commitment of the Highlanders players especially the forwards at the breakdown was awesome, yeah the backs ran them off their feet but only through the work up front.

[GIGS20]

what makes you think he's a rookie ref?..

his performance?

[Hoolly Doolly]

The Bulls would have sat in the change rooms after the game and wanted to know "what the f*** just happened out there".

I watched the bulls warm up and thought who is ever going the knock this team off with the size of most of their players. Little beats big when little is smart.

Watch it again, the commitment of the Highlanders players especially the forwards at the breakdown was awesome, yeah the backs ran them off their feet but only through the work up front.

Yeah. When I talk about quick recycling of the ball, usually mean great work rate of the forwards.
Even the highlander forwards ran the bulls off their feet and to add to the quick recycling, the offloads in the tackle made it even harder for the bulls.

[James]

JOC and fairbanks doesnt look like theyre combining very well in attack...even caught them snarling at each other a couple times.....not good.

Quite a few people mentioned that. I found this on Pocock's twitter thingy:

JamesOConnor832 Very frustrating game- tough to execute n gain momentum with a man down. Some big performances by sharpe, hodgo, fairbanks n Cummings.

Sounds like they are over it.

[Burgs]

Giteau snarls at the players around him every match and he is the greatest player alive...

[Hoolly Doolly]

Sounds like they are over it.

thats nice

[Serginator]

Totally agree - the ref was an absolute shocker...you could've excused a yellow card in the heat of the moment but the reply clearly showed the Sharks player being parallel to the ground (ie not spearing) and 'guilty' Force player actually releasing him rather than drining him into the ground with a follow up shoulder....borderline penalty. The yellow card was equally unmerited, unwarranted. Who knows what would have happened without these two cards but yeh, too many handling errors and turnovers on both sides....wasn't a very attractive game. Go the Force.

[Serginator]

Giteau snarls at the players around him every match and he is the greatest player alive...

Yeh, well unfortunately Gitts hasn't been anywhere near the best in the world for the past two years (not even in the best 15 Aussies either). Perhaps they're the long term effects of having one of the best ever inside centres playing out of position (at number ten) for so long. On last year's form Giteau shouldn't even make the Wallabies squad...jury's still out this year, I guess, but I don't think he'll ever play again like he did in his heyday 3 and more years ago.