Western Force look to rebound from heartbreaking loss

[lara93]

AFTER every game the Western Force goes through a process that coach John Mitchell calls closure.
The players and coaching staff go behind locked doors and reflect on what has just transpired.

Friday's closure was particularly grim and everyone knew they had just been through a season defining game.

The last chance to stay in finals contention had slipped through their fingers. Quite simply, they blew it.

Heads were down, bodies were tired, extreme disappointment was etched on faces.

Players carried the grinding weight that descended on their shoulders from the moment they slumped to the ground after the 27-28 loss.

They looked like a syndicate that had won Lotto only to lose the winning ticket.

Hooker Tai McIsaac had never seen such quiet closure.

"It was heart wrenching. There's no two ways about it," he said. "Heads were down, everyone was disappointed and so we should be. Everyone's rightly disappointed in themselves.

"The boys did so many good things, especially in the first half, but 80 minutes makes a game and we really let ourselves down in the last couple of minutes."

How could a side that had played so well for 45 minutes and be 11 points up with three minutes left throw it all away?

Mitchell, his assistants and coaching staff need to find quick answers if they are to salvage anything from this season. There were no physical excuses.

The Force was not outmuscled or outgunned. The players were good in the non-negotiables, the scrums and lineouts.

The box kick worked reasonably well early in the game but there has to be a question mark on its persistent use as an attacking option.

But it was really when player changes started, some forced by injuries, that the tide turned in favour of the Hurricanes who hung on grimly.

There were too many missed tackles in the last 10 minutes and no urgency to get to the ruck.

Wallaby coach Robbie Deans would have liked what he saw of the Force back row trio of Matt Hodgson, David Pocock and Richard Brown.

He most certainly would not have been impressed by Drew Mitchell, who missed crucial tackles, including a shocker on Cory Jane that lost the game.

Mitchell, who has said he will go where the money is at the end of this season, has seen his value take a serious pounding in recent weeks.

Coach Mitchell must be hoping Cameron Shepherd's return from injury is imminent.

He was blunt in his assessment of next week's Australian derby against the Waratahs:

"It (Friday's loss) hurt ... but we will get out of this. We'll get this out of our system pretty quickly.

"You feel for them (the players). They went to another level. They didn't ask for that kind of finish. Sometimes you don't have a choice how to lose."

perthnow