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Natives getting restless after another home loss
Just four home wins in nearly three years and the Western Force natives are getting restless.
Following Friday’s 32-16 defeat at the hands of the Stormers - described by skipper Nathan Sharpe as the club’s worst performance in two years - chunks of the 24,000 fans at Subiaco Oval disappeared before the final whistle.
And coach John Mitchell admitted he would have liked to have gone with them.
After successive wins in New Zealand placed them in the Super 14 top four, a listless Force again stumbled at home, conceding four tries and plenty of the momentum built up on the arduous first leg of the season.
Mitchell and Sharpe, who celebrated his 100th Super rugby appearance in the worst way, were frank in their assessment.
“It was not acceptable, we ignored the hard places ... and they did everything to us that we wanted to do to them, and they were good at it,” Mitchell said.
“We did not control our attitude, did not give them enough respect and were not brave or brutal enough.
“There is no place for you in professional football if you can’t learn quickly, and there is no place for you in professional rugby if you don’t have the maturity to control your attitude for the whole of the round robin.”
Stormers winger Tonderai Chavhanga’s 48-second try - one of the quickest in Super rugby history - set the tone, with Drew Mitchell’s reply cancelled out by Chavhanga’s second, and Jean De Villiers and JD Moller securing a bonus point in the second half.
Sharpe admitted the return to Perth had brought a lethargy which was brutally exposed.
“There was too much of a relaxed attitude coming home. It was our worst performance by an absolute country mile, I reckon over the last two years,” Sharpe said.
“It is very tough when you are making simple errors, just dropping the ball straight, turnover after turnover you just can’t build any momentum.”
Since their inception in 2006, the Force has now just four wins to show from their 15 appearances at Perth’s home of AFL, with signs fan dissatisfaction with the stadium is also being felt about what they are seeing on the pitch.
One wag pleaded with competition organisers to give the Force 13 away games next season - while another compared the men in blue to the consistently underperforming Fremantle Dockers.
Mitchell said the supporters had a right to be upset, but urged them to persevere.
“I would have left early too ... the thing that disappoints for me the most is that for the fans, for Sharpey (in his 100th) and for Tai (McIsaac, playing his 50th Super game) that is the type of performance we dished up,” Mitchell said.
“That does not sit well with me. But a good fan is like a good team, they stick together during high and lows.”
Mitchell said he hoped and expected Matt Giteau to be fit for next week’s visit of the champion Bulls, after the flyhalf was taken off late in the game after another buffeting.
“He got a bit of a hip spike I think, once he game was gone it was just a matter of getting some of the key guys off,” Mitchell said.
“There is about five guys with knocks, but I think he will be right.”
Natives getting restless after another home loss : thewest.com.au
NATIVES? It makes us sound like a bunch of crazy yobos.
Winning by 100 or losing by 100 points. I will stay until the end.
In trouble or not I will defend!
Natives? Makes it sound like we should be on the Discovery Channel
At least, they're calling the fans natives rather than saying all the fans are immigrants from SA, NZ etc. i spose.
My brother and i were talking about how the teams we support always seem to underachieve etc.....yes we also support the DockersMaybe its a sign of some description, though i have no idea what!!!
nowadays nobody takes the west seriously!! at the end of the day we got our arses kicked by a better side, i think we all agree with that, BUT we move on and look forward to this weeks game......
It makes me really angry when people leave before the end of the game. Where is the loyalty? But it made me even more angry this time because they specifically told us to stay for Sharpie's presentation...but so many people couldn't even do that. It frankly disgusts me.
"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau."
Jehna - I didn't hear the announcement to stay for Sharpies Presentation - nor did I or anyone in my block know about the masks - we always stay till the end anyways - and were really annoyed that the PA was turned off for Sharpies Speech - because we always want to hear what he said.
How do we get the message through to the Blue Crew not to start a mexican wave during passages of play ?
61 years between Grand SlamsWas the wait worth it - Ya betta baby
To be honest, I felt like leaving unfortunately I don't have the guts to up and leave before the final whistle.
I 've no problem with people making a statement by leaving early because really there is no other way for them to show their disapproval (other than not bothering to come to the next game) and its definitely better than booing the team off.
Regarding the presentation, I didn't hear anything either and didn't look like anyone in our section had any of the masks..
We were down towards their end. At one stage in the first half they tried to get a wave going while Gits was lining up a penalty shot FFS. It didn't get far and I suspect they were told to shut the feck up by the surrounding supporters.
I hope so, its not the cricket.
It was good to see it didn't really get started
Even at the cricket its stupid.
Maybe no. 8 could practice his rioting tactics on the blue crew, just in case....