NRC Finals 15th October 2016

[Kalahard]

Watched it with the sound off so i didn't have to listen to Maloney and Hoiles

[Tonkar]

Maloney and hollies are both crap Bring back Cam.... Be nice to see the top 2 Aus teams play the Top 2 NPC teams 2 weeks after the Finals... The boys would give them a go I reckon

[travelling_gerry]

BY my calculations the boys will earn Qantas Silver Status at the end of next weeks trip.

[travelling_gerry]

Maloney and hollies are both crap Bring back Cam.... Be nice to see the top 2 Aus teams play the Top 2 NPC teams 2 weeks after the Finals... The boys would give them a go I reckon

Cam actually tipped against them on the Fox NRC podcast...he thought the travel fatigue would set in....

[Tonkar]

Ok TG But he is quite a good commentator and at least is impartial... Was a great game and the boys showed promise and did the basic things right 95 % of the time Heath T is not a bad Leader pity of his age as he could have made the Wallaby camp..

[travelling_gerry]

SPIRIT SECURE GRAND FINAL BERTH

By David Berrie on Sun 16th October 16 in NRC


Spirit Secure Grand Final Berth

The Perth Spirit have booked their place in the 2016 Buildcorp National Rugby Championship Grand Final with a 42-24 win over the Sydney Rays at Pittwater Park in Sydney this afternoon.

The Rays started strongly shooting out to a 16-0 lead within the first 10-minutes but from there it was all the Spirit as the men in black and gold scored 20 unanswered points to lead by four at the break.

Three second half tries wrapped up the result for the Spirit and secured a date with the NSW Country Eagles in Tamworth for next weekend’s decider.

Spirit captain Heath Tessmann said he was pleased with the way his side worked to secure the team’s second grand final appearance in the last three seasons.

“We are obviously very happy with the win but we aren’t getting too far ahead of ourselves,” he said.

“The way we came out and played in that first half set it up for us again. We ground them down in the first 40-minutes and we were able to run over the top of them a bit in the second.”

Tessmann praised the work of Ian Prior who put in a man-of-the-match performance at flyhalf in place of the injured Jono Lance.

“The old turbo diesel, he’s a bit slow but he gets us going forward and keeps the ball in front of us forwards which is really important, he was really big for us today.”

The Rays were the first to hit the scoreboard going nearly the length of the field in a frantic sequence of play ending with Irae Simone setting up hooker Damien Fitzpatrick for the opener. Matt Lucas converted to hand the Rays and early 8-0 lead.

Just minutes later the Sydney-siders were in again as Harry Jones burst through three Spirit tacklers to go over in the left corner. Lucas converted yet again to give the Rays a 16-point buffer after 11-minutes.

The Spirit responded quickly with a brilliant piece of skill from Ian Prior setting up Semisi Masirewa to collect a perfectly weighted grubber kick and touch down in the right corner. Prior’s conversion attempt drifted across the face to keep the score at 16-6.

Working their way back into the contest the Spirit put together some solid phases before Bill Meakes set up Marcel Brache with a beautiful no-look inside ball allowing the winger to charge in from 30-metres. Prior coolly added the extras to close the gap to just two-points.

Beginning to dominate possession the Spirit put on a massive scrum to earn a penalty before driving deep into the Rays’ 22 and just three phases later Ian Prior found space to crash over for the Spirit’s third of the opening half. Prior couldn’t convert as the Spirit went into the halftime break leading by four on the back of 20 unanswered points.

The Spirit came out firing after the interval when Luke Morahan broke the line and found Ian Prior on his inside before the flyhalf chipped and chased to score his second of the contest. Prior converted his own effort to extend the margin to 28-16.

With both side’s down to 14-men after Bill Meakes and Jack Dempsey were shown yellow the Spirit made the most of the advantage in the forward pack executing a brilliant rolling maul with Heath Tessmann controlling the ball at the back to score. Prior converted to push the margin to 20-points in favour of the men from the west.

With time against them the Rays looked to put themselves pack in the hunt as Richard Woolf showed some serious pace to dart down the right wing and score under the posts. Angus Sinclair converted with a quick drop goal to reduce the deficit to 12-points with 10-minutes to play.

Determined to ice the game the West Australians applied pressure in the Rays’ 22 to force a lineout just five metres from the line before a strong rolling maul allowed Anaru Rangi to fall over for the Spirit’s sixth of the afternoon. Prior’s conversion struck the upright but it mattered little as the Spirit booked their place in the Grand Final with a 42-24 victory.

The Spirit now shift their focus to next week’s grand final against the NSW Country Eagles in Tamworth on Saturday, 22 October.

[PerthGirl]

Yay! Well done boys

[volvo]

Spirit heading to grand final

Nick Taylor - The West Australian on October 16, 2016, 3:20 pm

Perth Spirit defied their underdog tag and head to their second National Rugby Championship final in three years after an upset but convincing 42-24 win over Sydney Rays this afternoon at Pitt Water Park.

They face a huge task with a short turnaround and their third game in the Eastern States in as many weeks when they take on New South Wales Country Eagles in Tamworth on Saturday.

Importantly, they must rule out the slow start that has dogged them in games this year against a side who beat them by 20 points earlier in the season.

After another rocky opening when Spirit let the Rays in for two tries in the first nine minutes they recovered to keep the home side scoreless for the next 50 minutes, running in five tries and notching 36 points of their own.

They added a late sixth try to snuff out any chance of a Rays comeback after they ran in their third. Man-of-the match and stand-in fly-half Ian Prior grabbed two of his own in an 18-point haul.

The win was based on great work at the breakdown as they isolated Rays' runners with good line speed and set piece domination.

As Spirit took the upperhand at the breakdown the home side threw less numbers into ruck and put up a wide defensive wall.

But as the Spirit forwards punched into the middle it staggered the Rays line and they were able to use their speed men like Luke Morahan, Semisi Masirewa and Marcel Brache.

Spirit looked the better side with ball in hand, especially when playing into the face of a strong wind in the first period.

Force coach Dave Wessels would have been happy with the form of what could be his Super Rugby centre pairing of Ben Tapuai and new signing Billy Meakes.

Spirit coach Dwayne Nestor, while not happy that his side again got off to a slow start, was pleased with the way they played themselves back into the game.

"They have learnt how to work their way into the game and then start to play some really good footy," Nestor said.

"They have learnt how to win games.

"We worked into the game and did all the earning of the yards through use of the ball.

"We got good reward for the breakdown and that was our attitude.

"We knew we needed our first up tackles to be dominant and we turned flat line defence with numbers into a scramble defence.

"The thing we need to do is control the last 10-15 minutes and keep the ball in hand rather than try little chip kicks and grubbers that aren't really on.

"When we are in contact and recycling well it's no good throwing it away with very, very high risk plays."

It took Spirit 20 minutes to get on the scoreboard board but went into the break with a four point lead courtesy of tries to Masirewa, Brache and Prior.

They added another three after the break from Prior, captain Heath Tessmann and hooker Anaru Rangi, the last coming off the back of unstoppable rolling mauls from line-outs.

Perth Spirit 42 (Tries: I. Prior 2, S. Masirewa, M. Brache, H. Tessmann, A. Rangi. Conversions I. Prior 3/6) def Sydney Rays 24 (Tries: D. Fitzpatrick, H. Jones, R. Woolf. Cons: M. Lucas 2/2, A. Sinclair 1/1).

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sp...d-final/#page1

[valzc]

Also to note that when Alcock got hurt, a lot of the boys went over to him to check on him to see how he was while not one of the Rays bothered their arse! Full cred guys-says a lot about mateship. Still sad to see Alcock leaving. And Moloney calling Pek as Ainsley - FFS! Didn't like the little grubber kicks at the try line by Ruru and then Prior though-is that a little trick they tried cos it cost 2 almost certain tries.

[travelling_gerry]

I thought they had made a mistake with that too valzc but in the replay you can see Ainsley on the other side of the ruck holding the guy up.

And I think it was the Spirit trainer who was first to Alcock as well...

[Kalahard]

Last game v Vikings they would defend for a period then kick away the turnover just to be under pressure again. The kicks in the 22, while risky, showed the boys were still looking to attack and play what was in front of them in the right zone with a lead. The last try was all business to snuff out the comeback.

[andrewg]

Spirit's Ruck Involvements - Rays - 16 October 2016

Impressive Rays 24:42 Spirit win against the Rays on their home turf.
The Spirit outscored the Rays 42:8 in the last 70 minutes.
Spirit strong at the set piece and had their rolling maul working well.
Ian Prior a worthy MOM.

Remember:
1. Early means 1st or 2nd of player’s team AFTER the ball carrier has been tackled and brought to ground.
2. Impact means active engagement: strong physical contact, changed shape of ruck, clean-out, protecting ball etc. (more than hand on someone’s bum or arriving after the hard work has been done). Yes it’s subjective - but as I collect all data at least it’s consistent.
3. Impact DOES NOT equate to Effectiveness. I’ve concluded that coming up with an effectiveness measure is just too hard in the time that I have available – but open to suggestions.



Ruck Involvements over Time

1. The Spirit had 109 rucks; the Rays 44.
2. This indicates the likely 70% Possession by the Spirit who dominated after the Rays' initial 2 tries in 10 minutes.
3. The Spirit stood off 32% of the Rays' rucks.
4. The Spirit average only 2 players per Attack ruck (supporting their own ball carriers). (SR2016 average was ~2.5)
5. The Spirit averaged 0.9 players per Rays' ruck (slightly above the SR2016 average of ~0.75).
6. Hardwick once again the leading ruck involvements with most Defensive Ruck Involvements (DRIs). Good support from Tessman, Stander and Meakes.
7. 30% of the Spirit's DRIs in the opening 10 minutes; 60% in the 1st half.
8. Stringer, Ross H-P, Havilli and Mulikihaamea consistent supporters for the Spirit's ball carriers.
9. Most rucks by Backs: Prior - 17 Total (16 Attack/1 Defence); Meakes - 14T (5A/9D).
10. Backs provided ~40% of the DRIs - becoming a feature of the NRC.

Next week should be a cracker of a game in Tamworth against the NSW Country Eagles.

[Kalahard]

Replay is up

http://www.foxsports.com.au/rugby/nrc/nrcondemand

[Tonkar]

Hardwick was playing with so much passion He made some great Turnovers or just disrupted the breakdown ... Very strong over the ball.. Rhino looked like he was told he was on the next plane to hell if he did not play well.. He was into everything.. RHP the same great looking team.. Hope they can pull it off with some silver ware..

[travelling_gerry]

Stringer was good too...one of those silent worker bee types.