Sheehan takes blame for Harris howler

[shasta]

New Western Force scrumhalf Brett Sheehan believes he's partly to blame for team-mate Sam Harris' horror debut at five-eighth in last week's Super 14 loss to the Brumbies.................

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...harris-howler/

..........."Sammy and I have known each other since we were 12 years of age and we've played a hell of a lot of rugby together but unfortunately in that game our cohesion was out," Sheehan said..............."It can take weeks, months to form a partnership but in saying that we've played a lot of football together at club level at five-eight and halfback.

[Nicolas Hart]

That's interesting.

What's the excuse agaisnt the Hurricanes?

Harris's kicking game is atrocious at the moment. None of his kicks have been effective this season; and that remains the case in the first half thus far against the Hurricanes. Unless you class a high kick, directly upwards, with no territory gain, and absolutely no tactical advantage; an "effective" play.

Granted he may have had a few games at first-receiver / fly-half in his junior and club days; there surely must be other options to trial. Or, simply leave the kicking to those better equiped; and either run / recycle the ball; or hand it off.

New Western Force scrumhalf Brett Sheehan believes he's partly to blame for team-mate Sam Harris' horror debut at five-eighth in last week's Super 14 loss to the Brumbies.................

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...harris-howler/

..........."Sammy and I have known each other since we were 12 years of age and we've played a hell of a lot of rugby together but unfortunately in that game our cohesion was out," Sheehan said..............."It can take weeks, months to form a partnership but in saying that we've played a lot of football together at club level at five-eight and halfback.

[benny]

Personally Harris isn't a 5/8th and he wouldn't fit into the centres with our personnel even with the injuries we have.

He wasn't in defense, and he wasn't seen in attack, apart from when the ball when either "backwards" from the kick or out on the full !!!

If I was picking the team, Haig Sare wouldn't be there, Dunning off the bench, Sam Harris in the crowd, DHP & Tatupu on the tackle bags, Hodgson & JOC having a breather from the effort and hard work.

[Burgs]

So you would be left making a backline out of the following Benny?

Hunt
Inman
O'Young
Sheehan
Swanepoel
Rapana (A)
Turner (A)

[benny]

Burgs, at the moment, me and you could have a run on the performance of Haig & Sam in the past 2 weeks... they aren't performing as Super Rugby players.

Sorry TWF Family if i am showing "upset" but the errors what i've seen against the brumbies and now the Canes are "School boy" errors, kicking out on the full, forward passes, or hospital passes,knock ons, missed tackles 1 on 1, jumper grabbing.

On the other hand, with the players we have to select due to injuries, health and other issues for the Canes game, We perfomed well, espically with up to 14 new debuants to the club and Super Rugby - Well done lads !!!

[blueandblack]

Are you including the forward passes, knock ons and the like from the opposition as well?

[The Lone Hydrangea]

Burgs, at the moment, me and you could have a run on the performance of Haig & Sam in the past 2 weeks... they aren't performing as Super Rugby players.

Sorry TWF Family if i am showing "upset" but the errors what i've seen against the brumbies and now the Canes are "School boy" errors, kicking out on the full, forward passes, or hospital passes,knock ons, missed tackles 1 on 1, jumper grabbing.

On the other hand, with the players we have to select due to injuries, health and other issues for the Canes game, We perfomed well, espically with up to 14 new debuants to the club and Super Rugby - Well done lads !!!

Sam has had 2 shockers. Haig done his best work years ago at the Left Bank...never rated him and has lived up to his potential.

[GIGS20]

Sad to say I think you're right TLH

What else is in the cupboard?

[shasta]

What else is in the cupboard?

Take your boots next Friday and lay off the Bulmers 'till after the match.

[Burgs]

That's the trouble Gigs, it takes at least nine, if not preferably ten, Backs to make a Squad.
Our fit players are:

Cross (Test)
Harris
Haylett-Petty
Hunt
Inman
O'Connor
O'Young
Sare
Sheehan
Swanepoel
Tatupu
Rapana (A)
Turner (A)

Scrumhalf is well covered, so that eliminates Swanepoel and Turner at this stage.
That leaves ten fit and one to pass fitness players to fill nine or ten places.

There are concerns about depth at Fullback which is why Mitch has ruled out JO'C having #10 on his back at this stage.

Hunt is the only player that has played there at all for any length of time however, he is totally inexperienced at this level and therefore is a complete unknown quantity. Those attributes equal Bench, not starting. He probably wouldn't have even left Perth this season if it wasn’t for the well publicised other injuries, he is a development for 2011 and beyond.

The only other option that has some merit floated on TWF has been Sheehan doing a Weepu. Unfortunately, with a depleted Backrow, we would lose a great deal of defence around the scrum and breakdown with O'Young playing 70+. I do see it as a viable option if Harris was to break down during a match though.

We have a Home match and then the Bye, while it makes for "great" one liners, I think we all need to just suck it up and let the Coaches get through to that break with the remnants they have at hand and trust they will be not far from announcing a replacement Flyhalf any day, ready for Round 5.

[jjk]

You guys are so slack. I thought Harris had a solid game. His defence and attack was good with what little ball they had. It seems very easy to keep blaming one guy when there are any number of reasons for why the Force aren't winning. You take the 6 best players out of any team and see how they go.
I haven't seen anyone mention the front row being penalised 4 times on our put in in good attacking positions. I haven't seen anyone mentioned Josh Tatupu's woeful defence on Ellison, I haven't seen anyone mention JOC kicking the ball out 3 times on the full, I haven't seen any mentioned of the woeful defence in the middle of the ruck..
I think you guys need to be abit fairer in your summarisations...

[tragic]

I think you need to read all the comments on the game, jjk.

[zimeric]

ive been seen as a Tatupu basher in the past but i actually thought he had a better game this week.. yes he flopped on a hugely important tackle but for the rest of the game he made plenty more of those and made plenty of yards and broke quite a few tackles.. it was 100% better than week1
Harris however was anonymous and his attempted high ball was hilarious it frikken went back 20metres! I feel for him but seriously even Hunt made more impact coming on in the last 10mins than he had in the whole game.

[robyn <3]

I thought Tatupu's tackling went downhill this week. I saw 2 Tatupu-horrors that lead to tries. Some more time with the tackle-bags, kid. But in attack he seemed pretty darn decent. Maybe it's nerves or something?

But Harris, the only kick I spotted that he thumped out on the full, we were playing advantage and got a scrum pretty much where he was standing? Sure, it was dumb but it didn't cost us all that much really. His defence from what I remember was quite decent and he was definitely stronger at second receiver than first.

[GIGS20]

You guys are so slack. I thought Harris had a solid game. His defence and attack was good with what little ball they had. It seems very easy to keep blaming one guy when there are any number of reasons for why the Force aren't winning. You take the 6 best players out of any team and see how they go.
I haven't seen anyone mention the front row being penalised 4 times on our put in in good attacking positions. I haven't seen anyone mentioned Josh Tatupu's woeful defence on Ellison, I haven't seen anyone mention JOC kicking the ball out 3 times on the full, I haven't seen any mentioned of the woeful defence in the middle of the ruck..
I think you guys need to be abit fairer in your summarisations...

Don't want to take your comments personally JJK, but I can't help but point out that I mentioned Both Tatupu's and DHP's defensive lapses....I didn't mention the penalties in the scrum per se because it was the ridiculous wait between crouch, touch, pause, have a cup of tea, watch your favourite movie and read War and peace, Engage.

Seriously, two of those penalties were just because Dunning fell asleep before the engage call!

Yes Joc kicked the ball out on the full three times, but in the overall assessment of his game, since he spent much of the match as the only back who was threatening, shouldering the entire attack and being the last line of defense and the sweeper in apretty leaky boat at some times, I thought the balance of his game was positive.

You can either approach this season with a glass half empty view, in which case you'll say we're super rooted (sorry Bronski, nothing personal) or a glass half full, we were never going to match the Canes at home, but we showed some grit and held onto their tails for about 40 minutes.....not bad for what is essentially a glorified club team ATM!