Force Lose in Wet and Windy Wellington

[Darren]

Back to topic, Force back in town yet?

Force fly out from a short stop in Sydney in about 25 minutes (who'd wanna stay longer?!) and touch down in Perth at 10:15pm tonight

[chook]

They are simple country bumpkins who are unused to the cosmopolitan and sophisticated big smoke. Its better that they taste the delights of Sydney in small doses as to not overwhelm their fragile psyches.

[NTT]

hyuk hyuk hyuk .... mah its one of dem dere flying metal bird things,......

[Burgs]

What a shame, I thought I was going to get four pages of enlightened opinion on the Hurricanes Force match....

[robyn <3]

lets start the 4 pages then
i think the boys tried their hearts out, dead proud. so excited bout those youngsters so much to look forward to from them for next season, !
good effort
bad luck
BRING IT ON BRUMBIES!

[NTT]

i thought the canes won the game by playing to a better game plan. they kept the ball in hand, didn't try anything fancy and more importantly did not ruin good field position with poor decision making. the force were valiant in the way they defended and brought the right attitude to the match. in attack poor decision making from stannard and giteau did make things tough but credit to the boys for gutsing it out. the four lineout throws lost were a concern but overall the forwards were solid with sharpie particularly impressive. giteau had an of night with the boot but otherwise the backs were ok but not great. shepherd was the standout back and his try was 1st class. the pocock sin bin was harsh i thought but hes pushing the offside line like a good 7 should. so overall it was a character building loss which will give the inexperienced guys some valuble lessons about wet weather rugby.
haylet-petty deserves a mention for a solid debut and longbottom is making the step up nicely.

[gotheforce]

OK back to the game then.
My opinion on the match.

Considering the average age of our team, i thought the force were brave in their defense. For the stats to show the Hurricanes having 80% of the territory and possession, for them to only score so little points is a testament to the Force's hard defending. So many times they came so close, but the force held on. I had to say if i had a dollar for every time the hurricanes came close to scoring but was stopped by a force defense, i'd prob have enough to buy myself a platinum ticket for the upcoming wallabies game.
Could it have been better? Heck yes. We didnt look like we were in the game at all, with any ball we have either ending up on the floor or in the opponents' hands. The tight five were overpowered, and it was quite obvious almost every single line out ball went to Sharpe. Whatever happened to our other jumpers?
Our loose forwards werent as loose as they could have been. Pocock was great as usual, but he did miss a couple of tackles. And to set things straight, i thought he was hard done with the yellow card. He did make the tackle and was on 2 feet, i couldn't see anything wrong with it?!
The backs didnt really click. Rabbit and Gits both had a quiet game by their standards. Sheps was consistent and ever reliable and so was Drew. Dane for his first start to the season had a real test and held his own, though not standing out much. Tatupu and O'Connor had good legs on them, but just no match for Nonu and Smith.
Overall, it was quite a disappointing game for the force fans to watch. But we can take some positives out of the game.
We have shown that even with a team that hasnt clicked much, they had a reasonable game. We've also had a young team on, and they did alright against seasoned players like Nonu, Smith, Weepu, Masoe and So'iaolo. Bambam had his coming of age card here which really identified him along the ranks of McCaw, Burger and George Smith. And we've shown that WA has actually produced some good players ready for the Super 14 in Keiran and Dane.
Looking forward to the Brumbies game. And possible a win. But hopefully this time not by 1 point.

[travelling_gerry]

Stats updated with tackle counts

[travelling_gerry]

[chook]

What a shame, I thought I was going to get four pages of enlightened opinion on the Hurricanes Force match....

Why ever did you think that with me around? tsk tsk tsk

[James]

lets start the 4 pages then
i think the boys tried their hearts out, dead proud. so excited bout those youngsters so much to look forward to from them for next season, !
good effort
bad luck
BRING IT ON BRUMBIES!

Here is a poser I've been wondering about on the topic of exciting youngsters: So John Mitchell is contracted to the Force until the end of the Super 14 in 2011 or something like that. He has a teenaged son who I'm guessing would be something like 15 or 16. Will Mitch Jnr play/be in the academy for the Force when he is old enough? Would he play for Australia? Does anyone know how old he exactly is or where he plays? I gathered that he went to Hale so maybe Shaun knows.

Does Robbie Deans have any sons?

[gotheforce]

Daryl Mitchell, the flyhalf for Hale and Johnny's son, already participated in the state U16s last year and was identified to participate in the National Talent Squad. But i think he missed the cut in the end. He really isn't that good to be identified as a future force player or Wallaby/All Black. He's good at school age, but i can't see him going any further from there. Compared to his teammate Dane last year, Dane was much further ahead in terms of skill level. So i hope that answers your question.