Reds thrash Force 40-10 in Perth -SMH report

[normie]

Reds thrash Force 40-10 in Perth
Justin Chadwick
February 17, 2012 - 12:39AM

Queensland Reds tuned up for the Super Rugby season in grand style, thrashing the Western Force 40-10 in Thursday night's trial game in Perth.

Tries to Digby Ioane, James Horwill, Greg Holmes, Luke Morahan and Jono Lance were more than enough to sink the Force, who struggled to string phases together and will enter the season on the back of two heavy trial losses.

With Australia coach Robbie Deans watching from the stands, Queensland's big names stood tall, with Will Genia sensational at scrumhalf and Ioane at his destructive best on the wing.

In contrast, the Force - beaten 25-0 by the Brumbies last week - lacked any fluency, with their only highlight of the night coming through Ben McCalman's 71st-minute consolation try.

But the home side's night was further soured when lock Sam Wykes limped off in the dying minutes with a leg injury.

The Force, already minus the likes of Nick Cummins (leg), Richard Brown (shoulder) and Nathan Sharpe (calf), lost winger Napolioni Nalaga before the match after the Fijian winger fell ill.

... the rest of this sad tale is here:

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...216-1tccv.html

On a brighter note- we will not be at risk of peaking too early in the season!

[Tazzmania]

Very dissapointing night.

The forwards held their own and looked good.

The backline was autrocious, passes close to the ground, no go forward, dropped the ball, made no breaks of note and looked very slow and pedestrain when the Reds made a break or two or three. Plenty of space was found between 10 and 12.

Turner at 9 was no good, clearly lacking match practice after so long a lay off, Sheehan looked better.

Stannard is trying his best but he is not really a Super 15 , flyhalf and it showed, Sidey dissapointing.

Playing Stannard, Sidey and Stanley is just too small a combination, need to beef up with stanley to 12 Dellit to 13, if possible.

Mafi the only one that showed a bit on attack.

This is going to be a very very long season.

We need to send SOS out for a decent flyhalf ASAP.

[blueandblack]

....
On a brighter note- we will not be at risk of peaking too early in the season!

consistency is important

[SNOB]

Well RG has kept his powder dry! No one is going to know what the Forces' moves are before the big kick off in just over a weeks time. And it looks as though no one has told the players either!
With just over a week to go and they still can't pass or catch a ball! Discipline was a joke.
I hope this isn't going to be another year of excuses!

[wqerti]

Was about to post a same thing but it really summed it up. Well done!

Very dissapointing night.

The forwards held their own and looked good.

The backline was autrocious, passes close to the ground, no go forward, dropped the ball, made no breaks of note and looked very slow and pedestrain when the Reds made a break or two or three. Plenty of space was found between 10 and 12.

Turner at 9 was no good, clearly lacking match practice after so long a lay off, Sheehan looked better.

Stannard is trying his best but he is not really a Super 15 , flyhalf and it showed, Sidey dissapointing.

Playing Stannard, Sidey and Stanley is just too small a combination, need to beef up with stanley to 12 Dellit to 13, if possible.

Mafi the only one that showed a bit on attack.

This is going to be a very very long season.

We need to send SOS out for a decent flyhalf ASAP.

[GAFFA]

mafi was good all night. Seymour butchered a real chance on the wing we had a 2 on 1 overlap and all he had to do was draw and pass and mafi was in the clear and could have scored but instead he just passed the ball as if it was a hot potato and mafi had to cut inside to try and get around the defender.

Simple things like this let the boys down all night.

They looked alot better in the second half esp when Sheean came on.

[PerthGirl]

They were pretty average. On the bright side, Cummins, Dellitt, Naps, Brownie and Sharpie will come into the side

[Burgs]

Sounds like a good job I didn't waste the diesel then...

[robyn <3]

Turner was inadequate, how much game time has he had since his injury/ies? Where's Mark Swanepol! Mafi's looking a lot more mature and enthusiastic, I liked it. Cameron was dissappointing.

MOM - Benny Mac, for getting a few swipes in at his Wallaby captain, and not being the man getting binned for it. Kudos!

Grubber kicks. Work out what they are. Work out how to stop it. Carn the Force

[James]

It was a trial. Handling should be better in week 1. Sam Wykes had a shocker in week 1 last season and pulled it out to have his best season to date. The wake-up call will do us good.

[SNOB]

It was a trial. Handling should be better in week 1. Sam Wykes had a shocker in week 1 last season and pulled it out to have his best season to date. The wake-up call will do us good.

Oh how I hope your right. That performanc should have given Rugby WA a wake up call as well!

[KenyaQuin]

Again, that was painful..really.

Problem with the backline was the No. 10. Harris looked classy with plenty of little tricks in his pocket to keep the opposition on the backfoot. Lots of running onto the ball by the Reds' backs ensured forward momentum was maintained.

Poor Stannard seemed to have none of this. Nothing to challenge the Reds backs and our own backs didn't seem sure of what Stanner was up to so for a good majority of the time they tended to hang back or out wide waiting. A couple of times the backs broke the line but if I recall correctly, these were more open play spur-of-the-moment breaks. I've seen Stanner play better so giving him some benefit of the doubt and hopeing this was his one bad game for the season.

JT..he's an excellent sub.

The handling was a real cock-up and probably the most disappointing aspect of their game. I'm sure Woody was as embarrassed as the rest of us.

[Buddha Handy]

At least Nalaga is only ill and not injured. Maybe Graham is just holding him back as our secret weapon for round 1

Sounds like we need Dellit and Cummins back for a bit more beef in the defence. Sharpey will make a big difference as well.

I am worried about our try scoring ability though, we have scored lots of tries in the past due to individual brilliance from joc, gits, staniforth & shep. I can't see many 4 try bonus points this year unless Nalaga dominates

[Tazzmania]

The reality of it all is the while we may try write it off as a trial, then as we improve, so are the other teams. The goal posts will not be standing still.

We struggked last year a bit, with X factors like Dave Smith and James O Connor, and now with very little flash this year, unless the likes of Naps, Dellit and Cummings play out their skins it is going to be very tough year.

No offence to Stannard, as he is a 9 and now we know we need him there as cover for Sheehan, as Turner was at sea, and is injury prone anyway, we urgently need a decent playmaker.

[DinkyDi]

What a shocker - bereft of attacking plan again. No running lines little support and ball handling was woeful. The pack was ok and Stannard was ... well a scrum half playing 10... very little vision and no kicking game. Sheps was very rusty but the saddest bit of all was how ineffectual Pocock was as a captain... far too quiet and very little chat at any time. I know its his first game and he leads by example but please step it up and communicate strongly with the team and ref.

Alfie was the stand out by miles and though he made a few mistakes he kept going and chasing all day.

On a better note - the Force A looked very good running out 40 point winners over the Shute Shield BaBas. Fun game to watch with a number of local youngsters shinning such as Venter on the wing... Wheels and footwork galore. It was good to see the locals standing up and thrasing an, albeit, mediocre Eastern States team.

Its going to be a long season.... AGAIN...