Force v Bulls Round 6

[westies man]

Last night we got to see a much better brand of rugby. Yes the penalty count was out of control, but perhaps that was because the boys are trying too hard and forcing things. Yet the whinge fest began and I can't read this crap any more. IMHO!

That's exactly how I read it, they whacked everything they had into last night. They were up for the occasion and needed to let the red mist clear a bit but it didn't.

[Happy]

Everyone can take a chill pill, breathe a little and relax. Is the poor start to the year getting on people nerves?

Write twice and post once, and we'll all be good!!

As you were but consider this thread watched.

I'm running on minimal sleep and I ain't afraid to use it!

[onions]

As people who read my comments know, I don't mind bagging individual players whom I think are not up to it. Last night however I'd like to thank the entire squad for "turning up" and having a go. Why Sias wasn't our first choice goal kicker did baffle me somewhat though.

[.X.]

[sandgroperrugby]

Watched the game yesterday after noon with the result known, got grumpy a couple of times but overall aside from the score our boys can take a lot out of that. Loved the ferocity of the forwards. One of our best locks was the long blond haired bloke he was awesome he gained us heaps of turn over ball and a try, can't see him in the squad list on the force page though.

Liking the back line more and more can't wait for Dane to come back in. Look out shorks

[choice]

Watched the game, not to worried about the penalties in that environment you could kick goals from the 22.
The intensity was what pleased me but it does bring up a question. Why doesn't it happen every game, if they played like that against Aussie teams they would win more than they lose.
Loving the pick and go's.

[The InnFORCEr]

WESTERN FORCE MEDIA RELEASE
Saturday, 21 March 2015

COURAGEOUS FORCE SUNK BY LAST-MINUTE PENALTY

The Western Force has suffered a heartbreaking 25-24 loss to the Bulls at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld tonight.

The Force wrestled back a 24-22 lead with three minutes remaining through a booming Sias Ebersohn penalty attempt from inside his own half, before Handre Pollard responded with a long-range attempt of his own to steal the one-point win.

Despite outscoring the home side three-tries-to-one, the Force’s lack of discipline at key times proved costly with the side reduced to 13 men during the second half following yellow cards to Adam Coleman and Tetera Faulkner, while Pollard capitalised through six penalty goals for the match in a personal tally of 20 points.

Outside centre Kyle Godwin was named Man of the Match after finding valuable yards throughout the match, as well as contributing with a trademark busy defensive effort and crossing for his side’s final try. Coleman also made his presence felt throughout the match with a physical performance, as well as continually making ground, including striding out for his first Asteron Life Super Rugby try in the 12th minute of the match.

The Force will travel to Durban to tackle the Sharks on Saturday (28 March) at Kings Park.

Tickets to Western Force’s next home match against the Cheetahs on Saturday, 11 April are now available! Visit www.ticketmaster.com.au.

WHAT THEY SAID… Michael Foley, Western Force Head Coach
“I feel very proud. The reality is it’s always very difficult to come here and play. The conditions were difficult. Some of the things we practiced during the week, the players executed extremely well. You’re always disappointed when you don’t get the result, but if we continue to play rugby like that week in, week out, then we’re going to get some good results.

“I didn’t think there was any minute of the game that we weren’t going for it. In games like this, the opposition will always have momentum at different times and I thought we remained composed. When we had momentum we capitalised on that a fair bit and those three tries were very promising. There were some good things for us as a team. We’re a young team, we’re learning; there are some things we’ll take out of that game that we want to keep doing, and there are a couple of things we’ll pick up and improve from.”



2014 Asteron Life Super Rugby – Week Six
Saturday, 21 March 2015 at Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria Kick-off: 5.05pm (local)/11.05pm Crowd: Not announced

Bulls 25 (Marcel van der Merwe try; Handre Pollard 1/1 conversion, 6/7 penalty goals) defeated Western Force 24 (Adam Coleman, Sam Wykes, Kyle Godwin tries; Luke Burton 2 conversions, 0/3 penalty goals; Sias Ebersohn 1/1 conversion, 1/1 penalty goal, 0/1 drop goal)

Half time: Bulls 9-7
Yellow Cards: Adam Coleman (48 min), Tetera Faulkner (49 min)
Red Cards: Nil
Referee: Nick Briant


Western Force
1. Pekahou Cowan, 2. Nathan Charles, 3. Tetera Faulkner, 4. Sam Wykes (c), 5. Adam Coleman, 6. Steve Mafi, 7. Kane Koteka, 8. Ben McCalman, 9. Alby Mathewson, 10. Sias Ebersohn, 11. Nick Cummins, 12. Luke Burton, 13. Kyle Godwin, 14. Marcel Brache, 15. Luke Morahan.

Reserves: 16. Heath Tessmann, 17. Chris Heiberg, 18. Oliver Hoskins, 19. Wilhelm Steenkamp, 20. Angus Cottrell, 21. Ian Prior, 22. Zack Holmes, 23. Solomoni Jnr Rasolea.

Head Coach: Michael Foley

Bulls
1. Dean Greyling, 2. Adriaan Strauss, 3. Marcel Van der Merwe, 4. Jacques du Plessis, 5. Grant Hattingh, 6. Deon Stegmann, 7. Pieter Labuschagne, 8. Pierre Spies (c), 9. Rudy Paige, 10. Handre Pollard, 11. Bjorn Basson, 12. Jan Serfontein, 13. JJ Engelbrecht, 14. Francois Hougaard, 15. Jessie Kriel.

Reserves: 16. Jaco Visagie, 17. Morne Mellett, 18. Trevor Nyakane, 19. Victor Matfield, 20. Arno Botha, 21. Piet van Zyl, 22. Tiaan Schoeman, 23. Jurgen Visser.

Head Coach: Frans Ludeke


BY THE CLOCK
Min Score
10 Sam Wykes is penalised for coming in from the side of a maul at the lineout. Handre Pollard kicks the penalty from two metres inside his own half. 3-0
12 Alby Mathewson draws Dion Stegmann from the base of the ruck to put Adam Coleman into a gap to stride out 25 metres to score under the posts. Luke Burton converts from in front. 3-7
15 Nathan Charles is penalised for being offside. Pollard adds his second penalty. 6-7
19 Sias Ebersohn misses a drop goal attempt from the halfway line. 6-7
23 Marcel Van der Merwe is penalised for illegal binding in the scrum. Burton misses the long-range penalty attempt. 6-7
33 Tackler Ben McCalman is penalised for not releasing the ball. Pollard kicks the penalty attempt. 9-7
40 Steve Mafi is penalised for hands in the ruck. Pollard misses the penalty attempt. 9-7
HALF TIME 9-7
44 Stegmann is penalised for not rolling away at the tackle. Burton’s attempt hits the upright. While Jacques du Plessis catches the ball but is pushed back over the line with Wykes stripping the ball to score. Burton converts. 9-14
48 Coleman receives a yellow card for being offside defending a Bulls maul. 9-14
49 Tetera Faulkner receives a yellow card for coming in from the side of the maul. 9-14
51 The Bulls keep the ball in the forwards and pick-and-drive towards the line, with Van der Merwe eventually burrowing over from the base of the ruck. Pollard converts. 16-14
54 Trevor Nyakane is caught offside. Burton misses the penalty attempt. 16-14
63 Morahan is penalised for sealing the ball off at the ruck. Pollard kicks the penalty goal. 19-14
67 Wykes is penalised for hands in the ruck. Pollard successfully adds another penalty goal. 22-14
72 The Force play seven phases from a five metre lineout before Kyle Godwin receives the ball at first receiver and shoots through three defenders to score. Ebersohn converts. 22-21
78 Nyakane is penalised for coming in from the side at the ruck. Ebersohn kicks the penalty from 59 metres out. 22-24
80 Coleman is penalised for lifting Pollard in the tackle. Pollard kicks the penalty from 45 metres out. 25-24
FULL TIME 25-24

[The InnFORCEr]

Force upbeat despite heartbreaking loss

Chris Pike
March 22, 2015, 6:34 pm


Western Force coach Michael Foley's challenge is to get his players up for next weekend's Super Rugby clash with the Sharks after suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Bulls in Pretoria.

Bulls five-eighth Handre Pollard slotted his sixth penalty goal of the match with 35 seconds on the clock to clinch a 25-24 win, denying the Force a rare victory for Australian teams at Loftus Versfeld on Sunday morning (AEDT).

The Force's South African No.10 Sias Ebersohn looked to have secured victory inside the final two minutes when he landed a 60-metre penalty to put the Perth-based outfit up by two points before they were left shattered.

"I know our guys are incredibly gutted in there but they will take some time off to rest and we'll get back into it," Foley said.

Foley's side would have become the first Australian team to win a regular season Super Rugby game at Loftus Versfeld since 2007.

The Force's tour of South Africa now heads to Durban where they'll face the Sharks on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).

"Coming to Loftus and playing the Bulls and Durban to play the Sharks should motivate you, it shouldn't be daunting," Foley said.

"Our challenge is to back up this performance and test the Sharks because they are a good side."

Foley is taking plenty of positives from the Pretoria clash with Adam Coleman, Sam Wykes and Kyle Godwin all scoring five-pointers in the three-tries-to-one performance.

"I feel very proud actually to come here and get three tries and certainly in the fashion that the players got them in, and to resist some of the pressure at some of the different times of the game," Foley said.

The Bulls' only try to Marcel van der Merwe came when the Force were down to 13 men with Coleman and Tetera Faulkner in the sin bin.

Pollard's match-winning penalty came after Force hooker Nathan Charles was penalised for a dangerous tackle.

The Bulls have now won three straight, while the Force suffered a fifth straight loss.

The Force played some attacking and enterprising rugby, but ultimately they gave away too many penalties.

"The ball movement was good and our young centres (Luke Burton, Godwin) played very well and I thought they probably outplayed the Bulls centres (Jan Serfontein, JJ Engelbrecht) who are very good players," Foley said.

"Credit to the Bulls for finding a way even though the game was with us for a large part of it. They found a way to get the result."

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/sp...breaking-loss/

[palitu]

Everyone can take a chill pill, breathe a little and relax. Is the poor start to the year getting on people nerves?

Write twice and post once, and we'll all be good!!

As you were but consider this thread watched.

I'm running on minimal sleep and I ain't afraid to use it!

Ah happy!

we have missed you round these parts. just jump on TWF when you are helping feed Pia. All the mums do it, but with stalkerbook.

[palitu]

As people who read my comments know, I don't mind bagging individual players whom I think are not up to it. Last night however I'd like to thank the entire squad for "turning up" and having a go. Why Sias wasn't our first choice goal kicker did baffle me somewhat though.

I never single out an individual for bad performances!

[GIGS20]

Is the poor start to the year getting on people nerves?

The answer is yes.

And I might be a bit sensitive as a result.

BTW I too was really excited to see the effort of the boys on Saturday night absolutely gutted to have it go the way it did.

even the Ref wasn't too bad after his automatic scrum penalty against us on the first collapse of the first scrum, I think he either came to his senses or somebody had a quick word in his mike, because he even called those pretty fair. It's interesting to see the difference we gain in power once we're not worried about being penalised for everything that goes wrong with the scrum.

[The InnFORCEr]

We also won a scrum (we'll the Bulls were penalised for angling) when we had Kyle and Marcel as the flankers because we had the two yellows off. Was funny to see Big Dog lift Kyle's arm and put in the correct binding position.

It was a fantastic effort all round by the team, they played for each other unlike previous weeks, I actually think it was better game from them that the one against the Tahs.

Sure Burto missed a couple, but the way he set up Sammy's try by kicking it off the upright was amazing, turned a potential 3 into 7

Bismarck out for 4 weeks and the Chiefs really beat up the Sharks, so we have another crack at an SA win yet

[jargan83]

Why doesn't it happen every game

Last year proved that the Force can match it with most of the sides in the competition and were putting together some good 80 minute efforts and I think that's why some people are getting a bit peeved because we know they're capable of being a better side.

[Nipper]

I couldn't agree more. Not adding anything to the team.

Full credit for the bomb of a penalty, but not much beyond that. The only thing he brings to the table is his kicking, and that's been well below par. Hate to be so harsh, but it's clear that he's a one-dimensional player, and that one dimension is failing him.

[Nipper]

I'll be very harsh in saying this, but I'm actually wondering whether Sias's time might be up. He was able to improve a little bit last year, but it's been a few years now and I'm thinking that errors in judgement are an inherent part of his game, rather than something he can iron out with experience/practice. Maybe he should consider a big European paycheck instead?

I couldn't agree more. Not adding anything to the team at any point this season.

Full credit for the bomb of a penalty, but not much beyond that. The only thing he brings to the table is his kicking, and that's been well below par. Hate to be so harsh, but it's clear that he's a one-dimensional player, and that one dimension is failing him.