Force -v- Chiefs, Round 11 - Cowan's Century

[AndyS]

TBH, I thought that was one of the worst games I've seen this year. The ref let 90% of what happened go, which only made the other 10% completely arbitrary and inconsistent. And the Force doing their usual - taking the kick at goal having got the opposition on a warning rather than pressing the point, endlessly kicking away the ball despite being a defender down, and kicking to the opposition with 45 seconds to go when needing any sort of score for the extra bonus point. As well as they played in places, they are the scarecrow of Super Rugby - plenty of heart, no brains.

[choice]

Pretty dumb decision to replace Gus and depower our pack even further. we had already looked suspect at the lineout and scrum. Pretty dumb tackle by Prior, when will they learn that a tackle is more effective when you drive through the man not up in the fokken air.
Maybe they should play with 14 men all the time as their commitment levels seemed to lift.
But really the decision to replace Gus was the most idiotic thing to have happened on the rugby field this season.
I think Foley is being influenced too much by his inexperienced assistant coaches.

[SinBin]

On a more positive note.. Luke's found his place kicks radar - kudos.

[Alison]

Agree SinBin. Big ups to him. Can't have been easy to keep plugging away and not lose his confidence totally. Shows great stregnth of character - a trait we need in our squad :-)

[Basha69]

I know its been asked before, but why, if we are to kick as the game plan, do we not hire an afl coach to teach kicking and receiving. Yes the styles are different but it cant be denied an afl kicker can kick out of hand onto a spot and contest in the air is their sport.

Why an AFL kicking coach? Have you seen Folau kick

[jono]

I know its been asked before, but why, if we are to kick as the game plan, do we not hire an afl coach to teach kicking and receiving. Yes the styles are different but it cant be denied an afl kicker can kick out of hand onto a spot and contest in the air is their sport.

I'd prefer a league kicking coach. They don't tend to miss anywhere near as many conversions.
Has anyone kicked off a tee with a league & a rugby ball to see if there's a difference?

[Scozzie]

But really the decision to replace Gus was the most idiotic thing to have happened on the rugby field this season.
I think Foley is being influenced too much by his inexperienced assistant coaches.

I'm not so sure. At the time Prior was sent off, the Chiefs looked stronger in the backs than the forwards, and were running more plays through the backs. So, maybe Foley thought it better to keep a full back line on the pitch - even though scrum and lineout were struggling a bit. I thought the forwards still held their own at the breakdown right through the game.

[SinBin]

Agree Scozzie. Chiefs were going wide down the left early on and finding room when Badger was a bit out of position. They would've been going wide all night long if we'd been down one in the backs. Forwards went pretty well despite the deficit.

[shasta]

I'd prefer a league kicking coach. They don't tend to miss anywhere near as many conversions.
Has anyone kicked off a tee with a league & a rugby ball to see if there's a difference?

Big percentage of the Mungo kickers are schooled by our old kicking coach Darryl Halligan. Whatever he teaches them obviously works a treat. Maybe about time we got him to do a bit of consulting again. Graham Arnold is pretty good too, but he's a bit busy these days.

[choice]

Agree Scozzie. Chiefs were going wide down the left early on and finding room when Badger was a bit out of position. They would've been going wide all night long if we'd been down one in the backs. Forwards went pretty well despite the deficit.

Why wouldn't he have replaced a back, Gus is better than most of them, and then have a full pack when needed and a forward in the backline when it was our put in at set piece. Still dumb!

[SinBin]

We were already 20kgs down in the scrum with our full 8. We saw that even with our put in it was no guarantee to win the scrum with 7 as the Chiefs won some tight heads against our 7 not to mention walking our scrum to near our posts and getting a penalty try. There's pros and cons with taking off a back or a forward.

[jono]

Big percentage of the Mungo kickers are schooled by our old kicking coach Darryl Halligan. Whatever he teaches them obviously works a treat. Maybe about time we got him to do a bit of consulting again. Graham Arnold is pretty good too, but he's a bit busy these days.

Didn't know he was over with the dark side.
Aus rugby needs to do something to improve the accuracy of kicking. Penalties & conversions are going to be well handy come World Cup

[shasta]

Didn't know he was over with the dark side.
Aus rugby needs to do something to improve the accuracy of kicking. Penalties & conversions are going to be well handy come World Cup

Well, after 5 seasons at Waikato he went to the mungos and played another 10 seasons, setting a record for consecutive goals along the way. Then lost it to his successor at the Dogs, Hazem El Masri. So he's been on the dark side a while

[NTT]

It was so refreshing to see our halfback giving quick ball to our runners for a change. It allowed us to actually look threatening in attack. Gus' try was a brilliant team try of quick ball to organised options, a classic team try. Priors moment of madness was exactly that, a moment of madness. We look such a better team without Sam and Alby. Scrum is still our biggest problem, we are too worried with getting low and locking out instead of scrumming 6 inches higher where they would have a better chance of pushing. Getting so low makes it hard to get out of that position when its time to push. We should be looking to push and accelerate through the scrum not just get low and lock out. Anyone who has done squats knows it is hard to get out of a deep squat with too much pressure on your body. Same with scrums. Go back to a short power snap style squat and the other thing is its time to put more emphasis on binding tighter. When we are under pressure our binds always are the first thing to go. Look at different bind positioning.
Quick front foot ball was great to see.

[andrewg]

I have no issues with Prior's RED card - it was always a RED and it is likely to cost him more time. After the whistle when we had a penalty withing kicking range. Yes it was a game-changer and we can argue the situation of who should have been subbed. But how many of us have done the same level of home work on the Chiefs' game plans as Foley and his coaching staff. Or how our own team had been prepared. They put in a lot more effort than any of we commentators do from our armchairs. Hey - don't get me wrong - comment and discussion is what this site is all about.

How good it was to see our guys lift in the 2nd half - even with one guy light in the scum. And how good to see the HB get involved - at least it got him into the game. I don't think he's put in any effort since his return and must be a serious chance of missing the RWC squad. And please, don't tell me that the others haven't been getting the ball to him. HB has shown that he's capable of getting his own ball when he's on his game. With a tackling efficiency of only 77% (Made 25, Missed 8), his defense now is almost as bad as Quade Coopers!

BTW the initial scrum weight difference was only 10kg. The Chiefs just scrummed better than we did - even when it was 8 v 8. In the end we regained our mojo and outsrummed the Chiefs with even their heavier reserve front row.

Gus Gardner frustrates the hell out of me - just like for others it's mostly for what he DOESN'T do!

He pings Pek Cowan for not rolling away early in the game. Pek was under about 5 Chiefs players but that's OK if that's the way Gus is going to call the game. He then lets a blatant action by a Chief who was free to roll away and didn't (and Hodgo was doing lots to point it out to Gus who had a clear view)/ This led to a change of momentum which led directly to a Chiefs try. Gus then called most breakdowns totally differently letting a lot go. Don't blame the players when they can't adapt to this level of rubbish reffing.

Arbitrary/inconsistent reffing is impossible to adapt to. Gus is the master of both arbitrary and inconsistent reffing processes.
The NZ commentators haven't a clue and I don't care how many Tests they may have played.
GUS GARDNER IS NOT ONE OF THE BEST REFS!!!!!

I was greatly proud of the way the team rallied around Hodgo's leadership and the way that Hodgo steadied the ship in the very stormy seas. I was proud of the way that most of our young guys stepped up. I was also very proud of the efforts of the guys off the bench who put in a big effort.

Heath Tessman's 34 minutes were some of his best since joining the Force.

Ryan Louwrens' debut? You couldn't ask for more from this young guy who (I think) has only played one full game for Cott since coming back from his knee repair. Fantastic game when chucked in the deep end.

Luke Burton's kicking has improved in just a week and the 2 that he missed came from still allowing for just a bit of his "normal" R-L movement when he was kicking them perfectly straight. His kicking from wide was impressive.

The Force is my team. Despite being down to 14 men for 50 minutes they could easily have come away with a win from this game - if they had a ref who was even partly consistent.

Looking forward to the game against the Blues next week - but concerned about injury coverage.

Have I told you how much I dislike Angus Gardner's reffing?