Melbourne non-crowds

[GIGS20]

Does anyone have a drawing-board?

It appears the force don't.I guess we're in the realms of showing spirit and it's only round 2.I really don't think the Reds are all that good, which means when we get it wrong we get it horribly wrong.

[jargan83]

The Force defence was worse than India's lol

[shasta]

That is all.

[Rebelsman]

Hahahahaha

[Tazzmania]

The red mist has finally cleared, that performance was totally unacceptable and hopefully the players own it, learn from it and move forward again.

We were totally outplayed both physically, mentally, skill wise and every which way.

The Reds style of play appears to be an archilies heal for us, last year and in the pre season trial they used similar tactics and tore us apart all three times, this week being the worst. In soccer terms it looked like an A league team playing and English Premier league team, the gulf between the two was enormous.

A lot of negatives and too many to list all but here are two that we probably knew would come back to bite us from the start of the year:

* Lack of depth at outside centre
* Lack of big body forwards

Positives are few and far between but here are three:

* We need to clone Jermey Thrush, you cannot buy that sort of heart and determination.
* Felix Kalapu keeps on trying and trying giving his all.
* Jackson Pugh despite his yellow card showed grit and determination when he came on.

We all have bad days at work, unfortunatly for sports teams its more visible and more open to critism. If we have a bad day at work we do not give up the job, we go home refocus and try and start again the next day, the team needs to do the same.

I will be there and I am sure many more sea of blue fans will be as well to support and get behind the team on Saturday and make sure in this dark time they know they are supported and they still have us to back them up irrespective of what happened and help them move forward.

[palitu]

there seemed to be a lot of walking. towards the end, there were no kick chases, leaving us all offside.

Unfortunately, it unfolded how i thought it would after the rebels game. we did not play well last week, and with a totally new team, that is unsurprising. I am really quite pissed off with the club. Where is my team? it is just a bunch of guys I don't know running around i a shirt bought at the local rebel sports. wheeling out a whole bunch of new players is not what i want.

Why was it necessary to rebuild the entire team? I get that they want the best in each position, but shit. i dont want to start from scratch, i dont want them to have to build a team for the first half of the season, only to click when it is too late.

so no, in not surprised, im pissed at the effort towards the back end of the game, im pissed at a rebuild, im pissed my team is gone.

[boof1050]

Palitu I too am pissed at the constant bloody rebuild! Every year we're trumping out not just 2 new players but mostly a whole new farken team. We have the knack of always getting players in key positions that have generally been journeyman at best at most other Super clubs. 3 fellas in our team right now have played for 3 of the other australian Super clubs each. just because they have super rugby experience doesn't necessarily mean they're the right people for the job. 17 years of history would show not much has changed!!

[Jules]

I don't recognise much of the team either but was it in their control? A lot of retirements last year. I think RA needs to think about a dispensation for more foreign players or a higher salary cap while we are "rebuilding" again to show the young up and coming players how its done? We need some success or crowds are going to dwindle even further this year and attracting any quality players is just going to be harder. :-(

[The InnFORCEr]

Round 1 - Highlanders v Blues - 20 - 60
Round 2 - Highlanders v Crusaders - 52 - 15

We're 9th of 12 teams after two rounds with one being a blow out, chill out.

[The InnFORCEr]

Force won't cry over Reds thumping
Tue, Mar 7, 2023, 5:40 AM
Justin Chadwick - AAP


Western Force coach Simon Cron says there's no time to cry about his team's woeful 71-20 loss to the Queensland Reds, and captain Michael Wells has vowed to never let a result like that happen again.

The Force conceded 10 tries as they slumped to the second-largest loss in the franchise's 18-year history.

Watch every game of Super Rugby Pacific LIVE on Stan Sport. Start your Free Sport Trial Now

The biggest defeat remains the 53-0 mauling by the Crusaders in Christchurch in 2007.

Sunday's result came as a shock given the Force opened their season with a fighting 34-27 win over the Melbourne Rebels a week earlier.

The Force will be back in action on Saturday night when they host Moana Pasifika at HBF Park, and Cron wants his players to move on quickly from the "car crash" performance against the Reds.

"You don't get to cry," Cron said.

"You've got a six-day turnaround. So for us we need to sit down, evaluate, get better.

"I don't think you can dwell on it. We've just got to find the fixes, the critical few things we need to do, and do that."

Wells copped a head knock against the Reds and will miss Saturday's clash under the league's concussion protocols.

But he will be demanding 100 per cent from his troops at training this week to make sure they are steeled for game day.

"Seeing 70 points put on you is bitterly disappointing. It's unacceptable from our point of view," Wells said. "It hurts. We regrouped after the game, I pulled everyone in outside of the coaching staff.

"I said, 'accept the feeling, acknowledge it, remember it, because right now that doesn't happen again'. Hopefully that doesn't happen again."

Play Video
Force and Reds match up for the final game of Super Round at AAMI Park, Melbourne.
Wells highlighted his team's mental lapses against the Reds as being the biggest problem that needs addressing.

"Seventy points happens when you're not mentally in the game consistently. And there were a few mental errors, switch-offs," he said.

"We've talked about it for the last couple of weeks - to win at Super Rugby level and professional sport level, it's the will to win.

"It's not necessarily technical or tactical a lot of the time - it's do you want it more than the other team, and are you willing to do everything you can for your team?

"We're probably going to have to assess whether we did that enough."

Wells found it hard to watch the game after being forced off with the head knock.

"You feel pretty useless on the sideline there," he said. "We were a little bit quiet, which allowed a snowball effect.

"We've got a lot of leaders. We'll regroup during the week and talk about how we can be better."

Moana Pasifika started their season with a 36-34 loss to Fijian Drua, before losing 52-29 to the Chiefs last weekend.

https://www.rugby.com.au/news/wester...humping-202336

[The InnFORCEr]

The biggest defeat remains the 53-0 mauling by the Crusaders in Christchurch in 2007.

As one of my Kiwi mates Dad (RIP Mr Hardy) said at the time "and we were lucky to get the nil".

I think Happy, Gunny and Sloppy were at the game too, just before they got driven off Mt Cook Station!

Waratahs lost to them 96-19 a few years earlier before we were in the comp.

[valzc]

Round 1 - Highlanders v Blues - 20 - 60
Round 2 - Highlanders v Crusaders - 52 - 15

We're 9th of 12 teams after two rounds with one being a blow out, chill out.

No panic yet - and I understand the injury list, but the guys REALLY need to find some mongrel especially at breakdown. Thought Jackson, Angus & Calapa were doing the most, but attitude/focus was sadly lacking at times, and not forgetting Folau stuffed up lineout throws!

[GIGS20]

I think the biggest concern I have is the total lack of cohesion and the lack of implementation of a game plan.

There seemed to be nobody out there generating or feeling trust for anything, just 23 blokes trying and failing to do everything themselves.

The outcome was 100% mental, yes we had a light backrow compared to theirs, yes our back three was much less capable than theirs, but that isn't a reason to throw the game away, we had a set piece which competed well with theirs until they too shut off. We could have controlled the pace of the game, jogged from scrum to lineout at every opportunity, removed their chances of getting at the ball on the floor and played bloody boring, effective rugby that kept us close enough to have some respect.

We didn't

Not at any point

That was unfortunate, hopefully the boys are hurting enough to come out firing next week and restore some pride in the jersey. Let's face it, some of them will be playing to save their jobs if they don't turn it around, and you don't want that shit happening in round 3!

[chiraag]

Apologies in advance for this rant!

I honestly think we might be better off going back down the Global Rapid Rugby route. We're not going to be able to field a team that can win the competition within the next 10 years, or possibly ever with the salary cap as it currently stands. We'll always have far less wallabies in our squad than the Reds, Brumbies, Tahs and probably even the Rebels given the constant preferential treatment RA seems to offer them. So we'll effectively always be operating with a lower budget, which is the opposite of what we require to attract people over here away from their homes.
Despite being kicked out of Super Rugby and completely shafted by them, then saving RA's bacon during the COVID years and continuing to save their bacon by providing them with a team at no cost, their appears to be absolutely no reciprocation in the arrangement.
Crowds and support are just going to continue to dwindle as we fail to produce on field results. I can honestly see a number of cricket scores being put up against us this year with the list we have, lack of quality depth and firepower available in the other teams. If the Reds can put 70 points on us, the Blues, Chiefs and Crusaders will likely be even worse.

We (and the Rebels) desperately need the salary cap to be adjusted for wallaby top-ups (I've previously suggested total salary cap for all teams should be base salary cap plus 50% of team with largest amount of wallaby top-ups) and/or some sort of draft system.

The Reds game really highlighted to me how bad our kicking game is. We were using Hegarty for the majority of our kicks, but when kicking from the 22, most of his kicks were pretty aimless - only just making it over halfway if they remained in, or were well within our half if they were kicked out. Giving the opposition easy front foot ball in these positions is only going to end in disaster, especially against the kiwis. We'll always be struggling with territory as well if this continues.
Tiatia is likely the only one with a half decent boot. None of Mataele, Kibirige or Pulu can really kick, and Hegarty gets no distance. So perhaps with the personnel we've got, we really need to be running it back more. However that'll likely end in tears also, so who knows what the solution is....?

I'm also not sure about the praise for Thrush. Those 2 or 3 lineouts that we screwed up in a row in the first half played a huge part in how the remainder of the game played out. No doubting the guy's heart or determination and full kudos to him for answering the SOS, but I really would prefer we used him off the bench and get some game time into younger blokes since this season is no doubt another one of rebuilding.

Rant over

[AndyS]

The Force doesn't need GRR instead, it needs GRR as well. RA clearly has no intention of doing anything meaningful about an NRC, and the expansion teams more than anyone need that for player development. But a GRR would give a second string to the contracting bow, allowing a second income stream that might attract better players to make the move. On top of giving developing players a more professional environment, and allow for a bigger squad. Not to mention the possibility of an external revenue stream, not suffocating under the dead weight of RA incompetence.

But for all the pre-Covid promises and commitments to Asian teams and rugby, apparently not. One can only hope the pre- and end-season friendlies might turn into something, but it looks pretty wishful at best.