Classy Hurricanes destroy Force

The Wellington Hurricanes continued their impressive start to the Super 14 season, thrashing the Western Force 29-5 in their second-round clash in New Plymouth on Saturday.{br}{br}View the Entire Article{br}

I'm not sure if Luke Pentony (author of ABC article) actually watched the match but to come up with that headline demonstrates that he is completely biased against the new team or he has no grip on the game!
There is no doubt that the Hurricanes mounted an impressive scoreboard however, in now way were the Force "destroyed"!
At one stage during the second half the Force had achieved 73% of the territory, 64% of the possession, been held up twice over the Canes try line and had been stopped in the final phase short of the try line on several occasions!
This is sensationalist journalism at its best/worst and I for one am extremely proud of how the boys competed against arguably the best team in the comp in an away fixture having had one other S14 match.
Yes there were mistakes, yes the win was convincing, but by jingo I am getting excited by the glimpses that I am seeing for the future!
Open your eyes Mr Pentony.

Hurrah for Rugby Heaven for at least giving some credit where credit is obviously due!!!

http://www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au/ar...151849838.html

Apparently the host broadcaster was sitting in a different section of the crowd than Mr Pentony as well: http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0...-23217,00.html

what is wrong with Junior.... did i hear right and he broke his leg???

he broke his ankle...just before halftime..cant recall the incident, but yeah they said broken ankle in the sunday times today

Out for eight weeks according to ABC report. On paper certainly another big loss however I don't think he was living up to his expectations at this stage anyway. With Josh Graham out for a mandatory one more week it will be interesting to see who Mitch now turns to. I think Staniforth was reasonably effective at 13 so he will possibly slot Daruda back into 12 or perhaps even stick with Sare who had a pretty good game I thought.

I always new the score wqouldn't be pretty but a lot can be taken from the game. I am happy with the outcome

We passed up 5 or 6 penaties and went for touch - Mitchell is blooding everyone early.
Staniforth and Digby are awesome
Handling practice must start on Monday if we are ever to score a try from the backs.

Never Fear Hilgendorf is here

I am loving Hilgendorf...is playing a bit like a Stirling Mortlock.

I think I am getting my favourite player already...

Pity about our injuries, just need to get some state passion, give them some history lessons of WA and what it means to be West Australian, get them shot at the Fremantle Prison or whatever, need some state pride into our lineup and we should win the game.

I think thats whats lacking generally for me, their doesn't seem to be any great honour from the players that playing for WA is...but they will in time.

You can see for Welborne he tries his guts out as hes a West Aussie...

But time will come when we have West Aussies into the Force, we can only hope.

From Rugby South Africa's site, they were a tad more charitable in their appraisal!
I've edited out the usual match commentary as I think we alll have a handle on that by now?!

"....the Force spent an unbelievable amount of time deep on the attack in Hurricanes territory before then, and the referee twice referred decisions to the TMO as the Force pressed for an elusive try.

The Hurricanes lineout was a mess, whereas by contrast the Perth team were organised and efficient in securing their own ball and in poaching from the opposition. Lock David Pusey led the way in this phase before he was replaced by veteran John Welborne late in the game, and he was assisted by Nathan Sharp.

Sharp was good around the field, lending his presence to the Force forward drives and generally being in the thick of things.

However, the Force just lacked the intensity on attack necessary to succeed in this competition. That though is something that will doubtless sort itself out in time, for it should not be forgotten that the Force are a completely new team.

It is going to take time for them to sort out combinations and for players to form that instinctive understanding that is needed, but this performance was certainly more promising in many ways than last week’s opener against the Brumbies, where emotion was always going to make them competitive.

The only Force try came in the final minute when Scott Staniforth ran through onto a kick-ahead to notch a try that was a long time in coming but thoroughly deserved after they had spent so much of the match camping inside the Hurricanes 22. ....."