So lets see.
Force - Win
Reds - Lose
Waratahs - Lose
Brumbies - Lose
Rebels - Lose.
How many of our team will be in the Aussie Team of the week?
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So lets see.
Force - Win
Reds - Lose
Waratahs - Lose
Brumbies - Lose
Rebels - Lose.
How many of our team will be in the Aussie Team of the week?
Sportsbet and Bill Hill are currently only betting on outright winner. Force $126. I managed to get $81 for them to top the conference.
Things I learned from the tahs this week.
The lions are the real deal, the tahs aren't.
The lions had an ability to pressure all the right areas and force the tahs into errors which stalled any momentum they might have had. The tahs were clueless how to stop it.
The tahs only ever read the smh and rugby.com.au
All the post match reaction from the sky-blue fan boy parade has looked like the sort of sanitised pap that is written about a dozen grade under 6s side, where it's important that each player feels good about his game rather than worrying about results. When asked what needed to improve, Hooper said defense (perhaps he was just picking the first in a long list, but I suspect not) Gibson was waxing lyrical about the few shining lights of not-suckiness, like told late being a fetcher. Steve lark hams reaction to the brumbies loss was more realistic and more likely to turn things around.
The reason the wallabies can't maul is all the tahs.
Tahs weren't bad at mauling last night, thy were atrocious. Once the lions decided to try mauling close to the line, the defense was so inept it looked like they had thrown any other set piece option in the bin. Maul, penalty, maul, penalty, maul, penalty, maul, penalty and yellow card (one too late in my opinion. It continued until they realised that the back line had just as many weapons.
Stars were missed, but not the difference.
The press is making big noises about not having Foley, phipps and Skelton, and they were missed. Bryce hearty appears to have learned everything he knows about kicking from watching jack debreczini, but not actually I king a ball, Matt Lucas was slow to the ruck, and slow out and the maul defense could have certainly done with Shelton's bulk, but none of those three would have plugged the holes in the defensive line, pressured the line out ball or improved the pressure on the lions ruck ball.
Who knows what the lions could have done last year if they didn't make the stupidest rugby decision I've ever seen by resting their major players for the final...
If they had that home semi who knows what could have happened
From SMH Paul Culley
1. Pek Cowan (Force)
2. Tolu Latu (Waratahs)
3. Tetera Faulkner (Force)
4. Lopeti Timani (Rebels)
5. Sam Carter (Brumbies)
6. Scott Fardy (Brumbies)
7. Kane Koteka (Force)
8. Amanaki Mafi (Rebels)
9. Ryan Louwrens (Force)
10. Jono Lance (Force)
11. Eto Nabuli (Reds)
12. Bill Meakes (Force)
13. Samu Kerevi (Reds)
14. Chance Peni (Force)
15. Dane Haylett-Petty (Force)
reckon lions were told to focus on the maul when the tahs lost skelton..good coaching. tahs had no idea to counter the maul without skelton...bad coaching.
what is with empty stadiums at almost every game? clearly SR is making the bulk of revenue off tv, not gate receipts. our attendances don't look so bad when you see so many empty seats in other matches.
Rebels look clueless and he coach needs to go. If we can jag a win in the next couple of away matches and pick up some home wins we may just sneak into the finals judging on current form of the AUS teams.
I didn't see the Rebs game, but I have watched all the others.
Tahs were pretty dire, Brums (as I posted last night) looked well beaten in every area except the scoreboard and the Reds were insipid in their area of strength (the set piece) but to get two names in team of the week after an 11 try drubbing?
Particularly at Lock and Number 8?
I just thought they must have had individual blinders and be the only shining light for their team.
Either that or Paul Cully was setting up to write yet another can the Force article and though it might damage his credibility to have the entire Force team in his team of the week.
From the games I've seen, You can't really argue against Fardy and Nabuli making the grade, Kerevi probably shades Peni, but some would argue that, I think everybody else is a charity case considering how badly Aussie rugby folded this week.
Imagne what the list would have looked like if the Tahs had beaten an Aussie side at home and everybody else lost!
Devastated Sheikh.
I honestly didn't believe in the leadup to the weekend that the Tahs would suck quite as hard as they obviously do.
It appears that we were the reason they won last week through not being able to finish the game out, rather than them being better than us.
Now it only stands to confirm the placing next week Tick every box the ARU has put out there for us to tick and watch them try to justify canning us anyway!
The reason the force will be first on the chopping block is the local comp is deteriorating at a rate on knots
The ARU cannot afford to have 45 players in Perth with no decent rugby for fringe players to be part of
The lack of development with the junior comp will bear no fruit in the up coming years and that is proven with what is running around in the U 20s the quality following is getting worse
An article in the Roar about the problem with Aussie rugby is spot on and it won't improve until things change dramatically
It's not about having a team that is competitive in the west the base needs to be strong so don't get to wound up about the survival of the force worry about your local comp first
In yaw faaaace SANZAR! :sarcastic:
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Given that the only information I get about the base of rugby in WA, is from the community rugby powers on this site, I'd say it looks like a cancerous, growth and nothing will save it, now I'm sure that's probably not the case, in just letting you know the view from the outside. however losing the pathway to higher representation will make it harder to recruit/retain good juniors. So I'd think saving the force Is a way of worrying about the local comp.