What went wrong

[blueandblack]

... failing to capitilize on the extra man when shiscofske was binned,...

my head nearly exploded when that happened.

max 10m out and they go for a 3 pointer instead of a try. aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhh

[NTT]

youse can vent, its cool. im not saying you cant. i just think one loss should not result in such in depth criticism, we're still developing......

[pieter blackie]

youse cant vent, its cool. im not saying you cant. i just think one loss should not result in such in depth criticism, we're still developing......

The problem is we have lost half of our games 5/10 after starting with one loss in all the away games

We have only scored 186 points so far this season but we have given away 214 points

[BLR]

youse cant vent, its cool. im not saying you cant. i just think one loss should not result in such in depth criticism, we're still developing......

It's not one loss, it's basically coming home from a good NZ tour, looking like we were on top of the word and we jump back about 15 steps....a comedy of errors...

[NTT]

im not disputing we've falling in a heap, i just wasn't going to criticise the team i support is all. not after such a loss

[James]

It's not one loss, it's basically coming home from a good NZ tour, looking like we were on top of the word and we jump back about 15 steps....a comedy of errors...

I don't really like making excuses for things but you look at the two absolutely terrible games we've had this year (Stormers/Reds) and you can see why they were such bad games. They are both teams we thrashed last year (22-3/38-3) who have improved dramatically and coming into those game you can be the players will be much, much more relaxed. Tack onto that the fatigue factor of having the last bye (against the Reds) and having played 5 away games in the previous 6 weeks (against the Stormers) and its just a recipe for disaster. Everyone has a bad game sometimes I mean take the Crusaders they were capitulated by a Chiefs team that in reality just isn't nearly as good as they should be.

For a team like ours all it takes is a beating at the breakdown to completely shut us out since our scrum is very weak and our line-out has lost a lot of edge- last year Rudi and Sharpie worked well together and Rudi stole a fair bit of ball (but give Hockings a year and the experience will be invaluable).

I really want to see how they go into those last 3 games after a rest and a wake up call and then its time to do the indepth analysis. Although it is clear at this point something needs to be done about the scrum.

[Punkpapa]

If I was in charge, I think I would be hunting down some serious forwards. The best attacking backs can't get off the ground when your forwards aren't firing. Some have mentioned the Blues game - why did we win? Forwards attacking every breakdown - they call it COMMITTMENT to the breakdown. That wasn't happening last night.
The ref was NOT a factor last night. He played the same rules all round. But intersesting to note - our forwards struggle with Aussie refs and their interpretation of the ELVs - in particular at the breakdown. Tahs and Reds both slowed down the ball consistently without free kicks, yet we did not do the same. We would not have bee penalised, just as they weren't. There has to be a very close look at our scrum.
Now some positives - Shep's kicking (other than one botched penalty kick which didn't go into touchh) was good. His breaks through the Red's defence were brilliant. Sad he was on his own. Mitchell didn't live up to his own rant, but nonetheless, played ok. Staniforth was brilliant.
So no need to throw the baby out with the bath water - but forget the finals. If we make it, its because other teams have self destructed. Now we should be playing like the Reds - throw caution to the wind, blood some players, and FIND OUR GAME AGAIN!

[stejwill]

Do we need to consider a change of captain?

[pieter blackie]

Do we need to consider a change of captain?

The only problem with that will be with Who
I was watching him last night and it looked like he had no fire in him and did very little talking on the field. Also out line outs was below average for most of the time.

At this stage I just think he needs to do a self assessment and get the ball rolling again He is a good captain but I think he is very frustrated at the moment.

The will be back just give it some time

[laura]

Sharpie is a great captain just needs a bit more fuel in the tank. This week off will sort them out & they'll bounce back.
They're exhausted and rightly so, al the travel etc hasn't been easy and they got knocked around a fair bit.
I think only good things will happen after this week off.

[chiselhead]

1. The scrum is toilet
2. We don't go hard enough at the ball at the breakdown. Opponents steal it with impunity or force us to hang on and concede shortarms and possession and field position. On defence we drop off at the breakdown and fan out rather than flooding the breakdown with numbers trying to steal their ball. We get dominated at the breakdown.
3. Defence is soft.
4. We need more players with Staniforth determination. He gives 110% in every situation.

[GIGS20]

1. The scrum is toilet
2. We don't go hard enough at the ball at the breakdown. Opponents steal it with impunity or force us to hang on and concede shortarms and possession and field position. On defence we drop off at the breakdown and fan out rather than flooding the breakdown with numbers trying to steal their ball. We get dominated at the breakdown.
3. Defence is soft.
4. We need more players with Staniforth determination. He gives 110% in every situation.

My analysis.....it's in the top six inches that we suck!

We're not good at putting teams away, we're not good at scoring bonus points...We don't even implement the games plan fully...When Mitch went into the 'Tahs he said, we were not direct enough...the boys listened to that...ALL they did was direct, no back even touched the ball...Before this game, Mitch said we were too direct last week, we want to get it wider....SO THE forwards gave up on the breakdown AND ALL WE DID WAS SWING IT FROM SIDE TO SIDE. I can't believe that Mitch isn't seeing it...we need to have a mixture of both, and vary the amounts from team to team!

The boys need to get their headspace right otherwise we'd better get used to losing clutch games which we should have won....At the moment I see a lot of Hurricanes in us......that bodes well for us, because we'll be the underdogs against bot Chiefs and 'Canes but we need bonus points...let's hope adversity helps us to win the games, but also that this toughens up the whole team and gets that little bit of mongrel going so we've got half a chance against the Brums!

[stejwill]

Staniforth has the authority and experience to pull it off and is usually in the thick of it (even the scrum as we saw last night). I think Sharpie can do it but needs to be out there more motivating the troops. In the Stormers game when I thought he should have been really laying into the guys for being pretty submissive he did nothing and the game ran away from them. One point stuck in my mind - a try had been scored and the conversion was pretty much in front of the posts - instead of running at the kicker (which is what they did and was pointless) why didn't they get into a huddle and start really firing themselves up? Has Henjak's absence affected them more than everyone thought it should have? For his (obvious) faults he was pretty aggressive and mobile on the field. Would an new scrum half help? I don't know.

[chiselhead]

You can have the best intentions and best attitude but if you don't play rugby better than your opponent you lose. The Force has serious short comings that we can't paste over

[chiselhead]

Has Henjak's absence affected them more than everyone thought it should have? For his (obvious) faults he was pretty aggressive and mobile on the field. Would an new scrum half help? I don't know.

Henners was rubbish.
The pack is physically smashed at every contact especially the scrum
The Force gives up too much ball at the breakdown
Not much a half can do about this sorry tale