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Western Force out for redemption in Chiefs clash
Article from: AAP
Justin Chadwick and NZPA
March 05, 2009 03:17pm
THE Western Force pack are eager to dish out some built-up anger when they tackle Super 14 rivals the Chiefs in Hamilton on Friday night.
Confidence in the Force camp is sky high following last week's stunning 25-16 bonus-point victory over the Brumbies in Canberra.
But a second-half penalty try to the Brumbies, which was awarded when the Force's scrum capitulated three times on the try-line, has the Force tight five looking for redemption.
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"Obviously to have a pushover is very disappointing, the guys are all taking that very personally," Force skipper Nathan Sharpe said on Thursday.
"It's been a short turnaround but the slight alterations we have made are hopefully going to benefit us.
"It's just one of those things that happened.
"It's pretty technical, but at the end of the day they managed to get on top of us at that particular scrum on our line."
The Chiefs are yet to post a win after three rounds, losing narrowly to the Crusaders, Waratahs and Sharks.
But Sharpe said the Force, in fourth place following consecutive victories, could ill-afford to drop their intensity against a side featuring a host of All Blacks stars.
"In this Super 14 format you can't afford to go through waves of intensity - when you do that you do get beat," Sharpe said.
"We certainly look at that this weekend in making sure we continue on some of the good stuff we did against the Brumbies and making sure that we correct a lot of the amateur mistakes we made, things that we can control.
"That's the pleasing thing about our preparation, we looked at where we could improve rather than looked at the scoreboard and the four tries (we posted against the Brumbies).
"It's a great challenge for us to go to the Chiefs' home turf and put it on them."
Chiefs coach Ian Foster is confident his exciting backline, featuring All Blacks Richard Kahui, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Stephen Donald, Brendon Leonard and pacy winger Lelia Masaga, would get the ball needed to cause damage against the Force.
"Our attack hasn't gone as well as it could and I think that's a consequence of not getting the ball supply we wanted in the early rounds," Foster told NZPA.
"But now we've got confidence in our set piece we need to get our attack going."
The Force made one change to their starting XV, with flanker Tamaiti Horua earning a recall after No.8 Richard Brown was ruled out with a shoulder injury.
Chiefs skipper Mils Muliaina (back) will spend another week on the sidelines, while No.8 Sione Lauaki (hamstring) was ruled out after playing one half against the Sharks.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/stor...005401,00.html
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Originally Posted by hertryk
There should be a replay of the game tomorow morning shouldn't there?
