FORCE SIDE NAMED FOR BATTLE WITH BRUMBIES

[palitu]

I'm on my phone so ill keep it short - I was happy and excited by what I saw.

It gives me HOPE

[Ralto]

I'm on my phone so ill keep it short - I was happy and excited by what I saw.

It gives me HOPE

Yep, Force seemed to be looking closer to a "team", there's gaps, shortcomings, etc, but that is the best I've seen in a while - there is growth, there is hope.

[andrewg]

An incomprehensible, incompetent and inconsistent effort of rugby refereeing by Andrew Lees and total lack of impact by his three assistants – Damien Mitchelmore, Michael Hogan and Ian Smith.

I marvel at just how Force’s captain Matt Hodgson held things together – especially during the opening 20 minutes.

Lees’ efforts seemed to totally ignore all of the areas which had been stated would be a focus this year.

To name just a few (more will follow as I collect the remaining stats in a 2nd watching):
00:40 – Moore lays on a blatent no arms, shoulder charge clean-out .
01:00 – Clear forward pass by Brumbies right in front of AR.
17:46 – Head tackle on Pocock
17:56 – Moore head tackle on Coleman
19:11 – Round-house arm swing by Arnold which luckily missed DH-P.
30:25 – V clear knock-on by Moore not called
31:34 – Head tackle on Ainsley
32:21 – Very late tackle on Lance by Sio
44:13 – Tessman around head tackle on Pocock
71:06 – Fardy high tackle on Hodgson

A actually thought that after the first 2 rounds there was a genuine effort to stamp out shoulder charges and the head-high stuff that has the potential to cause serious injury.

If that was the case then nobody had informed Andrew Lees that that was the intent.

[GIGS20]

I also thought some of the scrum calls (and non-calls) were dodgy. As I've said before, there was no stability in the bind and the brums were the on,y ones given a short arm, but after 3 in a row, you'd think a penalty would follow, especially since the first scrum of the match ened in a force collapsing penalty after a good 30 seconds.

Brumbies collapsed a couple of times when under pressure, but nothing.

I also thought that we (after several harsh penalties for not rolling away) cleaned up their side of the ruck, but we were not afforded the same luxury.....again, very few penalties.

I'm actually OK if the ref doesn't follow interpretation directives, as long as he's consistent, so allowing the head high stuff both ways is not as bad for me as allowing one team to roll all over the ball all night and pinging the other for getting pulled over it in the clean out.

[andrewg]

GIGS20. The cleaning out of a player by grabbing him around the head and wrenching or rolling sideways has the potential for serious disabling injury. For two weeks the indication was that there was going to be a "special" effort to stamp it out.

A agree with your comments re the breakdown.

Just as we saw the Waratahs get pinged against the Brumbies such as they made only 6 Ruck Involvements for the first 10 minutes, the Force, including Hodgo almost ceased their involvements in the 2nd 10 minutes because of how Lees was ruling.

The Forwards made only 12 RI's during that time when they averaged 26 RI's per 10 minutes for the rest of the game.

After the last two weeks it appears that "someone" had decreed that 2016 is the year of the Brumbies and games will be reffed accordingly as it certainly was an inconsistent approach being applied to each team.

[BeeJay]

An incomprehensible, incompetent and inconsistent effort of rugby refereeing by Andrew Lees and total lack of impact by his three assistants – Damien Mitchelmore, Michael Hogan and Ian Smith.

I marvel at just how Force’s captain Matt Hodgson held things together – especially during the opening 20 minutes.

Lees’ efforts seemed to totally ignore all of the areas which had been stated would be a focus this year.

To name just a few (more will follow as I collect the remaining stats in a 2nd watching):

I think the important point is that many of the calls against the Force were at crucial moments, and led to game changing outcomes. Imagine if Moore was sin-binned or even sent off in the first minute...?! And if the forward pass was called, which led a few phases on to their second try...?!

There were other crucial points in the game where we will get better, but imagine if, when 10 points down, we kicked for touch, and actually won out lineout in their 22!

Their third try was also from a lost lineout in midfield, after we had done all the hard work defending our line and winning the turnover penalty....

All in all though, a magnificent effort. The intensity in defence was amazing (I heard the clash of bodies up in FF...!) and the attack was more fluent with some sublime handling skills on show.

A couple of points to close:

Surely the SANZAR refs Board (or whoever they are) should pull up refs who adjudicate on the basis of TABLE POSITION, REPUTATION, and PRECONCEIVED ASSUMPTIONS. Of course, to have any chance of winning, we needed to slow the Ponies' ball down, but it seemed that Lees was pinging us at every breakdown - only late in the second half did he look at the other side.

Finally, with time up n the clock, how were the Ponies allowed to kick for touch and take the lineoutt? The full-time hooter had gone, if the ball was in touch, isn't that game over??

[andrewg]

Finally, with time up n the clock, how were the Ponies allowed to kick for touch and take the lineoutt? The full-time hooter had gone, if the ball was in touch, isn't that game over??

The rules have been changed this year so that can happen.

It was very evident in the Blues v Hurricanes game.

[maelkann]

Finally, with time up n the clock, how were the Ponies allowed to kick for touch and take the lineoutt? The full-time hooter had gone, if the ball was in touch, isn't that game over??

Law changed for this year, it's the same as the NRC in that regard now.

[Scozzie]

It was difficult to swallow that result last night (....or at least the margin of the Brumbies win), when you look at the improvement in the team performance from the Force (apart from lineouts), only for it to be nullified by one-sided refereeing.

[Woolfe]

Finally, with time up n the clock, how were the Ponies allowed to kick for touch and take the lineoutt? The full-time hooter had gone, if the ball was in touch, isn't that game over??

The new rules allow for this I think? In the Canes game the Blues had three penalties and kicks fr touch after the final hooter.

[Scozzie]

There were other crucial points in the game where we will get better, but imagine if, when 10 points down, we kicked for touch, and actually won out lineout in their 22!

Yeah, if we'd taken one of those lineouts, especially the one on the Brumbies line, I think we could maybe have swung the result. There was such a swing in momentum with the Force at that point.

Anyway, back on topic, how bad was that referee...???

[PerthGirl]

I love it that the Sea of Blue (us!) was so vocal and passionate during this game and really gave it to the Ref and the Brumbies! Greg Clarke said that the end of the game that it was a easy win for the Brums, bullshit he obviously wasn't on the field. !! So proud of the way our guys played

[Ralto]

An incomprehensible, incompetent and inconsistent effort of rugby refereeing by Andrew Lees and total lack of impact by his three assistants – Damien Mitchelmore, Michael Hogan and Ian Smith.

I did refrain from this as I feared the response. Lees was terrible - he seemed to come out intent on "sorting out" Hodgson, after he penalised him the second time, he walked back to Hodgson, and started talking to him again - it was shades of the Steve Walsh, Hoiles episode - seemed very personal. Adding in the early Moore tackle, and the forward pass nearly made head for the showers early, glad I stayed.

[GIGS20]

GIGS20. The cleaning out of a player by grabbing him around the head and wrenching or rolling sideways has the potential for serious disabling injury. For two weeks the indication was that there was going to be a "special" effort to stamp it out.

Yes, I'm aware of that, however much of the around the head stuff was straight on, not rolling. Kafer even mentioned the fact when justifying the non-call on (I think it was) Stephen Moore. The danger level of having your arms around the head, pushing against the shouldres and lifting the chest is greatly reduced, especially since most of the ones I was talking about occurred with the attacker's body virtually parallel with the ground, Pretty impossible to make a tackle in that situation WITHOUT serious head contact.

They weren't called either way, the interpretation mentioned neck rolling cleanouts, not head high tackles of that ilk. I reckon there was a lot of head high stuff let go that should have been picked up, but for me it was the blatant favouritism that stung.

PS I wouldn't have carded Moore (or any other player) in the first minute of the match (just too inflammatory, and not really instructive to take a tough sanction like that that early), but I would have penalised him and stopped for a word.....

[valzc]

Along with all the other shite that Lees was serving up were the long advantages he was giving the Brumbies, whereas the Force got stuff all time! Beats me how Lees didn't need an escort off the field to escape the angry mob. Very frustrating. Proud of the guys, blew a few chances, but should learn from that. They came out with a great attitude.