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80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
Would be interesting to find out how the UWA sleep research went.
Proudly Western Australian; Proudly supporting Western Australian rugby
This really is not something you can quantify or compare. The boys were knackered. That is all. Who knows what might have happened had a couple of our early chances had come off. The Highlanders might have had the lead boots on.
Take the Buenos Aires win as a bonus and hope they are good to go in Brissie.
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
I saw a comment somewhere this morning on either GAGR or The Roar that suggested a lot of the boys were still waking up at 2am during the last week. I have no doubt that the boys would have been knackered after travelling around the world in 14 days but I guess that's the hand we were dealt.
The Highlanders are in form, have won their last 10 games. I wasn't expecting a win for the Force but perhaps a better showing at least.
Would have been great if we had the two game block in South Africa and Argentina as the last games before the June test period.
Shows the craziness of this draw (and the comp).
Still, a pretty good effort by Perth's rugby supporters on a wet and miserable night:
Captain Bill Meakes said the performance was unacceptable and apologised to the 9,418 fans that turned out to watch the men in blue play.
Move on, and take down the Reds.
What we saw was human nature.
They WERE competitive untill the first sending off. Then the ridiculous Meakes rip try, a highlanders gridiron forward pass through the ruck right in front of ref that Meakes "intercepted". Not quite game over, the drubbing not on cards.
But with the second yellow consecutive to the first its 20 straight minutes 14 vs 15. The tired legs just couldnt manage to cope as well as in past, then the "shephard" try and the mental fatigue takes over from physical fatigue. THEN its game over and a drubbing definitely on the cards. Running in treacle, its the most horrible sensation.
The tackled player playing on try, and another forward pass try in the right corner and its a full heads down cave in. A shambles. Its how the Tahrds and Reds lost 90 points a few years back. Human nature.
The long sobs of autumn's violins wound my heart with a monotonous languor
Despite the win against the Jaguares, and playing at home, it was always going to be a big call against the Clan.
What was most concerning about the game was the lack of on-field leadership.
(Apart from the over-commitment to Attack Rucks and lack of commitment to Defence Rucks.)
The lads looked lost in both attack and defence.
Frequently when the Highlanders had all of their players attacking on one side our defence was still spread right across the park - even when we had a player in the bin. Not always a big fan of slide defence but it's useful with the right application.
In attack, we were missing the experienced play-maker with the early injury to Peter Grant.
Ian Prior tried hard but he too was missing for the last 20 minutes.
Billy Meakes tried to manage the Ref but I didn't see a lot of input into the game plan.
I'll say it again - in the absence of others stepping up, if Hodgo is anywhere close to being fit enough, then he needs to play as his on-field leadership is essential until he can transition to someone else.
With Hodgo's early absence (due to being overplayed in the Brisbane 10s tournament), McCalman's serious injuries and Tessman's recent form we have few options.
More astute observers will have noticed that Hodgo calls/co-ordinates the Attack & Defence on most occasions as others simply aren't stepping up.
When he made the Wallabies the squad expected him to call the D as that's the respect he has at that level.
Sad that closer to home he's often just seen as a 1-dimesional OSF and "it's time to trade him in on a new model......"
So often we just don't appreciated what we have until it's gone.
If Hodgo's fit enough and willing then he should be asked to help with the transition of a new Captain next year (providing there is still a Western Force).
With only 3 wins from 11 games, and our long list on injuries, we DO NOT have the luxury of resting our best players.
We should be fielding the best team/players on every occasion - otherwise the talk is only about what could have been.
Our first trip to Argentina and going via South Africa is a good way to go.
But there's no easy way to get back.
I've done the trip regularly on business including adding another 2,000km flight and 450km car trip to mines in Patagonia.
The body copes well going there but the return trip is murder - 3 days of jet lag not uncommon.
I dips me lid to the Jaguares as they have no choice if they want to play in SR.
There should be a bye located AFTER the Jaguares game - for all teams who make this trip.
I'm liking the 3 x 6 team SR conference structure more and more as just too much travel under the current system: Sth Africa, Aus & Japan and NZ & Jags. Eac team plays own Conf teams in Home & Away plus say 3 teams on yearly rotation from the other conferences.
Top team from each conference only in Final series will create more effort to finish on top of the conference and really showcase SR at its best. (There should be no reward for finishing 2nd.)
Last edited by andrewg; 22-05-17 at 13:04.
I'm actually thinking (despite the inevitable howls from New Zealand) that three conferences of 6 teams, with the top 2 IN EACH CONFERENCE making a finals series of 6.
That way, each conference can do whatever the hell they like to evaluate the top 2, They can run their own knockout finals series, they can play each other 15 times home and away, they can completely ignore playing each other and only play teams from other conferences.
Once each conference has selected their two, a points system could be generated to rank them based upon a set criterion which is the same for each team (I would assume that would be points scored in inter-conference matches) The bottom 4 play off in elimination games to challenge the other 2 as a semi final.
The Kiwis can whinge that the top 2 Aussie teams get into finals instead of the bottom two kiwi teams, but who really cares? the top 2 kiwi teams will most likely be the ones who host a home semi final!
It could work well, the only thing that's stopping each nation from being able to structure Super rugby in whatever way it wants to satisfy the fans and the media in their region is pure ego!
C'mon the
This year travelled Perth - London, no jetlag. 3 weeks later Rome -Perth no jetlag. Whats the big deal.
Agree kipper the east west flights are worse than north south flights..The east going can be hard as you are fighting time short days or nights .. were as west bound the days are very long.. I did the short haul Auckland Papeete a few time and that's a hard one Start of reliving 16 hours of the same day then going back you miss 16 hours of your life..
The boys were honestly stuffed after all the travelling. My husband still hasn't caught up on his sleep after all the travel. The team was buggered after 10min and you could see that! The boys are sore, sleep deprived and definitely drained.