Super Rugby Pacific Round 4 Western Force vs Highlanders

[Ham105]

To ensure we keep getting coverage we need to visit the articles so I have only put in the intro.......

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Cheers. I clicked on the link and was pleasantly surprised by no paywall.

[fulvio sammut]

By the sound of that West Australian article, Cron and Thrush have had words ....

[wholetruth]

No Fainga'a?

[volvo]

Simpson is killing us

[wholetruth]

Simpson is killing us

You were saying?

[volvo]

You were saying?

It was a great try to be fair but I still think he is struggling to match the pace of super rugby

[WF2006]

Personally, I’ve been impressed by Simpson. Box kick is a HUGE improvement on Prior - for speed and accuracy.

Poolman is most definitely a liability. Don’t know how old he is, but his maturity is seriously in question this season. Remember a couple of bone head things he did in the first home game.

[wholetruth]

Personally, I’ve been impressed by Simpson. Box kick is a HUGE improvement on Prior - for speed and accuracy.

Poolman is most definitely a liability. Don’t know how old he is, but his maturity is seriously in question this season. Remember a couple of bone head things he did in the first home game.

Agree with all that

[WF2006]

COMPLETELY lost our way in attack once Hegarty went off

[WF2006]

Mataele has become a liability. Seems to have lost a couple of yards of pace. Did not even contest the cross field kick that led to the Highlanders try that closed out the game.

[wholetruth]

Can't even kick a simple conversion to get a losing point!

[WF2006]

So - a shitty loss. The defensive brain fade from the 60-75 minute mark hurt us - a lot.

Question for the Force faithful

Should ILF be our starting 9, or is he best left as our finisher?

[DazloT]

I thought Simpson did alright as a known quantity for the team, loved his passing from the base of the ruck. When ILF came on there was a bit of confusion and it lines up perfectly with the period where the landers scored those two tries. That said at the same time Wells and Hegarty went off as well.
It’s easy to see what Cron will be telling them, it’s an 80 min game, so the last 3 mins for 80 to win.

[todd4]

Aussie teams continually getting beaten by kiwi sides is not going to grow the game in this country. The only games I look forward to are the local derbies.
I'd rather we cut the kiwis loose and had our own comp (+ Fiji and Samoa). Play each other 3 times, then the top 6 (out of 7) make the finals.

[chiraag]

There really was some terrible refereeing. Apparently head clash tackles where the defender actually brings momentum aren't even a penalty. A huge contrast to Callan's last couple of weeks.

Speaking of Callan, he missed far too many crucial tackles today. Wells is very underwhelming as 6, 8 and captain. Should've been in the ref's ear very early about early pushing in the scrum, highlanders giving away penalty after penalty in the red zone, etc.

Bench use was pretty terrible also. Why being feleti, fines, amone and kalapu on with only 10 or 15 to go when they all provide great impact and the starters are clearly tiring.

And our defense is woeful. Constantly have people shooting out of line unnecessarily going for the last gasp intercept instead of drifting or holding. Matt have been 3 or 4 easy tried given away today like that.

Simpson looked good for his first hitout. Williams and Macauley were solid. Stewart and Kuenzle looked good also before Hegarty went off.

Result is better than I was expecting - our attack is doing well. Defense and discipline are the issues. Going to be a tough couple of weeks ahead...