Defence Force: Waratahs ready for western front
The Western Force may be last year's Australian wooden spooners with about half of the Waratahs' big-name talent.
But while NSW supporters were debating the make-up of Michael Cheika's best back line over the preseason, the Force were being trained by the SAS.
"It was to distress them and see how they stuck together," Force coach Michael Foley said of the two-day hell march the squad undertook in November.
This weekend, in the opening round of the regular season for Australia and New Zealand, there is every chance it will be NSW in distress.
The Force will bring every ounce of their trademark defensive style to bear on the Waratahs at Allianz Stadium on Sunday in pursuit of the sort of upset victory that solidifies belief among the winning side and corrodes it among the losers.
"For the crowd's sake I hope it's going to be an entertaining game but I know that it's going to be a real dogfight," Waratahs utility Adam Ashley-Cooper said.
"They are a tough team, defensively they are really strong and they have always had a great back row who challenge for the ball at the ruck. Luckily for us we had the Highlanders [last week] who really challenged us in that area, so it kind of prepared us for this week and we're expecting the Force to do exactly the same thing."
Ashley-Cooper, with 91 Tests of experience under his belt, knows better than most the perils of underestimating an opponent.
The Force won just four matches in their first season under Foley, the former NSW coach, last year.
But two of those were classic upsets - a 16-14 win against the Crusaders in round nine and a final-round 21-15 shock over the Brumbies, who went on to play in the Super Rugby final.
They also held Australia's other finalists the Reds to an 11-11 draw and later poached one of Queensland's best outside backs, Luke Morahan.
Back east, everyone was talking about the Folau-Beale-Foley partnership. In Perth, Foley and backs coach Kevin Foote quietly assembled their own arsenal, with the articulated aim of moving the ball more in attack.
Morahan and five-eighth Zack Holmes, who defected from the Brumbies, were astute additions to a back line boasting Wallabies winger Nick Cummins, former All Blacks halfback Alby Mathewson and playmaker Kyle Godwin.
Godwin was one of the finds of last year whose inevitable graduation to Test rugby was cruelly thwarted by a shoulder reconstruction.
Then there is the Force pack, featuring Ben McCalman, Matt Hodgson and Hugh McMeniman. If his body holds up - disappointingly still a genuine 'if' - McMeniman could play a key role in leading the team out of its dark days of mediocrity.
"It's an Australian team playing an Australian team, you know each other inside out, so it's going to be one of those real physical battles," Ashley-Cooper said.
"We want to get the season off on a winning note. Luckily we have a bit of a long turnaround so we can do everything we can to get ready for this first one."
For Ashley-Cooper and the rest of the Waratahs backs, this week marks the end of the guessing game.
Coach Michael Cheika will declare his selection hand early this week. The big reveal will be where and how he uses his ball players Kurtley Beale and Bernard Foley.
"They are both great attacking threats with the ball and they create a lot of opportunities and that is exactly what an outside back or midfielder wants," Ashley-Cooper said of his teammates.
"It depends on what [Cheika] wants to run with - does he want a ball player with two midfield running backs or does he want two ball players and one mid field runner.
"Whatever combination he's going to [use], it's going to be dangerous and for us it's a matter of using that danger and those attacking threats on the day.
"You could probably have your one guarantee and that's Izzy at fullback."
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-union/un...#ixzz2tXNiwUWJ
