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come Guys and Girls Select one of the above to tell us what you think of the Force's game last night
From what I saw last night I think there is hope. The guys played with flair and there were a fair bit more aggression in defense and attack compared to previous years. It is a pity the score board wasn't in our favour But just remember how the crusaders did a 10 men substitution when the going got tough and we were in lead
Last edited by pieter blackie; 25-01-09 at 18:49.
It was only a training run, no need to get too upbeat or concerned about it. A lot of positives, a few negatives, what one would expect . The scoreline is irrelevant, close though it was.
I'm confident that the Force show enough to be very competitive.
Speed to the breakdown was impressive, as was ball retention after some initial hiccups.
What I noticed was the crusaders match fitness seemed superior and they have more depth to their list.
Got to admire them as a club, their teams take what the opposition throw at them, regroup and then counterattack. Incredible level of self-belief in the team.
Felt sorry for Daruda - he was fantastic for the first 60 which is not bad for the first real outing but we could have done with a fresh 10 after some of the 10 crusader replacements had tired somewhat
61 years between Grand SlamsWas the wait worth it - Ya betta baby
positives, daruda, holmes and junior, a sellout crowd in a rectangular stbdium.. negatives, the crusaders seem a lot fitter than the force players after a record breaking pre-season, perhaps i expected more..... buts its only the first game of the season you can do all the training you want but its match fitness that counts....still a great night out.....
Last edited by slomo; 24-01-09 at 18:40. Reason: added more info...'sell out crowd'
the crusaders were no fitter,they just put on 7 or 8 fresh players at once
they were just as buggered at the end of the match as the force players
That was funny - the announcer made no attempt to name them all either ...
Think the ref on the sideline who counts on and off was a bit flustered as well.
61 years between Grand SlamsWas the wait worth it - Ya betta baby
Drew was good, Sheps had a welcome return, our loose forwards were all over the ball and were competing in the breakdowns. We do need a bit more consistency behind the scrum but Chris O Young had a couple of good runs. I think that once Sharpie and Gits are back in the team we will be one of the best in the comp.
I thought the scrum was great in the first third....we seemed to lose our way in the second after subbing some of the forwards and never ecovered it. That made it hard on the Half and that's where we had issues.
Valentine didn't do too bad, good speed to the breakdown, good defence and reasonably quick recycle, but he's gotta get the passes down, did anybody see how many went over Daruda's head? Gits will never catch them! The loose was where we had it going on, I guess you;d expect that, we've god a bunch of really good loosies and they didn't have their main one.....that will definately square up during the season, but we'll inprove hugely in the Locks during the season so Swings and Roundabouts.
I thought Leckie was a bit rough on Bam bam all night, calling him for a bunch of stuff that was borderline at best.
All in all a good showing, I'd give it a 7/10 for a first trial!
C'mon the![]()
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trouble was we couldnt get our hands on the ball in the last 30 minutes& retain possession
Mitch said after the match that there were 3 distinct different strategies for each third of the game and I think the last third was pure defense practice They hardly tried to go for the ball, They would wait for the saders to pick it up and then play the man.
I caught a bit of Gloucester vs St Biarritz last night, and it made me realise that the main thing missing from S14 rugby is mud.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill
Freezing. And I can now see where the inspiration for the Sader's away strip came from.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal:
it is the courage to continue that counts.
- Winston Churchill