Qld Reds V The Force

[Rex Messup]

The Force dominated the game and lost
We absolutely owned the breakdown and the collision zone
The defence was superb. We shut their backline down
We lost the game when Hodgson got binned and Sharpe went off simultaneously to the blood bin........and Wykes came on. He's a great big dope
So many opportunities. I always think you should take three points when you have a penalty in front of the posts. Shep made some bad decisions with ball in hand and had a few fumbles. He was unlucky to get held up. Smith was good on the wing. I don't rate Cullet. He's never done anything. I don't understand his rave reviews. He stands out on the wing spectating most of the game.
The frontrow was mostly good. The backrow was best on ground and equally as good as each other. JOC surprised me at 10. He was very good. The kid is a freak.

[BDAVEY]

Had to listen to the game in the car driving north.... surface of the ground sound really bad was there any injuries ?
Thank goodness for IQ
Great effort....should get the phones ringing for the sharks game

[GIGS20]

In reality there's only about 5% between where we were and winning that game. Several passes didn't stick, a couple of players had shaky timing and we struggled to get effective patterns in attack. You could easily blame that on the fact that it's our first game of rugby at that level.

Fairbanks will have to train the house down to keep rabbit out of 12 once Ripia's fit, that'll slacken the passing up. Cullet and mafi will have a sprint-off to see who takes the opposite wing from smith and they'll all practice pick and drives up that side of the field to give smith the room he needs to wind up......I don't know how to fix the second row thing, either Phoenix or Tom, I guess, because Sam looked out of his depth.

All in all, it was first game, and rust is to be expected, but the Reds didn't have a chance to even look rusty, they survived off scraps that fell from our table, it's nice to do that to (arguably) the best attacking team in the comp with (apparently) a monster pack, which was going to kill our boys.

Maybe not happy, but hopeful!

[blueandblack]

...
The frontrow was mostly good. The backrow was best on ground and equally as good as each other. JOC surprised me at 10. He was very good. The kid is a freak.

but he needs to kick more than 1m from the centreline

[welshrugbyfan]

Greg Martin, "A wingers punch should only be five minutes in the sin bin". Didn't think he had a funny bone in him, priceless comment.

[palitu]

classic. how well did shets take that punch, didn't react, didn't flinch! was great! probably saying something like "i'm your dad"...

[Hoolly Doolly]

Sheehan was great. We lost a bit of something when he came off.

[BeeJay]

Sheehan was great. We lost a bit of something when he came off.

Agree. Stannard played well but does not have the physical presence of Sheehan. Its like we had 5 backrowers on the team. One of those planned subs that perhaps could have been delayed by 10 min or so...

[Homer J]

Wykes has had his day/chance and so has hocking. The Force need to find some replacement timber for Sharpie soon otherwise they will be carrying two players.
Greg peterson who is in the Tahs academy (19yrs, 202 cm and 122kg) is a certain player of the future, grab him quick.

Back row was awesome, thought Inman was good when he saw the ball and Whittaker easily outpointed Faainga despite what Crowden says in his team of the week.

[WA sport fan]

25 - 26,000

Ta mate.

[tic]

26060. I think the heat kept the number down by several thousand. It was just terrible. I reckon a lot of dads did not bring their kids, due to the heat. I wouldn't want my little ones melting in there.

[Rex Messup]

I thought it was a disappointing crowd
I'm not sure why the nation thought the Force wouldn't be a worthy opponent?
An underestimated opponent is a dangerous opponent. I think a lot of the Force "kids" have come of age. This could be a big year. Isn't it great to see some speed and finishing out wide. David Smith is an excellent signing. Sheps was a bit rusty but has it all. Cullet? Mafi looks fast. I'd give him a crack.
Inman will go a lot better if anybody passes the ball in front of him to run onto instead of over his shoulder. Perhaps just timing issues with first game "rust"? JOC had a wonderful game but was guilty of passing the ball behind his runners too often.

[shasta]

JOC surprised me at 10. He was very good. The kid is a freak.

In reality there's only about 5% between where we were and winning that game. Several passes didn't stick, a couple of players had shaky timing and we struggled to get effective patterns in attack. You could easily blame that on the fact that it's our first game of rugby at that level.

James is a freak alright but If Ripia is fit he'll have to come in at 10 and Dick Graham will come up with strategies to get JOC's hans on the ball.

I don't want to take away from his heroics yesterday but that hospital pass to Inman was a real shocker. He passed far too late and behind him.

I reckon Ripia, in the same situation would either have passed to Inman earlier or, more likely, would have thrown a cut out pass and hit Sheps or Smith on the chest. That's why he was contracted. The inside defender had turned his shoulders and Davies was already rushing in from his wing. They'd have most likely gone the length of the field to score the match winner.

[Rex Messup]

26060. I think the heat kept the number down by several thousand. It was just terrible. I reckon a lot of dads did not bring their kids, due to the heat. I wouldn't want my little ones melting in there.

The QRU needs a bullet for the scheduling of the game. Why a 4:30 kick off and why Sunday? An evening game would have got a much bigger crowd and wouldn't have put the players lives in danger. Which genius selected the kick off time?

[Rex Messup]

James is a freak alright but If Ripia is fit he'll have to come in at 10 and Dick Graham will come up with strategies to get JOC's hans on the ball.

I don't want to take away from his heroics yesterday but that hospital pass to Inman was a real shocker. He passed far too late and behind him.

I reckon Ripia, in the same situation would either have passed to Inman earlier or, more likely, would have thrown a cut out pass and hit Sheps or Smith on the chest. That's why he was contracted. The inside defender had turned his shoulders and Davies was already rushing in from his wing. They'd have most likely gone the length of the field to score the match winner.

Agree totally but isn't it easy from the comfort of your lounge room?

There were quite a few opportunities to score run away tries in the last 15 minutes

I felt we dominated the game and it still gives me the sh1ts that we came up short. definitely the one that got away.