0
Talking Japanese gets Force over line
- Wayne Smith
- From: The Australian
- April 05, 2010 12:00AM
FIVE-eighth David Hill knew precisely what he wanted to do in the dying seconds of the Western Force's Good Friday match with the Stormers.
But it all got fuzzy in communicating his plan to captain Nathan Sharpe.
"Sharpey, Toshiba! Sharpey, Toshiba!" shouted Hill as Sharpe readied himself for the Force's last roll of the dice, an attacking scrum about 40m from the Stormers' line.
Sharpe didn't have a clue what his five-eighth was telling him, assuming he was giving him some unsolicited and ill-timed advice on what brand of widescreen television to buy. But so insistent was Hill that the Force skipper went over and asked him to explain himself.
"Oh, sorry mate," said Hill, recruited by the Force mid-season from Japan to replace Andre Pretorius as Perth's marquee player. "Forgot where I was. `Toshiba' was the field goal call at my old Japanese club. We need to hit it up in front of the posts so I can take a shot."
Given that the former All Black had never kicked a field goal in his entire Super rugby career and only two in his life, it was a bold call from Hill, but once Sharpe understood what he wanted and approved the plan, the Force players executed it brilliantly after the full-time siren had sounded.
First, Matt Hodgson hit the ball up hard and then Sharpe -- no doubt recalling the 2003 World Cup final where rival skipper Martin Johnson drove the ball to within field goal range for Jonny Wilkinson -- made a captain's decision to himself advance it even closer to the posts before debutant halfback Justin Turner fired a 15m pass back to Hill standing in the pocket. From 35m out, he never looked like missing.
"It almost seemed that the game was scripted," Sharpe said. "And yet had we missed that field goal, it would have been just another one that got away."
But if ever a team was due, indeed overdue, for some good fortune, it was the Force. Now, with that dramatic 16-15 result tucked away, its first win of an ill-starred season, the way is open for the Perth team to keep playing havoc with the fortunes of its remaining rivals.
"Over the last three weeks (against the Waratahs, Bulls and Stormers -- three of the top four sides on the Super 14 ladder), we've put some really good football together," Sharpe said. "We might have only got the result against the Stormers, but we're now looking forward to really putting it on every side we face."
Certainly, they will not feel intimidated by Saturday's opponents, the Highlanders, who have scored only one more win this season, especially as Wallabies Test number eight Richard Brown demonstrated in his Good Friday cameo that he is ready to rejoin Hodgson and David Pocock in the starting back row.
The only discordant note from Friday's win was that in-form winger Scott Staniforth suffered a calf muscle injury and will be out for the next two matches.
With Nick Cummins still having a week of his suspension to serve and Wallabies utility Cameron Shepherd not expected to make his return from injury until the second match of the side's mini-tour of New Zealand, against the Blues on April 17, the Force has yet another injury crisis on its hand.
"We'll do what we've done all season . . . we'll make do and just get on with it," Sharpe said.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225849647718