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Force A has suffered its first defeat of the Pacific Rugby Cup, going down 36-24 to the Fiji Warriors at Ballymore in Brisbane this afternoon.
The Western Australians trailed 13-12 at half-time and despite scoring two second half tries, were unable to prevent the Fijians from adding 23 points in the second term.
Dane Haylett-Petty was a standout for the Western Australian side, threatening the line at outside centre before shifting to fullback and proving safe under the high ball and finding field position with a strong kicking game.
Head Coach Dwayne Nestor said his side was disappointed to see its unbeaten run come to an end after beating Queensland A (29-23) and Junior Japan (61-6) in the early rounds of the Pacific Rugby Cup.
“We played some very good rugby in the first half today,’ he said. “We put them under pressure, we had the bulk of the territory and I believe we were unlucky to go in trailing at half-time.
“Unfortunately, in the second half we weren’t accurate with our execution, we made too many easy mistakes and we allowed them to dominate the contact area and from there we were playing catch-up.”
While Fiji won the race onto the scoreboard through an early penalty goal, it was Force A that crossed the line first with a Haylett-Petty double – first through No.8 Ross Haylett-Petty diving over before brother Dane added his side’s second shortly after.
The Warriors added another penalty and a try after the half-time siren to take a one-point lead to the break.
The Pacific Islanders added their third shortly after the interval, before Force A replacement winger Brad Lacey responded when he crossed in the right-hand corner.
While Western Force winger Ed Stubbs crossed for Force A’s final try of the afternoon, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Fijians running out 12-point victors.
Pacific Rugby Cup
Monday, 10 March 2014 at Ballymore, Brisbane
Fiji Warriors A 36 defeated Force A 24 (Ross Haylett-Petty, Dane Haylett-Petty, Brad Lacey, Ed Stubbs tries; Dillyn Leyds 2 conversions) at Ballymore, Brisbane.
Force A
1. Francois van Wyk, 2. Robbie Abel, 3. Salesi Manu, 4. Rory Walton, 5. Phoenix Battye, 6. Corey Thomas, 7. Kane Koteka, 8. Ross Haylett-Petty, 9. Ryan Louwrens, 10. Dillyn Leyds, 11. Ed Stubbs, 12. Chris Tuatara-Morrison (c), 13. Dane Haylett-Petty 14. Dylan Sage, 15. Patrick Dellit. Res: 16. Harry Scoble, 17. Joe Savage, 18. Chris Heiberg, 19. Oscar Backhouse, 20. Adrian Hall, 21. Angus Taylor, 22. Va’a Mailei, 23. Brad Lacey.
Dear Lord, if you give us back Johnny Cash, we'll give you Justin Bieber.
Chris Heiberg on the bench for Force A. Isn't he one of our two marque players?
"The main difference between playing League and Union is that now I get my hangovers on Monday instead of Sunday - Tom David
No, development player
Playing As or sevens counts doesn't it?
C'mon the![]()
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Simon Cron: “People talk about winning and losing all the time and they are critical, but there’s a process to get into and it’s the ability to stay present, do your job and execute skills under pressure.”
Reading through the rules it depends on what level the nation nominates as their second tier. SA nominated the juniors which strategically is very smart as it locks their juniors into SA and stops poaching like we are doing. I did read about one SA player who is eligible to play for both SA and England but is not committing to playing juniors with either in the junior tournaments.
Generally speaking you aren’t learning much if your lips are moving!!!
Steenkamp played for the Emerging Springboks. That is the equivalent of Australia 'A' and is the reason he is ineligible for any nation other than RSA.
Alby is a great 9, but Marquee players should be brought in to fill gaps, not as permanent solutions. Ian Prior should be ready to be a starter by the start of next season. We also have a handful of promising up and comers. The last thing we want is a non-Wallaby eligible player creating a log jam or Wallaby eligible players and losing some of them. Perhaps the money we spend on Alby could be used on a high quality 13.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Robbie Fruen may be out of a job next year with SBW going back to the chiefs he only signed a 1 year deal and was rumour to have approached the force last year.
“Everyone knows whether it’s rugby, politics or whatever, front-rowers should rule the world, so to have a hooker at the helm makes sense,” Nathan Charles Western Force & Wallabies Hooker.
Not sure Freuan would be as wise an investment as Alby.......just my opinion though.
C'mon the![]()
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We've got a few options for 13 in our current stocks (Junior, Paddy, HB, Stubbs, Brache, CTM, DHP). I'd prefer it if one of them could be brought on rather than a foreign marque, even one as good as Fruen can be (IIRC, he's had a few injury concerns, and with our luck with marques ...)
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon