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The Emirates Western Force have beaten the Queensland Reds 39-15 on a soggy Members Equity Stadium pitch in their final trial match before the 2008 Investec Super 14 season in Perth tonight
Chris Latham opened the scoring for the Reds with a try in the sixth minute, which was converted by Clinton Schifcofske to give the Reds a 7-0 lead. The Emirates Western Force then equalled the score when scrumhalf James Stannard crossed in the 16th minute which was converted by vice-captain Matt Giteau.
A drop goal to Berrick Barnes gave the Reds a 10-7 lead just four minutes before the break. The home side countered with a converted try to David Pusey and a penalty goal to Giteaeu to take a 15-10 half time lead.
Cameron Shepherd opened the scoring after half-time when he crossed in the 42nd minute, and his try was followed soon after by a runaway intercept try to Drew Mitchell to give the boys in blue a 29-10 lead.
The Reds hit back with a try to centre Chris Siale in the 53rd minute cutting the lead to 29-15.
From that point on it was all the home side, as both sides made plenty of substitutions. A yellow card was given to Reds lock James Horwill for a high tackle on Drew Mitchell in the 63rd minute, and Nick Cummins crossed for the WA sides 5th try moments later to open a 34-15 lead.
Lachlan MacKay finished the scoring in the 78th minute to make the final score 39-15.
6th Min Try to the Reds scored by Chris Latham. Converted by Clinton Schifcofske. Reds lead 7-0.
16th Min Try to Emirates Western Force scrumhalf James Stannard. Converted by Matt Giteau. 7-all
32nd Min Drop goal to the Reds kicked by Berrick Barnes. Reds 10-7.
36th Min try to Emirates Western Force scored by david Pusey. Not converted by Giteau. Emirates Western Force lead 12-10.
40th Min Penalty goal to the Emirates Western Force kicked by Giteau. Emirates Western Force lead 15-10
HALF TIME: Emirates Western Force 15 Reds 10
42nd Min Try to the Emirates Western Force scored by Cam Shepherd. Converted by Giteau. Emirates Western Force lead 22-10.
50th Min Try to Emirates Western Force scored by Drew Mitchell. Converted by Giteau. Emirates Western Force lead 29-10.
53rd Min Try to the Reds scored by Chris Siale. Unconverted. Emirates Western Force lead 29-15.
63rd Min yellow card to James Horwill of the Reds.
65th Min Try to the Emirates Western Force scored by Nick Cummins. Uncoverted. Emirates Western Force lead 34-15.
78th Min try to Emirates Western Force scored by Lachlan MacKay. Unconverted. Emirates Western Force lead 39-15.
Emirates Western Force 39 (Stannard, Pusey, Shepherd, Mitchell, Cummins, MacKay tries; Giteau 3 cons 1 pen)(
Reds 15 (Latham, Siale tries; Barnes drop goal, Shifcofske con)
I'm sure everybody knows but me, but what happened to Henjak, or is that a touchy subject?
tweaked a groin previous day and was withdrawn as a precaution.
Thank God! I thought he may have had his hair ruffled!
You should be chuffed Frank. Chucky had a solid game. Looked very comfortable indeed.
chucky doesnt play 4 pally anymore - he like many others has been recruited by university!! but he played very well, hopefully will get some super 14 game time this year!
Chucky plays for uni??? That's fantastic news!!!
He looked the goods to me last night and will be a handy player for sure given his postional flexibility. Cummings looked good too!
I got to see most of the game but missed a few things cause I had to turn around to get stock for customers so thanks heaps for the match report Coach!
If last night showed anything it's that now we have beautiful continuity as a group and we played as a real team and yet even with some of the young boys being slotted in, the standard of play was the same, if not better. Our senior players are the goods, the youngens are the goods and from what I've seen of the academy boys, the future of the Force looks to be in good hands.
2008 super 14 is going to be a ripper!
Any word on Shep's knee? It didn't look serious but you never know...
I made Happy sad...
ps. Good to see Lachie back on the paddock! And bless his little cotton socks as he not only managed to not get injured, he managed to score a try! (Granted it was a pretty handy offload that lead to the try... but I'll still give Lachie all the praise in the world.)
Oh and while I'm still desperately trying to get my head around the new rules, I didn't think they looked half bad last night. Thought the game flowed really nicely and the pace was something else, which made it hard to follow when i missed something serving a customer but looking forward to the season when the boys will have my undivided attention.![]()
I made Happy sad...
shep did something to his knee?
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Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.
Seriously? Since when did we start taking lessons from the English? What the hell was that Berrick?
Uni is going to have a damn good team....seriously....I was talking to one of the boys on friday and watch out goony...i'm not sure how long you'll be holding on to that cup hey..
Damn good match given the conditions. I thought our new boys were superb thought i'm feeling a little old...i swear to god Dane and O'Connor look like their 10...Can you imagine them facing a prop? Jesus....they'd break like a twig...especially Rabbit who seems to have no fear...
From what I hear Sheps is fine and Drew is just a little sore bu nothing to worry about. Hope Boof got some stitches for his 'flesh' wound...
"Remember lads, rugby is a team game; all 14 of you make sure you pass the ball to Giteau."
boof = trooper
had a 'longest yard flashback', "can of corn and i'll be fine, can of corn"
I'm still not fully confident with our scrums especially for our trip to SA. The Reds appeared to be significantly larger and at the start of the game, I thought my fears would be realised. In the end we matched them on most scrums but did lose one (that I recall) and also towards the end of the game the scrum popped up a few times on our put in. Rodney Blake cleverly (or maybe he was just too tired) managed to collapse the scrum a couple of times and get the penalty against us until the touch judge stepped in and alerted the Ref.
We held our lineouts pretty well considering we have few options and only on odd occasion had a few loose ones but we could attribute this to the wet conditions.
In general play we seemed to have the better pack mobility. I thought Richard Brown played exceptionally well at 8th, quite a number of times he was in at 1st receiver and seemed to make good decisions with the ball. There were several line breaks and passing interchanges amongst the forwards and it looks like after 2 seasons they are finally starting to understand and feed of each other and operate as a well-drilled unit.
Defensively the pack was also pretty solid around the base with a few solid hits and gang tackles resulting in turnover ball. They did get us a few times on the run and if it wasn't for poor passing/handling skills amongst the Reds' forwards they may had a try or two..however that is the nature of the game and the positive in those situations was the cover defense (everyone out of position working hard to get back).
Of concern is that there are still quite a few penalties against us especially in the rucks..I'll leave it to the coaches to figure that one out (I have no clue what was happening there or who was at fault).
Overall good performance by the forwards but SA will be quite a challenge.
Great performance all round, Chucker was excellent and would have had Henners worried sitting up in the box, Pusey was good, AJ and Boof were tops as well.
Most important, the rain held off.
That was Dane.....I thought it was Beaver!
80 Minutes, 15 Positions, No Protection, Wanna Ruck?
Ruck Me, Maul Me, Make Me Scrum!
Education is Important, but Rugby is Importanter!
I thought it all looked very encouraging. I don't know what was happening on the right hand side of the scrum in the first half, but Boof certainly appeared to more than have Blake's measure. It seemed to me that we got the decision when the ref stood on the left of our scrum but the Reds got it when he stood on the right, so maybe AJ struggled a bit with Holmes (not that there is any disgrace in that). Never got a clear look at it - anyone sitting on the east side get a feel for it?
Also thought that was about the best I have seen from Stannard and, playing like that, he did not look at all out of place. I assume that was Clarke that replaced him late in the game, and he also looked good (but perhaps lacked a bit of physical presence?).
But I was extremely impressed by all of the younger/newer players. They all looked very handy and, were they to get a run and play like that, I could see some of them pushing established players hard for a spot.
Only negative was bitter disappointment in the attendance - the Waratahs aren't happy about 7000, the Crusaders expect more than that in Melbourne, yet we can only manage 4000 for the Force at home in the only game they play at a rectangular ground? Very ordinary. Still, we were paying attention and best of all, RUGBY SEASON IS HERE AGAIN!