Western Force Defeat Queensland Reds 31-12 In Final Trial

[Darren]

The Emirates Western Force will head into their week one Investec Bank Super 14 clash against the Brumbies with winning form after a 31-12 victory in their third and final trial at ME Bank Stadium in Perth tonight.

The home side started strongly, with two converted tries and two penalty goals within the first 20 minutes.

James O’Connor opened the scoring, before Matt Hodgson barged over near the posts in the sixth minute. O’Connor’s subsequent conversion made the score 10-0.

Dominating territory, possession and the penalty count, the boys in blue crossed for a second time when Sam Harris burrowed over following a brilliant individual show of skill from winger Cameron Shepherd.

Shepherd added a further three points to the total with a penalty in the 20th minute to make the score 20-0.

Images by Matt Greenfield, Perth Sports Photography

The Reds pulled one back when Quade Cooper, wearing the unfamiliar no. 24 jersey, ghosted through the defence before dabbing a well-weighted grubber for Rod Davies, who dropped on the ball to score.

A neat move down the left flank allowed the Force to add a third try before the half hour mark, with Richard Brown grabbing a bobbling pass to dot down in the corner. The score remained 25-5 at half time.

The Reds started brightly in the second half, with fullback Peter Hynes slicing his way through the midfield to set up an attacking opportunity. Scrumhalf Will Genia pushed through a would-be tackler to score soon after, with Cooper’s conversion closing the margin to 25-12.

A skirmish after Nic Henderson was felled by a high shot resulted in a third Force penalty goal, with O’Connor taking the kick. The teenage fullback slotted another kick five minutes later, taking the lead to 31-12 after 58 minutes.

The final minutes saw both benches emptied, with all eight reserves seeing playing time for the home side.

Hodgson, O’Connor, Brett Sheehan, Nathan Sharpe and Cameron Shepherd looked ready for the real competition, whilst Mark Bartholomeusz controlled the game well. Pek Cowan was solid in the unfamiliar position of hooker, with both the scrum and lineout performing strongly. Cooper, Hynes, and Genia were impressive for the visitors.

The Emirates Western Force will host the Brumbies at ME Bank Stadium in Perth next Friday, 12 February, in round one of the 2010 Investec Bank Super 14.

A crowd of over 6000, most from TWF

BY THE CLOCK
4th min - Penalty goal kicked by James O'Connor. Emirates Western Force lead 3-0
6th min - Try scored by Matt Hodgson. Converted by O'Connor. Emirates Western Force lead 10-0
14th min - Try scored by Sam Harris. Converted by O'Connor. Emirates Western Force lead 17-0
20th min - Penalty goal kicked by Shepherd. Emirates Western Force lead 20-0
29th min - Try scored by Rod Davies. Not converted by Quade Cooper. Emirates Western Force lead 20-5
34th min - Try scored by Richard Brown. Not converted by O'Connor. Emirates Western Force lead 25-5
HALF TIME: Emirates Western Force 25 Reds 5
42nd min -Try scored by Will Genia. Converted by Cooper. Emirates Western Force 25 lead 25-12
53rd min - Penalty goal kicked by O'Connor. Emirates Western Force lead 28-12
58th min - Penalty goal kicked by O'Connor. Emirates Western Force lead 31-12. Richard Stanford replaces Sam Wykes
62nd min - Matt Dunning and Chris O'Young replace Tim Fairbrother and Brett Sheehan.
68th min - Ben McCalman replaces Matt Hodgson
70th min - Ben Whittaker and Kieran Longbottom replace Pek Cowan and Nic Henderson
74th min - Stefano Hunt replaces James O'Connor
77th min - Mitch Inman replaces Dane Haylett-Petty
FULL TIME: Emirates Western Force 31 Reds 12
Emirates Western Force 31 (Hodgson, Harris, Brown tries; O’Connor 3 pens, 2 cons, Shepherd pen)
Reds 12 (Davies, Genia tries; Cooper con)

[Burgs]

Barra called for an absolute red card for Cooper, was there anything in it?

Sounds like a pretty sound performance, Puse gave Hodgson man of the match.

[jazza93]

Cooper and Hynes were really impressive from the reds.

Forces best players were JOC, Hodgeson and and Browne. The line out was also looking good.

I didn't see much of the incident but most of the brawls were just wallabies team mates showing off and making a joke of the game really.

[GIGS20]

Barra called for an absolute red card for Cooper, was there anything in it?

Sounds like a pretty sound performance, Puse gave Hodgson man of the match.

It was up the other end of the field, but Nick wend down like a sack of shit, so assuming Cooper did it, it must have been bad.

A weed like Cooper would need a chainsaw to drop a prop like that!

I reckon a fine line between Hodgeo and Browny for MOM, Bam seemed to be having trouble taking his hands off after the tackle.

[Burgs]

Apparently whatever he was calling Cooper for was to do with coming in late, so it may not have been the actual hit on Nic?
We had been talking so missed the actual initial call.

[GIGS20]

It did happen pretty close to the sidelines, so a back might have done it.....All I know is he went down hard

[travelling_gerry]

Hodgo was everywhere....Brownie was absolutely spent after the game but still walked around the ground and greeted everyone and was one of the last off the ground.

[Darren]

Happy looked happy - see first post photo

[palitu]

awww... claire was very close to getting her pic on TWF... (she was in the yellow jersey) she'll be devo!

[.X.]

Thanks to all who sent txt updates - much appreciated.

Did they announce crowd numbers?

[tragic]

I thought that Hendo's head actually connected with someone...

6k, Ex. A little dissappointing.

[Burgs]

Glad Happy isn't the only one in the photo, that would be enough to scare prospective punters off!

[laura]

Aside from the brain snap, I thought Quade was MOM for the reds. Him & Hynes seemed to be running the show, literally, their runs were excellent IMO.

MOM for Force..Brownie/Pek/DHP/Sheps for mine.
Brownie was the best all-rounder doing everything, everywhere and put in an absolute guttser of an effort and his try just rewarded all his work.
Pek's lineout throws might not be up to scratch yet but he's only been learning it for a short while so we can't really expect Brendan Cannon-type play out of him just yet! The rest of his game made up for the skewwed shots and it was good to seem him encouraging the boys.
DHP has come miles from last season, Shute Shield has done the world of good for him I reckon. A few times he broke through tackles with 3 or 4 defenders on him. He's not a huge kid but he does well to keep running with them hanging off him.
Oh Sheps! So glad to have him back in the side. He might not be back to fullback just yet but how I missed him playing for us. He didn't have the most outstanding game of his career but now he's one of the older boys of the back line and one of the originals he seems to have taken the younger ones under his wing. The number of times we heard him yelling stuff out to them and giving them a hand or just backing them, he really has taken on a bit of a leadership role for the backs and its great to see!

Trial matches might not count for much but hopefully its just a taste of whats to come in Brisbane in March!

[oxleymoron]

The forwards were good last night, pick and drives always crossed the advantage line, scrums were solid and pek did quite well at lineout time. Was happy with Sheehans snipes around the fringes of the ruck and the more game time for Bart and Harris at 10 and 12.

Major concern I have is our defence in broken play. Once the ball is moving amongst the backs with space in front, we didn't look particularly capable of being able to stop the attacks of Cooper, Hynes and Ioane - there were a couple of linebreaks after we kicked the ball away. It normally took about another two phases before we were able to get a structured defensive line in place.

If we are going to kick, put the bloody ball out and play field position and set pieces, rather then let the opposition have a counter attack with a broken defensive line. This isn't only a force problem, it is endemic with the wallabies, especially when we play the cuzzy bros.

[Thequeerone]

2 other comments on last night - Longbottom came on about 65 min mark unannounced so the Wittaker/Dunning/Longbottom scrum also held nicely.

2 of the 3 tries were from forwards - whilst enjoying the prospect of life w/o the complication of backs thinking we may have to practice giving them more ball.