DEFENCE A FORCE FOR PERTH

[RugbyWA]

Emirates Western Force coach Richard Graham has lauded an outstanding defensive effort produced by his players against a dangerous Reds attack in the opening round of the 2011 season.

For large chunks of the match at Suncorp Stadium the Reds were frustrated and harassed by a close checking Emirates Western Force defence that stymied the free flowing ball movement the Queenslanders were intent on playing.

While the West Australian’s unfortunately found themselves on the wrong side of a one point margin at the end of 80 minutes, the defensive performance still gained plenty of praise both internally and externally.

“I thought physically the boys really fronted up today,” Graham said.

“Defensively I thought we were outstanding but the thing that got us in the end was that we were a little naïve when it came to taking our opportunities.

“We probably spent about 40% of our pre-season on our defence. Phil Blake (Defence & Skills coach) is really passionate about it, he’s committed to it and I think that really rubbed off on the way we defended tonight.”

Only a small lapse allowed the Reds to score their opening try through Saia Faingaa when the hooker dummied the line-out throw to get the ball back in his hands and cross for five points. The Reds other try came from some patient forward pressure but that was all they could muster, a far cry from the regularity in which they scored last season.

Graham is confident the defensive performance, as well as a number of other positive aspects from the game, will prove to be an ideal base in which to continue to develop the club’s match strategies.

“There are two things that we can control and that’s our attitude and our preparation and I thought we were outstanding in our preparation and approach to the game,” Graham said.

“However at the end of the day it’s obviously about winning and taking home points and we are determined to work to make that happen.

“We had been written off before coming here… so to take a point out of it is important, particularly with the new conference system and the need to accumulate points regularly.”

Graham said another pleasing aspect was the way players ran out the match strongly, a by-product of 16 weeks of intensive pre-season training.

“We certainly backed our conditioning that we’d be able to come home and finish the game strongly,” Graham said.

“While the Reds enjoyed the better of closing stages it wasn’t because of a lack of conditioning on our behalf. Games across the weekend generally haven’t been high scoring, two or three tries maximum and so we thought it was going to be a close affair in that sense.

“The team that was going to build pressure the most in that second half was going to win and that was them unfortunately.”

A bye in week two gives the Emirates Western Force coaching staff and players a fortnight to prepare for their next clash against the Sharks in Perth and Graham said they’ll use that time to refine their structures.

“It is early in the season and we have a number of areas in our game that need attention. We’ll address those this week and again prepare well for our next match against the Sharks on March 5.".

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