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Thread: Graham has faith in Force starters

  1. #1
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    Graham has faith in Force starters

    NICK TAYLOR, The West Australian
    March 4, 2011, 8:05 am


    Coach Richard Graham may have only been in charge of one Super Rugby game but he has already created a piece of Western Force history.

    For the first time the club will start consecutive games with the same run-on side when they take on the Sharks at nib Stadium tomorrow.

    Incredibly, the Force have never started two games in a row with the same side in the 66 Super matches played since their February 10, 2006 debut against the ACT Brumbies.

    In previous seasons enforced changes were made because of injury, there were many positional moves, and former coach John Mitchell also had a front-row rotation policy.

    Not so with Graham, who has kept faith with the side that came within a point of beating the Queensland Reds in the season opener in Brisbane two weeks ago.

    The only scare was big centre Mitch Inman, who was hurt in the 21-20 loss, but he finished yesterday's training run and will line up next to Gene Fairbanks.

    New Zealand signing Willie Ripia's foot tendon injury means James O'Connor will start again in the No.10 role.

    The only change Graham has made is to his reserves bench where prop Matt Dunning, who has recovered from a stomach strain, replaces Kieran Longbottom, who injured a shoulder.

    Keeping an unchanged side will be a big positive for the Force.

    "That team now has had the ability to train and prepare together throughout the bye and this week," Graham said.

    "We go into the game knowing the way we want to play and having a better understanding of each other's qualities. It is important that we're competitive and the boys are fighting for their positions and I think that has definitely been evident in our preparation.

    "It is also equally important to show confidence in the group."

    Teams - Western Force: *Pek Cowan, Ben Whittaker, Tim Fairbrother, Ben McCalman, Nathan Sharpe, Matt Hodgson, David Pocock, Richard Brown, Brett Sheehan, James O'Connor, David Smith, Gene Fairbanks, Mitch Inman, Nick Cummins, Cameron Shepherd. *Reserves: *Nathan Charles, Matt Dunning, Sam Wykes, Tevita Metuisela, James Stannard, Alfie Mafi, Rory Sidey.

    Sharks: *Tendai Mtawarira, Bismarck du Plessis, Jannie du Plessis, Steven Sykes, Alistair Hargreaves, Keegan Daniel, Willem Alberts, Ryan Kankowski, Charl McLeod, Patrick Lambie, Lwazi Mvovo, Meyer Bosman, Stefan Terblanche, Odwa Ndungane, Louis Ludik.


    http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...orce-starters/

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    Sharks will provide an accurate measure of where the Force is at

    Wayne Smith From: The Australian March 05, 2011 12:00AM



    GIVEN that the Western Force had the bye last weekend, it seems more than a little perverse that it has slipped backwards in the estimation of the critics and now has to prove itself all over again against the Sharks in Perth tonight.

    None of this is of the Force's own making. But after Queensland was blitzed last weekend by the Waratahs, suddenly the Perth team's highly-rated near-miss against the Reds in the opening round in Brisbane is being re-evaluated in the light that Ewen McKenzie's team might not be the measuring stick everyone had thought.

    There is no question that the Sharks, the South African conference leaders, will provide an accurate measure of where the Force is at. Any side that can relegate to the reserves Lwazi Mvovo, who played winger for the Springboks at Twickenham in their most recent Test, to accommodate the return of 2007 World Cup-winner JP Pietersen, is in robust good health.

    Joining Mvovo on the bench will be Cup-winning captain John Smit, now recovered from his groin strain but still unable to force his way into the Sharks' all-Springbok front row of the du Plessis brothers and Tendai "The Beast" Mtawarira.

    To think that the Force will throw 43-Test veteran Matt Dunning into the fray at some point and he still will be 50 caps shy of the experience Smit will bring to the contest.

    Victory tonight will allow the Sharks to tie with the Bulls as the most successful of the South African teams against Australian opponents with 23 wins apiece.

    This is an infinitely stronger Force outfit than they encountered last year in Durban where the Sharks scored three tries in a 27-22 victory.

    New Force coach Richard Graham, so desperately unlucky not to have claimed a first-up win in Brisbane a fortnight ago, has fashioned a game plan that squeezes every last drop of advantage out of the team's strengths.

    It was a bold move to harness Test number eight Ben McCalman in the second-row with Nathan Sharpe, but the move paid remarkable dividends against the Reds where the Force's back five went on the rampage.

    Even the Force's lineout held up well, despite the lack of genuine height, although Graham would have been alarmed at how ragged his set piece became when Sharpe, just back from a hernia operation, was taken out of the game around the hour mark. Two weeks further on, however, Sharpe is ready to give an 80-minute performance.

    But it is at five-eighth that Graham is most maximising his strike power. The Force coach has made it clear that when his marquee player, Willie Ripia, recovers from his foot injury, he intends to throw him into the playmaking position he was recruited to fill. But in the meantime, James O'Connor offers an enormous amount at five-eighth.

    He has a kicking game to embarrass any fullback, but it is with ball in hand that the young Wallabies winger is most threatening.

    At the moment, conceded Graham, the 20-year-old is still so new in the position that his instincts, so honed in the backfield, haven't quite kicked in.

    "But the more he plays there, the better he is going to become. And I can't think of any other Australian player other than Kurtley Beale who could fill the range of positions he can. He could probably handle halfback if need be."

    Mostly he will need to handle the new wunderkind of SA rugby, his opposite number tonight, Patrick Lambie.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226016146554

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  3. #3
    Immortal GIGS20's Avatar
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    So our performance against the reds has lost it's shine since they were raped by the tahs, how much worse are we after the tahs got raped by the saders? I know Wayne smith spends most of his time actively seeking reasons to say how shit the force is.....but this is blatant sandbagging even for him. It's like saying the tahs are the best team in the universe because the rebels beat the Brumbies.....let's not pay any attention to the way the matches went, let's just blindly point at random score lines which might fit into the biased point we're trying to make.

    What I've seen this season
    Tahs are pretty formidable and would have given the saders a real shake if the ref had shown any consistency at the breakdown, all night, all you heard any ruck was roll blue, no hands blue don't do this blue, don't do that blue.

    Reds seem to have been figured out, their back row isn't what it was with Daniel braid and if you can pressure their ball you're in with a shot

    Brumbies are fragile, the chiefs beat themselves but the rebels managed to squeak home with some luck and a friendly decision or two.......things aren't happy in Brumbyland

    Rebels look like they will be as inconsistent as you would expect. They've given the bank away to get some huge experience, which will count for a lot in the tight ones, but that'll only work if they're allowed to play baa baas footy, they'll surprise some, but not win many

    And we come to the force, one game, back 5 looked great, but imprecise in attack. If they can hold onto the football the pack deliver they'll win plenty, hopefully they shove Wayne smiths words up his ass tonight.

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    C'mon the

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    Veteran Contributor hertryk's Avatar
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    I know we can do this...C'Arn the FORCE ....

    Warahtahs lost last night...so can any predict how the games are going to go??? Highlands beat the Chiefs..who would have thought that last year???
    It's like a lottery...!!! I hope with all my heart the Force has the winning numbers...5, 7, 15, and so on..

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    Legend Contributor brokendown gunfighter's Avatar
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    The Reds only looked bad because of the 6 day turnaround,after playing the Force in opressive heat

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  6. #6
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    and they've had two games up against world class packs, once they meet some of the easier teams, like the hurricanes and chiefs, they'll bounce back!

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    C'mon the

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