Match Report: Western Force vs Sharks

[jazza93]

Our attack was pretty bad, can't wait until we can move O"Conner out a few spots and bring Ripia into 10. Once the ball gets past O'Conner it seems as though nothings on.

The send off was fair enough. I expect he will get a week. Which wont be good with Inman's injury.

[jazza93]

Sidey's unlucky and will be suspended for the card, Fairbanks was the real villain though, can he be cited for that?

Probably not. Fairbanks was the one who made the tackle into a very bad one. But Sidey will cop the penalty (most likely) because he was the one who turned Ndungane over the 90 degree mark.

[welshrugbyfan]

Put the kid at fullback, Shep scores more tries when he plays 11. Cummins finally looked like the player I know he can be, keep him at 14.

Weak 9/10 combination is hurting our go forward game. Sheehan's got the goods it aint his fault, he's quality. BUT we need an experienced 10 leading the team around, it is the key to us getting wins. We've F***** around with this spot for years now, we HAD the ideal key man but he got shafted in favour of that Giteau show pony.

Sidey is ard as, him and Inman will be a good centre pairing, the kid is too small to play in the centres, you need big ball runners. He's got loads of natural talent but seems to find the gaps when the defence has been pushed back and their line gets disrupted by the centres. The boys will bounce back, I've got faith still.

On a side note watch the Highlanders game from last night, thats how you win a game, simply brilliant. Bashed the school yard bully, behind his own bike shed as well.

[Bigbear-53]

The ref was diabolical, he should have a red card for ever. The so called forward pass on our way out of the 22 was so much crap. This bloke is worse than the african wally we often seem to get.
The spear tackle was not intentional and was probably assisted by Ndungane, a yellow as really all it deserved. This is rugby not afl. Even a Shark supporter stated the ref was biased and wrong.
Ruined the game and set us up for a loss.

[jazza93]

A Shark's supporter said that? Well i think that just about settles it.

[palitu]

i admit that the tack was worth a Red,

he was turn well past 90, and in fact it was a little past 180. it was a scary tack that could have resulted in severe/permanent injury.

It was not intentional, but thats the way the game goes.

[palitu]

the crowd was 17,620 according to RWA.

[Burgs]

Fairbanks is ard as, him and Inman will be a good centre pairing, the kid is too small to play in the centres, you need big ball runners...

Fairbanks 174cm, 84kg
O'Connor 180cm, 84kg and growing.

I'm just putting it out there

[sandgroperrugby]

Fairbanks was tough as nails, but for what? He never threatened just ran straight into some bigger centres and or lossies. Not a wrecking ball more like a pin ball that hits a big buffer. JOC in space was good, Alfi was a stand out when he came on as was Wykes. We all know Wykes has the potential its his consistancy thats been in question.

Red card was fair and just.

[welshrugbyfan]

Fairbanks 174cm, 84kg
O'Connor 180cm, 84kg and growing.

I'm just putting it out there

Shit I meant the bloke who got sent off, Sidey.

Sidey is ard as, him and Inman will be a good centre pairing.

Fairbanks is a quality player as well though, I'll take nothing away from him.

[Darren]

Here's a shot of that tackle (click for bigger image)

[AndyS]

Well, no-one else seems to have said it so I will. Nineteen times out of twenty, 14 players against 15 for that long are going to lose regardless. That twentieth time, they'll win by chancing their arm and they'll get lucky. We lost the player with 3 points on the board and were guaranteed the loss when we refused to attack.

Had we attacked we might have forced some repeat penalties, maybe cost them a player of their own for a bit, and at least tested them. Instead, we took penalties. It probably wouldn't have mattered either way, but there was absolutely no way we were going to beat a team like the Sharks three points at a time. It was a very, very poor strategy.

The last twenty minutes they weren't even bothering to commit any players to the breakdown; they just focused on defence and waited for a mistake. And it always came. Tactics aside, that was probably the bigger concern for mine. There is little skill and no fluency in the passing, with altogether too many passes going to no-one, or hitting people in the chest, face, hip, shoulder...pretty much anywhere but out in front of the runner. Binned players, poor decisions, luck - it is all irrelevant when we can't execute a cohesive attack anyway. I can only hope that there is something can be done about it quickly, otherwise it is going to be a very long season in defense.

[jazza93]

Thats some great photography. But with all these camera angles i'm starting to get a little worried about how Sidey will fare in the judiciary.

[Darren]

TWF had their very own camera man on field last night who took teh above shot. I just put a few more up in the gallery


http://twf.com.au/vbpicgallery.php?do=view&g=275

[Burgs]

I'll join you in a frustration at the belief that goals would keep them in the match Andy. There was always going to be players running out of legs so to have any chance we needed to be in front by the 60 minute mark at the latest. Penalties shots frustrate me at the best of times, but in those circumstances it's idiocy.
Kick the goal, get three points and then be hard on your own line defending again from the kick off. Or, have a crack (Tap/Scrum/Lineout) and if it fails at least you have 50-60m to defend. This obsession with "accumulation" that most commentators go on about is only worth it if you have 85 minutes of strong defence on the park.
Penalties without tries to go with them would have battled to keep us in touch with a top team like the Sharks at the best of times, a no brainer that it wouldn't work under last night’s circumstances.