Match Report: Western Force vs Sharks

[GIGS20]

Jazza, your quote." not from any forum regulars" is not warranted, just because you see fit to have your say about anything does not mean that a person who decides to comment on a subject shouldnt be able to do so without you being snide.

jazz a was just covering his ass with that one, he's been lambasted pretty badly in recent times through wildly asserting that people were making wild assertions.

Apparently qualified assertions are ok!

And, if you reckon the reffing was poor for much of the weekend, I'll agree with you. Did anybody see mark Lawrence give a scrum penalty before he called pause? What the hell can that be for?

[jazza93]

Pretty much. But i do have quotes to back my stance up

[Burgs]

I'll wildly assert it might be time to change the avatar again Gigs

[GIGS20]

Yeah I know, but I'm still trying to figure out how to jinx us against the blues.......maybe I'll just give up on game themed avatars

[travelling_gerry]

[BeeJay]

"Staying in touch" is a waste of time unless you are playing a fast starting/slow finishing team, and it is a nonsense to think that 14 Force men missing two front line players might have been able to bide their time, toying with 15 Sharks players and looking to pinch the game at the death as the tourists weaken. To be honest, I doubt anyone in this competition could have pulled off that trick. The only way we might have won it would have been to get in front, force them to play and hope that our weakened defense might somehow have held up.

Agreed, but if we had the execution and the personnel, we could have done that. But the truth is we didn't, and rarely looked even close to scoring. The one time Sharpie went for the lineout instead of taking the points, we came away with nothing. We could have been 7 points behind, and played for at lest ONE bonus point.

Its a rather circular argument - if we were not missing two frontline players, of course we could have gone for it. But it was because we WERE missing those players that we were in the position we found ourselves in!

[GIGS20]

I think it was shit all around actually. To lose the two players we lost (you dimly can't replace Bam and we have NO depth at 13) it's amazing they didn't capitulate right there. Sure it was disappointing they didn't go for tries, but, with the sharks preferring penalties over tries anyway, it was always going to be difficult. I was calling for the kick most of the time, until they started to pull away, simply because, until the last ten minutes, the penalty put us within a converted try, and the real hard work didn't start until their 22 look at the reply, we were only stopped in our half once or twice by them, most of the time, it was us stuffing up which got us under pressure.

[zimeric]

i think our depth at 13 is (read was) fine..
Inman, Cummins, Sidey are all handy players..

we also Have Barto, Alfi Mafi and Pat Dellit (mafi is labelled Centre/wing on the force roster)

And even Poe is adequately covered by Hodgo, Jenkins, Metuey and Browndog...

what we cant do is play 63 mins with 14 men against a full strength sharks outfit that has Springbok wingers getting injured and being replaced by springbok wingers...

[theforceguy]

Our attack was pretty bad, can't wait until we can move O"Conner out a few spots and bring Ripia into 10.

O Connor is to small to be a full time 12 His rugby career will he halved.

[jazza93]

I meant outside backs, but even so. Robbie Coleman is the in form 12 in Australian right now, it seems as though the wallabies see #13 as their hard running back. AAC, Horne, Mortlock...

Anyway, as long as JOC is moved out a few spots he will get more opportunities in broken play. Teaming up with Smith and Cummins.

[zimeric]

i wouldnt call Coleman the in-form 12.. he was particularly unspectacular against the reds and had a very quiet game against the rebels too.. one great game (really just one great solitary try) do not maketh the man!

[welshrugbyfan]

O Connor is to small to be a full time 12 His rugby career will he halved.

Even the trusted saviour of your national team recognises where he is best played at. The kid is a GREAT fullback. Can't see why his learning of how to be a quality fullback gets interupted when playing for the Force. Come world cup time he'll be in an unfamiliar position again at fullback.

Latham was the best fullback I've seen for a while, why? because he stayed at fullback and mastered the position.

Find an experienced 10 and put the kid back at 15, Shep to 11.

[hertryk]

Anyone else notice the UFC headlock on pocock when his legs were pinned in the ruck? surprised he didnt have a broken neck or back to go along with the bung knee.

I noticed many infringements against "us" the ref and/or touchies missed....He was not consistent, and I hope he watched the game afterwards....rookie ref..he has to start somewhere, but why not a a touch ref for a while until he get more experience....For the Sharks to get away with no yellow cards was unbelieveable...

[jazza93]

i wouldnt call Coleman the in-form 12.. he was particularly unspectacular against the reds and had a very quiet game against the rebels too.. one great game (really just one great solitary try) do not maketh the man!

Well who is then?

Coleman

Tries - 1
Try Assists - 0
Runs - 22
Tackles Bust - 12
Offloads - 2
Linebreaks - 3
Tackles made - 11
Errors - 3

Fairbanks:

Tries - 0
Try Assists - 0
Runs - 15
Tackles Bust - 3
Offloads - 1
Linebreaks - 0
Tackles made - 18
Errors - 1

Faingaa

Tries - 0
Try Assists - 0
Runs - 9
Tackles Bust - 2
Offloads - 0
Linebreaks - 0
Tackles made - 39 (Poor guy doing Quades tackling)
Errors - 0

Huxley

Tries - 0
Try Assists - 0
Runs - 10
Tackles Bust - 4
Offloads - 0
Linebreaks - 2
Tackles made - 13
Errors - 3

Carter:

Tries - 1
Try Assists - 0
Runs - 22
Tackles Bust - 4
Offloads - 2
Linebreaks - 2
Tackles made - 28
Errors - 1

People can make their own decisions from watching the games and looking at stats. IMO it's got to be between Carter and Coleman at this stage, but i like the way coleman is slicing through defenses at the moment and would take him over Carter based on his first 3 performances.

Anyway, i don't mind who you pick. But i didn't choose Coleman just because of the one game!

[zimeric]

for me a 12 is as much about defence as it is attack.. a Leaky 10 and 12 is asking for trouble at super14 level.

on another note, As Fairbanks has only played 2 games.. if we multiply his stats by a third what does it look like then?


Fairbanks:

Tries - 0 ?
Try Assists - 0 ?
Runs - 20
Tackles Bust - 4
Offloads - 1 ?
Linebreaks - 0 ?
Tackles made - 24
Errors - 1 ?


not too different from Carter then isnt he? hypothetical i know.. but comparing him in round three against other teams that have already notched up three games is unfair....

im not saying Fairbanks is the form player either.. a better statement would be "its too early to see who the form 12 is but Coleman has shown he is up there"

my money is on Faingaa personally i like his no compromise style and straight running.