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NICK TAYLOR, The West Australian
March 14, 2011, 7:05 am
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The Western Force must become ruthless if they are going to have any chance of making the Super Rugby finals.
The fade-out problem that hurt them in previous seasons has surfaced again in two of their opening three games as they failed to close out tight matches.
They gave up a 10-point lead in the final three minutes against the Blues on Saturday night to let Auckland get away with a 22-22 draw, after losing by a point because of a late try against the Queensland Reds.
But coach Richard Graham is confident he can get his players over any psychological hurdles.
"We have to be more clinical. You need to learn how to win those games so it becomes a habit," he said. "You win a lot of close-margin games because of experience but I'm confident I can get them through it. With experience comes awareness and I have to make them aware of what they did."
Graham said inexperience may have told in the lead-up to the crucial penalty, 15 seconds from time against the Blues, that left his side without a win this year.
"Instead of four rucks in the last 45 seconds maybe there should have been two, but that's the sort of thing that comes with experience," he said.
"That goes back to having four or five experienced guys who have gone through those situations hundreds of times before and we don't have them."
Lack of experience was evident when the reserve benches were compared. The Blues had almost 400 appearances between them, the Force only 34 and some of them very limited game time.
Graham, who was "gutted" by the result, will decide today whether signing Willie Ripia will fly to South Africa for games against the Lions and the Stormers.
He said there would be a "fair chance" that if fit, the New Zealand recruit would slot straight into the No.10 role despite the performances of James O'Connor.
"When you're down in terms of numbers in the backs you want as much quality as you can on the field but we'll just assess who else is standing at that time," Graham said.
He is also waiting for scans on prop Tim Fairbrother, who was a late withdrawal with a rib problem, his replacement Matt Dunning who limped off in the second half, and O'Connor and winger Alfie Mafi, who both took heavy knocks.
The Force will need to be ruthless on Saturday against former coach John Mitchell's Lions who will have been boosted by ending their 17-match losing streak with a 25-20 win over the Cheetahs.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/spo...ller-instinct/
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