Cheetahs edge past Force

[PerthChicka]

Seriously though, 7 years of conversations like these make it hard for me not to be jaded and jaundiced. Maybe I am being naive and unfair, but it's how I feel. And I don't blame the players. Like all professionals everywhere they are doing their best within the constraints of the organisation they work for.

[Rex Messup]

We were penalised out of the contest. Some of the rulings were baffling at times. The disallowed try was criminal and cost us the game.

The Force effort was magnificent again.

The lineout was first class. I don't think there was a crooked throw or a lost lineout. It was top shelf stuff from thelineout.

The scrum was magnificent until the replacement prop came on. He was penalised two scrums in a row for not binding correctly. That is a serious technique issue. he got it right after that though.

Our backrow dominated. Pocock and Hodgson in particular were magnificent. The turnovers came thick and fast. Rousow (sp?) was not at all disruptive. The Force backrow dominated this fixture.

The defence was magnificent

Blake initiatives

I was pleased to see some new trends that is clearly a change in coaching, tactics and alignment.

The speed of ruck and maul was notably faster. The ball was shifted quickly from the breakdown. There was some magnificent pick and drive and the ball was shifted as soon as it was laid back.

The clean out at ruck time was ferocious and accurate. This allowed placement and fast movement to the next phase.

The backline moved the ball wide and opened up space several times on the wings.

Nalaga was used frequently in midfield and opened them up on one occasion. He was in open pasture and was ankle tapped.

The defence was magnificent

Kicking was not aimless. The ball was kicked when required but usually found open pasture off the boot of Harvey. Some of Sheehans box kicks were amateurish however. Sheehan needs to put his box kick away.

There was a plan to keep ball in hand and have a crack. The backs clearly had a plan ( a welcome change). Each player understood what the game plan was and what their role was in each situation..........good coaching

The backline created space and opportunity on several occasions. It wasn't a rabble of blokes that looked like they met 5 minutes before kickoff and hoofed it because nobody knew the plan.

The backline was better organised but lacks pace and ability ( sadly)

of note

Stanley had his best game in the Force jumper. He defended strongly and ran good lines. He made plenty of breaks and scored a deserved try for his effort to charge down a kick.

We chased the game all night but we were penalised heavily which was frustrating

Clearly better drilled and coached.

More attacking mindset

Some tactical changes to bring Nalaga into play in midfield

A tick for the tactical changes and coaching improvements. A tick for effort.

The forwards were the best pack on the field and won every facet of the game.

The referee was ordinary. It made me think of the old days when home town referees decided the fixtures. The refereeing was atrocious ( but don't take my word for it, watch it for yourself)

Nathan Charles was absolutely outstanding. The wallaby selectors must really start thinking selection now...........and I'm not talking about warming the pine in 16

[PerthChicka]

You're a star Rex :-) You have restored my faith :-) Bring on the Shark Tank!!!

[SinBin]

That try should have been allowed IMO. I thought neck locks were part of the game these days!
I may be one eyed but I thought the ref in the 1st half was terrible. Missed forward passes, knock ons and penalizing the Force and ignoring Cheeatas.
But yet again we lost the game they didn't win it.
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Penalty count was 15 to 5. We were at fault a lot granted, but the Cheetahs weren't saints.
But it was only a Western Force game after all so good opportunity for the SARU to give a rooky South African referee his first S15 start...

[travelling_gerry]

Just saw the replay of the first half up here. That ref was definitly only reffing one side.

Bring back neutral refs!

[Forceskin]

I'm with you Rex

[Elf1]

Just watched the replay and I have to agree with the comments that Rex has made.

I saw a much better plan that was played out, there has always been endeavour but I think this was the best game that has been played all season.

[Sheikh]

If Rex and Elf are right, then congrats to the coaching team for changing something about our style of play. It's always difficult to change a team's style mid-season, as you have limited time to prepare and drill.

Just saw the replay of the first half up here. That ref was definitly only reffing one side.

Bring back neutral refs!

I agree, but I reckon some of the neutral refs would still penalise the Force unfairly. Too many refs have preconceived notions about what's going to happen and so only watch for that; when they see it, it re-inforces their beliefs.

[sittingbison]

Hmmm....still haven't seen a replay, but there is a difference of opinion on the performance. I like what Rex says and if true reserve my former post, however despite rexs glowing summation we lost and many others are disgruntled.

I cannot fathom from the comments what went wrong (apart from refereeing disparity), can we have some more observations on our performance other than "we woz robbed"
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[travelling_gerry]

Nope. Simple as that. We was robbed. Hard to get momentum up when the penalty count was like that.

Even the eastern staters, theothersiders, are calling for neutral refs following that performance.

And if Charles isnt the Wallaby starter this year then there is no justice.

[Rex Messup]

It's unusal for someone to agree with me around here?

have you all been on valium?

[TrevorM]

We played in line with the aspirations of the board of Rugby WA - clueless, nieve, stupid and so so so predictable, worse performance for a long time - can understand why Bam Bam will leave if this is all we can do!

Seriously though, 7 years of conversations like these make it hard for me not to be jaded and jaundiced. Maybe I am being naive and unfair, but it's how I feel. And I don't blame the players. Like all professionals everywhere they are doing their best within the constraints of the organisation they work for.

Same here. After yet another unentertaining loss, out will come the usual platitudes from officialdom - "brave Force", "encouraging signs", "improved play" etc - all BS, because the bottom line is that as expected the Force played ineffective and boring rugby and lost, yet again.

We don't expect them to win all the time, although a win every so often, especially at home, would be nice. We don't expect them to top the Australian conference - there are several other Australian teams there who you'd expect logically to be better than the Force. We don't expect them to win the Super XV title, perhaps ever, although we can dream. But we do expect that the Force franchise will be run professionally, by people who understand what it takes to run a franchise in the World's major (and perhaps toughest) provincial rugby tournament.

I wouldn't mind handing over a couple of grand each year for gold memberships if the football was entertaining, but often I can see more entertaining rugby for free if I go down to Hartfield Park.

It's been 7 years now. Perhaps Rugby WA needs to think seriously about transferring the franchise to an organisation which knows how to manage a professional international rugby team.

(Is there a smiley for :terminallypissedoff:?)

[Elf1]

It's unusal for someone to agree with me around here?

have you all been on valium?

Not at all Rex.

I just happen to agree with the comments you made about this particular game and the efforts made by the players.

Yes I will say it..we woz robbed, that disallowed try/penalty decision was a joke

[Alex]

the ref was shite, but it went both ways-bad calls for both teams. In the end it wasn't the ref who lost us the game. It was the aimless play. I'm so sick of blaming the ref every week - it can't be true that every single ref is redding against us. Champion teams learn to use the ref intheir favor.

As the commentators noted pocock still has a lot to learn as captain - he was clearly getting frustrated and took it out on the ref and The amount of chat back from the rest of the team was also shocking, and pocock should have taken control of the team. if it had of been a more experienced ref it could have ended up even worse for the force. We need to learn to manage the ref.

There seems to be a lack of commitment from the backs. The forwards give it their all week in week out, yet the backs are very static-no one running onto the ball. There was one and only one instance last night were sheehan threw a perfect ball in front of Nalaga forcing him to run onto it and into a gap and nearly scored us a try more of that and we may be in with a chance to win one game.

All in all I'm pretty disappointed with the result, and am now starting to think we may not win another game this year. Looking forward to next year now, and i cant wait to get a new coach with some fresh ideas. Hopefully it's louden, hopefully it's not Blake. I can feel it...next year is gonna be our year

[BeeJay]

Rex, great summary.

The ref blew for obvious penalties when the Cheetahs infringed, but penalised us for minor, technical infringements - he was clearly focussing on just one side.

Disallowed try equals 5 points - that's victory to us.