Western Force: An Honest Look

[MI5_Dog]

http://www.greenandgoldrugby.com/wes...e-honest-look/

[The InnFORCEr]

A pretty fair assessment, some obvious points for future action, but all in all it is very accurate.

[Herbasimplex]

Lots of things need to be addressed. Success for the Force last year was built on defence and this year it has been pretty woeful, that is the major difference. The Force are always slow starters into a match and always playing from behind on the scoreboard and their one dimensional attack then doesn't do them any favours in this respect.

However, Foley's want to stick with his favourites like Wykes while the Marquee lock is warming the pine or not naming Nikoro or Scott in the 23 whilst the badger is so poor baffles me, or his unwillingness generally to experiment with the backline whilst the Force are dead last on the table. The only change he has made is to move Godwin to 13 and he has been quiet their all season.

It's not all doom and gloom, the administration seems to be steering the ship in the right direction and moving towards sustainability and their are more WA players coming into the squad which West Australian's can be justifiably proud of starting from such a small base, but the objective ARU top up system needs to go to make the franchises more even.

[valzc]

Good article voicing pretty much what TWFers have been saying for years in fact. Although I don't quite agree with the no talent bit, there is talent but with no game plan there's no chance to show it. And with marquee players we never even get to see them!

[Moono74]

Time to roll the dice on some selections. If your going to lose try some new players and get an idea of what they can do at this level. If Burton goes down at 10...we improvise!

Western Force v Tahs

1. Pekahou Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Tetera Faulkner
4. Steve Mafi
5. Adam Coleman
6. Angus Cottrell
7. Matt Hodgson (c)
8. Ben McCalman
9. Ryan Louwrens
10. Luke Burton
11. Brad Lacey
12. Kyle Godwin
13. Nick Cummins
14. Mitch Scott
15. Dane Haylett-Petty

Reserves
16. Heath Tessmann
17. Chris Heiberg
18. Oliver Hoskins
19. Wilhelm Steenkamp
20. Kane Koteka
21. Alby Mathewson
22. Marcel Brache
23. Albert Nikoro

[The InnFORCEr]

Only change I would make is that with The Badge highly unlikely to be back next year, move Marcel to 13 from the bench and put Junior on the bench.

That is if we are doing this as an experiment, which I highly doubt will be happening.

[MI5_Dog]

We could make sure that Mitch Scott isn't anywhere near the team just to piss off Moono74 and his broken record.

[Herbasimplex]

1. Pekahou Cowan
2. Heath Tessman
3. Tetera Faulkner
4. Adam Coleman
5. Wilhelm Steenkamp
6. Steve Mafi
7. Matt Hodgson (c)
8. Ben McCalman
9. Ryan Louwrens
10. Luke Burton
11. Brad Lacey
12. Marcel Brache
13. Solomoni Rasolea
14. Albert Nikoro
15. Dane Haylett-Petty

Reserves
16. Nathan Charles
17. Chris Heiberg
18. Oliver Hoskins
19. Rory Walton
20. Chris Alcock
21. Alby Mathewson
22. Mitch Scott
23. Akihito Yamada

[Moono74]

We could make sure that Mitch Scott isn't anywhere near the team just to piss off Moono74 and his broken record.

....yes the other option is we just keep the same team week in week out and lose anyway. Stick with a sure thing??

We maintain all the key forwards which has generally been the strength of the team and tinker with the backline. Sias hasn't worked at 10, change, Burton in. The centres have been an issue. Put Godwin back to where he showed his promise at 12. The Force bloody website says "the 22-year-old continued on from his breakout season in 2013, again locking down the inside centre role for the Western Force before a knee injury".

We need more speed in the team. Give Lacey and Scott a crack. We've leaked try's defensively out on the wing....these guys can't do any worse. DHP has been good at 15 so maintain whats working well with the team.

[brokendown gunfighter]

is Yamada playing club rugby?

[Scozzie]

Pretty fair assessment, and they've mentioned as I have in other threads, that we're lacking a good attack coach and missing the reliability of Hayward's goal kicking. We maybe don't need to tinker with the team that much - especially in the forwards. Pretty harsh to put us as the worst team in the competition though, when the Reds are sitting below us and we should have beaten them earlier in the season.

[GIGS20]

Sorry, IMHO you can't leave all of Sias, Zack and Kyle out of the 22...we don't have the goods at 10 now and you're suggesting we give an untried (but promising) kid a crack without any form of backup?

That smacks of baby-bathwater thinking.

Yes give Burto the shot, Yes Sias and Zack could wear suits, but at the very least put Kyle at 12, because he's played some 10 before and wouldn't be a total disaster there. If that does happen and Burto (worst case) gets hurt, you can put Kyle into 10 and find an option for 12 (even that would be hard, Junior obviously isn't the cat and the only one who has looked solid there is Burto) For my money, I'd put Badger, Zack and Nikoro on the bench with the backs being
10 Burto
11 Lacey
12 Kyle
13 Scott
14 Brache
15 DHP

This fosters plenty of experimentation with some disaster protection of going back to pretty much what we have now if it all goes pear shaped.

The disaster turnaround (if the experiment is a spectacular failure)
10 Zack
11 Cummo
12 Burto
13 Kyle
14 Brache
15 DHP

I think this is a pretty good compromise between trying something new and not taking unreasonable risks. I choose Zack on the bench rather than Sias because I think he might be a bit more versatile to cover injury (I also don't know what I'd do to cover injuries to the ScrumHalf, but I would assume if Alby isn't fit, they'd be looking at Ryan to give it the full 80 anyway.

Personally, I wouldn't rush to bring Alby back to the park once Prior's suspension is over, He has been too hit and miss this year and I reckon a week in a suit might make him more hit.....and bigger Hit!

[Herbasimplex]

when the Reds are sitting below us and we should have beaten them earlier in the season.

The super rugby website has us last in the conference table and last in the overall table with the reds one above. Forwards are fairly settled. If the princesses have been behaving as such, why not put the sword through them to put the fear of god into them? Losing obviously doesn't.

Just wondering what is the right time to take the sword to the backline - 1-10? 1-11? 1-23? surely it's time to look in a different direction, come what may.

[todd4]

I remember years ago when MF was coach of the Waratahs and Berreck Barnes had joined the Tahs there was a joke on G&GR which showed a picture of Foley and Barnes talking with a conversation balloon over Foley saying something along the lines of "Game plan?, Just tonk it down field!".

Had a chuckle at the time but in all seriousness do we really think the other teams are not going to know beforehand what our game plan is going to be?

People are suggesting that we get a good quality attack coach but he would need to be given free reign to introduce an attacking game plan. When the head coach is more concerned with percentage/positional play his safety first 'kick and play in their half at all cost' game plan will override anything that an assistant coach would want to introduce.

[jargan83]

is Yamada playing club rugby?

Played for Japan against Hong Kong over the weekend.

Japan play South Korea this weekend so I doubt he will be back this week.