Author: TBH

The Western Force went down in another heartbreaker at Loftus to the Bulls on Saturday night The Match In a game that, if we’re honest, wasn’t a terrific spectacle the Force got in front during the last quarter of the game only to be denied by two late tries. Early on it looked like the Bulls would run away with it fairly comfortably. The Force couldn’t get their hands on the pill in the early going and things looked ominous. Whilst it wasn’t vintage Bulls rugby, they were using their powerful set piece and early security at the breakdown to scarcely…

In a second week of disappointment, the Western Force have gone down to the new kids on the block the Southern Kings in Port Elizabeth. The Match It didn’t look too bad early on, as the Force played with purpose, some skill and intelligence. For most of the first half the visitors kept the ball in hand, moved it with relative accuracy and managed to get over the gain line on a regular basis. The Kings saw very little of the pill, though they did score a slightly fortunate try when a through-kick was partially charged down by Angus Cotterell…

The Wallabies have beaten the Springboks at Subiaco Oval to open their account in The Rugby Championship for 2012. It was far from a vintage performance, but it was a massive step up from the ignominy of being blanked in Auckland. Both teams came into the game under a cloud with a couple of fairly poor performances. The early exchanges in the game didn’t really improve things a great deal, it has to be said. The Wallabies seemed to adopt a tactic of kicking at nearly every opportunity. They grubber-kicked in behind the line. They kicked for the corner to…

In their last home game of the season, the Force went down convincingly to Brumbies at NIB Stadium Out-muscled, out-thought and outclassed — that was the story of the Force tonight. In a display that for about fifty to sixty minutes of the game showed why they top the Australian conference, the Brumbies took a valuable bonus point win away from Perth. In the first quarter of the game they utterly outplayed the Force, who came out of the blocks sluggishly. The Brumbies clearly meant business in that first part of the game and set about establishing their supremacy early.…

So apparently there is this competition called Super Rugby

The Force have finally emerged victorious after a long drought against the Lions last night. It was a scrappy affair and at times I thought the ground announcer might bust out the Benny Hill music, but in the end sheer weight of numbers nudged it in the Forces favour. The game started a bit like last week, with the away side scoring a well worked try against a pretty tardy defence. It looked like threatening to continue for a while as well, with the Lions keeping the ball in hand and pressing into the Forces 22. After about 15 minutes,…

For the second week in a row at Nib stadium we see two teams sitting at or near the bottom of the table The Force endured yet another heartbreaking close loss at the hands of the Rebels last Sunday. By my count, that makes it about four close ones this year and the second against the Rebels. Win a few of those and the season has some air of respectability. And that’s been the problem all season: an inability to put the tight games away. There are a multitude of reasons that could be given for this, but the frustration…

In a tight and at times scrappy contest, the Rebels outlasted the Force at NIB stadium this afternoon. The Rebels rocketed out of the gate and score a couple of early tries and good ones they were too. The big boys punched it up in the middle of the paddock, leading to the first try from Cadeyrn Neville when they were getting consistently over the gain line. After that, the sublime skills of Kurtley Beale got the ball wide at pace and caught a slow moving Force defence out on at least two occasions. At this stage it looked like…

Sunday sees two two Aussie teams sitting in the bottom few at the bottom of the ladder. You’d think that both are having poor seasons and you’d be almost right, but looks are slightly deceiving in this case. The Rebels look to be a team that might be heading in the right direction. They’ve had a couple of good performances in a row. Admittedly they lost to the Bulls, but they gave a great account of themselves. Against the Crusaders, on the other hand, they came up with possibly a franchise defining win. The Force, unfortunately, appear to be going…

In a night more suited to aquatic birds with webbed feet, the Stormers overcame the Force in the wet. The conditions were, to use the correct technical term, shithouse and unfortunately the footy not much better at times. With that said, pre-game predictions about how each side would approach things came to fruition. The Force kept the ball in the pigs and didn’t spread it that much. Understandable, when you consider the weather and quality of the Stormers defence, as well as the fact that they haven’t exactly lit it up on attack this year. They competed, as has become…

This week brings together two teams seemingly heading in opposite directions. One is sitting in the upper rungs of the ladder, seemingly gathering strength with each passing week. The other appears to be going sideways and faces a difficult rest of the season. The Force have had a week off after their tough loss against the Tahs and normally you don’t hear much from a team in that situation. It’s fair to say that they and their (former) coach have been all over the rugby press in Australia in the past week and mostly for the wrong reasons. In a…

In a game that was in turns an attritional struggle, a scrappy mistake riddled affair and occasionally a bit exciting, the Tahs survived a late surge by the Force to get over the line 23-18. The game opened up with both teams playing the kind of game we’ve come to expect this season: the Force kicking for field position and trying to play the game out of their half and the Tahs using their pack to gain metres around the fringes and spreading the ball a bit more in the later phases. It was the Tahs who scored first on…

It is with a sense of deja vu that I approach this preview. Once again we have two teams fighting to keep up the competition in their conference and whose season could be dealt a serious blow with a loss tomorrow night. The Force fought hard against the Chiefs last week, but in the end were beaten by a team with that bit more pace and skill. They weren’t disgraced by any means, but the Chiefs looked in control for much of the game. They’re having to work very hard for every point at the moment and that was especially…

The Chiefs have knocked off the Force in an arm wrestle in Perth on Good Friday. It was a game that on the run of play should have been a lot less close than it was. The Chiefs for much of the match looked the much better side and should have scored more than the two tries they managed. It’s a testament to the scrambling defence, scrapping and work of the Force pack at the breakdown that there were only eight points in it at full time. There was a noticeable gap in the quality of the attack between the…

In a veritable feast of rugby this Easter weekend, we have the Force and Chiefs in Perth on Good Friday. Both teams are coming off good wins last weekend and will be feeling pretty confident heading into this game. The Force finally broke the shackles against a depleted Reds outfit and won in grand style. The pack dominated the physical exchanges and provided more than enough ball for the backs to use. For the first time this season the chances were taken, and they won comfortably. There’s been no lack of forward power from the Force this season, but it’s…

The Western Force turned on the power and even a little style to down the Reds 45-19 in Perth. On a perfect night for rugby, they ran in five tries to three to be comfortable winners. The home team set up the win with a strong burst of forward power and line busting ability in the opening quarter of the match and were never headed from that point on. The game evened up a bit after half time and the exchanges at the breakdown were pretty willing, but the Force kept their composure and the scoreboard ticking over to close…

This coming Saturday night sees two teams trying to snap out of a slump. The Force have only the solitary win to show for their efforts in going down in a number of tight ones and the Reds are coming off a disappointing tour to the Republic, where they came up empty. For the Force, this is almost the last chance saloon. Lose this game and things look pretty grim for the rest of the season. They would have been gutted about missing out last week against a weakened Rebels team. They very nearly got the points after going behind…

There’s an old rugby adage that the forwards decide who wins the game and the backs by how much. I guess last night was the exception that proves the rule. The Force pack were on top for most of the game, but it was the Hurricanes backs who really settled the issue. They proved another old rugby saw: the ball beats the man. And how. Whilst the Force pack got stuck in at the breakdown, put some big shunts on in the scrum and secured plenty of possession, it was the handling and support play of the Canes that was…

It’s March, it’s stinking hot, therefore it must be time for some rugby in Perth. Both of the teams featuring on Friday night are either coming off or are still on road trips. For the home team, they’ve come up empty in their visits to Canberra and Brisbane and will feel like both games were winnable, particularly the one against the Brumbies. It’s already starting to feel a bit like “deja vu all over again” for the Force faithful, seeing their team put up a brave fight but not getting the chocolates for the umpteenth time. For the Hurricanes, things…

A big ‘thank you’ to all who participated in the Superbru comp this year. We had 164 punters throw their hats in the ring and a good time was had by all, I hope. By the looks of it, our pool did pretty well overall. The winner, mickeyc, finished in the Top 100 globally, which is a mighty effort — well done, mate. In fact, all of our Top 5 players were in the top 1 per cent globally. We’re a strong comp! So the final Top 10 goes like this. Well done to all who scaled the lofty summit…