Hurricanes v Force

[Lee Grant]

Yeah - DHP was a good direct running fullback at school and I always thought his future was there. At a stretch, and the Force are at a stretch, they could play Cross on the wing and Inman at 13, Sare 12 and JOC (James O'Connor) 10.

Inman? - I'd back most regular starters for Sydney Uni to hold the fort in their club position in Super rugby. (Disclaimer: I wouldn't play short arses Dennis and McCalman at lock though.)

But in the papers this morning Mitchell has spurned the idea of playing JOC (James O'Connor) at 10.

It's not all bad news for the Force though:

- Lock Jason Eaton has been stood down for being a bad boy
- Winger Hosea Gear is out for up to six weeks. He had an operation on knee cruciate ligament tear today.

 

[Lee Grant]

PS - have just seen the team.

- Mitch Inman is starting at 13 - good luck son. If you are as good as your brother at this level you'll go OK.

- Ben McCalman is starting at 6. His future is at 8 down the track but watch this kid. He and McCaffrey at the Tahs are similar players who play a hard game and can break tackles. Both could be long time professionals and all the other stuff.

- Wykes at 8 - I'd play him at 6 as McCalman knows how to pick up the ball from the scrum at 8, but there may be other issues.

- Hockings - good to see him back starting.

 

[Scotty]

And while the calls are growing louder for teenage sensation James O'Connor to move from fullback to five-eighth after Sam Harris' nightmare debut in the No.10 jersey against the Brumbies, Mitchell said he simply didn't have the resources to make the switch.

"I don't think we have another fullback in the group at Super 14 or international level, so all those Einsteins that think that No. 5 should move to 10 might like to take a look at our resources before making a comment,'' he said.

I think Mitchell is seeing the writing on the wall for the season, and possibly his S14 coaching career already. He is already getting testy.

How ironic that his response is 'we don't have any other fullback options', when they most definately don't have a Super 14 or international level option at 10, which is arguably a more important position. In fact you could argue that Harris is barely a club level 10 based on his performance on friday.

 

[hatchie]

How good is our front row, just quietly. We're going to smash the canes up front.

 

[Lee Grant]

The rest of the team may have a problem.

Good luck to your guys. They will need a lot of things to go their way to beat the Canes, otherwise it's the Canes by 20.

 

[zombi]

Force by 16.

 

[JJJ]

Geez, this is ugly.

 

[rugbywhisperer]

O'Connor was totally out of his depth and had glimpses of 'that Bledisloe game'.
I am sorry but I stick to my assessment that he is still not yet ready for this stuff let alone test rugby. Too inconsistent and at times scared shitless.
Also his midfield kicks, whats happening there? The 'canes' must have loved him for his gifts in that area.
But he was only one of a fairly poor performance even considering the players out through injury.

Dunning dunning dunning - what a waste of oxygen - totally bent up and pushed aside tonight - another that even looking at his face and body language just didn't want to be there. Totally out played.

But as someone else said - after the raping of Qld rugby - tisk tisk.

 

[Lee Grant]

Nice to see a bit of that Queensland sympathy whispers.


22 points away at the Cake Tin is not a bad effort from an attacking respect, in fact 22 points can win you a lot of S14 games anywhere.

It's the amount of points scored by their opponents today that was the problem. It got to the stage in the 2nd half that you knew the Canes were going to score just about every time they were in the 22. Backline defence was very poor.

They were like babes in the woods and the Canes didn't have to do a whole lot to get their 7 tries.

We are too fond at talking about the attacking prowess of our players and not enough about their defensive qualities.

Attack? No problem - we will discuss how good players are at giving the golden ball, backing up, even if not needed and eluding opponents etc,etc to the cows come home..

As to defence - now and then we may mention a big hit and more often we talk about obvious missed tackles that take our eye, but we don't mention the ability of individual players to conform to a cohesive defensive plan for the game and for a particular movement.

Some of the Force backs, and probably a majority of them, have no clue.

With all the injuries they have had it is unlikely that they will win a lot of games this year, but I'll warrant they'll win a few more if they fix up their defence - especially the configuration of it.

 

[spectator]

The Canes should not be happy about letting the Force put 22 on them, given the cattle missing.

 

[Pfitzy]

Force forwards are lazy from what I saw against the Brumbies. From the couple of minutes I saw while in the pub tonight this may have repeated.

 

[rugbywhisperer]

Nice to see a bit of that Queensland sympathy whispers.

I wouldn't get to used to it - still a NSWelshman by birth and haven't lost the necessary number of brain cells to qualify as a true Queenslander - yet.

I'll support them anytime unless they play the Tahs - after all - blue Eastwwod blood is same color as blue NSW blood.

 

[fatprop]

The Force forwards looked a very good unit for long periods of the Sharpe & Hockings are bloody good locks, and Hodgson is the form Aus 7 of the weekend. If they had a decent/OK 10 they would do pretty well

 

[Biffo]

The Force forwards looked a very good unit for long periods of the Sharpe & Hockings are bloody good locks, and Hodgson is the form Aus 7 of the weekend. If they had a decent/OK 10 they would do pretty well

Agree completely.

 

[Spook]

I thought Wykes was ordinary. Sharpe and Hockings good.

 

[Spook]

O'Connor was totally out of his depth and had glimpses of 'that Bledisloe game'.
I am sorry but I stick to my assessment that he is still not yet ready for this stuff let alone test rugby. Too inconsistent and at times scared shitless.
Also his midfield kicks, whats happening there? The 'canes' must have loved him for his gifts in that area.
But he was only one of a fairly poor performance even considering the players out through injury.

Sorry, but I don't understand any of that criticism. JOC (James O'Connor) looked pretty good to me. Great long passing game and looked like a stand out quality player . As for fear, never saw one bit of it. Puts his body on the line and always assists the tackled player with clear outs.

 

[Langthorne]

Too concerned about his hair though - come on Quade, take the boy aside!

The Force still need a number 10 (obviously), but O'Connor did a lot of good No 10 work in attack (he seemed to go into 15 in defence, which was a good move). They showed some good flashes in all areas, just not enough good play between flashes (their effort and urgency was good - much better than the Tahs :banghead)

 

[barbarian]

O'Connor was totally out of his depth and had glimpses of 'that Bledisloe game'.
I am sorry but I stick to my assessment that he is still not yet ready for this stuff let alone test rugby. Too inconsistent and at times scared shitless.
Also his midfield kicks, whats happening there? The 'canes' must have loved him for his gifts in that area.
But he was only one of a fairly poor performance even considering the players out through injury.

Sorry, but I don't understand any of that criticism. JOC (James O'Connor) looked pretty good to me. Great long passing game and looked like a stand out quality player . As for fear, never saw one bit of it. Puts his body on the line and always assists the tackled player with clear outs.

Yeah gotta say I agree with Spook here, thought O'Connor was pretty classy. A swan amongst ducks. His ability to make ground in the tackle astounds me considering he is knee-high to a grasshopper.

 

[PhucNgo]

Nice to see a bit of that Queensland sympathy whispers.


22 points away at the Cake Tin is not a bad effort from an attacking respect, in fact 22 points can win you a lot of S14 games anywhere.

It's the amount of points scored by their opponents today that was the problem. It got to the stage in the 2nd half that you knew the Canes were going to score just about every time they were in the 22. Backline defence was very poor.

They were like babes in the woods and the Canes didn't have to do a whole lot to get their 7 tries.

We are too fond at talking about the attacking prowess of our players and not enough about their defensive qualities.

Attack? No problem - we will discuss how good players are at giving the golden ball, backing up, even if not needed and eluding opponents etc,etc to the cows come home..

As to defence - now and then we may mention a big hit and more often we talk about obvious missed tackles that take our eye, but we don't mention the ability of individual players to conform to a cohesive defensive plan for the game and for a particular movement.

Some of the Force backs, and probably a majority of them, have no clue.

With all the injuries they have had it is unlikely that they will win a lot of games this year, but I'll warrant they'll win a few more if they fix up their defence - especially the configuration of it.

Lee, Lee, Lee. And just who would the majority of those backs play for at club level?


BTW does anyone know whether the 'Canes #4 has been cited for the hit on O'Connor? I don't think that blatant forearms to the head should go unrewarded.