Round 10: Reds v Force- Saturday April 29 @ Suncorp 7:35pm

[liquor box]

Hergerty doesn't offer enough in offence. He needs to be off the bench. But then again prior offeres as much as hegerty does anyway. The ref tonight favoured the home side emensly but the force didn't look like scoring. What made it shocking was when hegerty went off for his knee the Reds player clearly knocks the ball on and no one said anything even after all the replays looking at the hegertys knee. The commentators didn't even mention it.

Why would you expect Hegarty to offer anything in offence?

He has a track record of being a no frills player who gets the job done but nothing more at every team he has played at. He is a good player, but hardly a match winner on individual performances.

 

[liquor box]

How the hell are the force even playing the Reds in Qld again. Would be nice to see the force play some games in WA

Didn't the Force agree to a home game in Melbourne?

 

[Equalizer]

How the hell are the force even playing the Reds in Qld again. Would be nice to see the force play some games in WA

Force have had 6 away to 3 home games including a 3 week NZ tour. Not the best scheduling.

 

[Ged]

How the hell are the force even playing the Reds in Qld again. Would be nice to see the force play some games in WA

wasn't the first game in melbourne at magic round?

 

[NCT]

It will be interesting if the Reds can make the finals. We have a hard draw for the rest of the season.

Tahs (H) Townsville
Chiefs (A)
Blues (H)
Highlanders (A)
Drua (A)

I can see 2 possible wins and can easily see 5 losses coming up. It will be an interesting 5 weeks

Can't see them beating Chiefs and Blues but Highlanders is winnable and Tahs aren't great. Drua in Fiji will be interesting.

 

[RugbyReg]

Got to say I was impressed with some of the play of Vunivalu. Just some of the more rugby nuance stuff around the ruck / tackle. Showed good awareness and discipline .

 

[HJ Nelson]

Photos from last night

Reds v Western Force

The Queensland Reds score a important 31-17 win over the Western Force at Suncorp Stadium tonight. The win sees the Reds stay in the Top 8, ahead of next week's crucial derby against the Waratahs in Townsville.Fraser McReight scored 2 tries for the Reds, and Bond Uni's George Blake scored a try...

www.tremainfocused.com

 

[liquor box]

Can't see them beating Chiefs and Blues but Highlanders is winnable and Tahs aren't great. Drua in Fiji will be interesting.

I think there is a chance against the Tahs and Drua, but dont know if we will beat a NZ team.

I dont think Townsville will help our chances against the Tahs and Drua at home will be very hard.

At least if we lose a few of the games we dont have to hear about whether the coach will be gone

 

[dru]

Much better discipline for the Reds, it's been a time coming but very good to see. Interestingly the Force dominated m run but had to because Reds dominated territory. This done off slightly fewer kicks in hand by the Reds.

Scrum held up much better than I anticipated - I suspect there were Force issues there but it's another stat I'll take. Ditto the line-out which I still think looks to me like it needs improvement but just of wins, even wins against the throw the line out more than did it's job.

Tizzano with a massive 21 tackles for none missed (1 turnover). Flook and Stewart matching each other in the back line with 14 tackles each.

Kibirige with an enormous 121 run m. The most run m in the Reds? Tate with 68 m.

 

[Adam84]

Besides the work of the forwards in retaining the ball. It was the kicking game of Lynagh, Creighton and Campbell that won that match, they won the kicking dual for territory. Reds weren't interested in using the backs as much as the Force were.

 

[Ignoto]

Unsure if anyone else heard on the ground, but, that was one of the more vocal matches I've heard from the players in defence.

Don't think I've heard that much chatter from the team in the last couple of years.

Biggest thing that stood out was, the Force weren't contesting the breakdown yet we still kept trying to do one off passes from the ruck. Because the ball wasn't fast enough, the force could easily reload in defence and in a lot of times, identify where the ball was going.

It wasn't until late in the second half with Peni coming on did we see some pick and drives which seemed to pick up easy yards.

 

[The Nomad]

Not sure what was going on with Kalani Thomas last night, but didn’t look happy. Seemed disinterested in the game when riding the pine and his body language and head shaking at the end of the game appeared odd. Reminded me of a petulant teenager not getting his way.

 

[Shiggins]

Why would you expect Hegarty to offer anything in offence?

He has a track record of being a no frills player who gets the job done but nothing more at every team he has played at. He is a good player, but hardly a match winner on individual performances.

I didn't say I expect him to offer anything in defence.

 

[Shiggins]

Force have had 6 away to 3 home games including a 3 week NZ tour. Not the best scheduling.

Absolute joke.

 

[Shiggins]

wasn't the first game in melbourne at magic round?

Yeh, so the second game should be in perth.

 

[Shiggins]

Much better discipline for the Reds, it's been a time coming but very good to see. Interestingly the Force dominated m run but had to because Reds dominated territory. This done off slightly fewer kicks in hand by the Reds.

Scrum held up much better than I anticipated - I suspect there were Force issues there but it's another stat I'll take. Ditto the line-out which I still think looks to me like it needs improvement but just of wins, even wins against the throw the line out more than did it's job.

Tizzano with a massive 21 tackles for none missed (1 turnover). Flook and Stewart matching each other in the back line with 14 tackles each.

Kibirige with an enormous 121 run m. The most run m in the Reds? Tate with 68 m.

Tizzano is a good addition. Gusty back rower. Force are missing there starting props which didn't help the scrums.

 

[liquor box]

Yeh, so the second game should be in perth.

I think Magic Round pays the home team to play in Melbourne, if the Force wanted to play the Reds in Perth then they should have refused to play their home game in Melbourne.

I would be upset if the Reds gave away a home game too, but it is a choice that the Force made, and I would imagine were compensated for.

 

[ForceFan]

Force have had 6 away to 3 home games including a 3 week NZ tour. Not the best scheduling.

That's because HBF was unavailable due to the upgrade for the Womens Soccer WC.
It's why 3 games in a row in NZ and going back to play the Crusaders.
Blame Events West and not SRP (Super Rugby Pacific).

 

[ForceFan]

No excuses - just trying to presents the facts.

Everyone seemed to acknowledge at the start of the season that the WF would only be as good as the starting XV as it had a young squad (av age <25yo) and lacking in depth.
By the starting whistle against the Reds the WF had >30% of the initially named player group for 2023 on the recovery list including 3 Wallabies + 1 Puma + 1 AB (who returned from retirement to help out).
Yes, I know that ALL Super Rugby teams have injuries......

The Waratahs had 12 Wallabies in its XXXIII. I am unsure how many Wallabies were in the Reds.

I'm enjoying seeing the likes of Marley Pearce (19yo), Siosifa Amone (21), George Poolman (21), Jeremy Williams (22), Ollie Callan (22), Jackson Pugh (23), Felix Kalapu (23) and Tim Anstee (25 but 7s convert) getting the chance of more game time in Super Rugby. And others such as Carlo Tizzano (23) return and Charlie Hancock (24) get his 1st Super Rugby cap. Tom Horton (25) has done a great job as a late entry into the squad.
It's also encouraging to see that the WF Academy has 21 players including 13 local lads.
5 from the Academy/recent Academy were recently picked in the Young Wallabies squad.
These are all signs that the WF is building well for the future.
I like the game that the WF is playing but discipline, skill level and consistency are all signs of experience.
Some experienced rugby experts have said that it takes at least 3 years in a professional program to develop a player to play consistently at Super Rugby level.

It didn't help my enjoyment of the game to have young Reuben Keane reffing.
Reuben is in his first year of Super Rugby after progressing through the 7s program (including Com Games).
I reckon he has lots of potential but was often confused by his inconsistency at scrums and at the breakdown esp lying on the wrong side of the ruck, hair trigger on some occasions and no call on others - even when the ball had been clearly won by the defensive team.
It was good to see him call some off-sides and the obvious obstructions.
Not so good when he didn't call players being tackled without the ball or being cleaned out when they weren't connected to the ruck.
Is it 2 or 3 times the It's the 1st time that the WF has had Reuben in 9 games?
The WF had Angus G for 15 of his first 20 Super Rugby games.
The problem with the WF being low on the ladder is that we get the emerging refs a bit more than others.
There is one sure way to fix that!

 

[qwerty51]

Referee variance should even out though. It's not as if it's Jonathon Kaplan refereeing the Tahs.