hatchie said:
One thing must be mentioned: the dominant force scrum. Once the laughing stock of Australian sides (let alone the S14), for a good part of this season it has been a relevation.
......I was pretty impressed with Whitaker's enthusiam last night.
.... the real recognition needs to go to LG's 'best schoolboy prop ever' Rat Pekahou Cowan. Dynamic around the field and now almost 23 his scrumming albilities have improved out of sight. .... Well spotted Lee
Oh yeah, and flyhalves....
I was one who denigrated the Force scrum before the season started, and how could I not? When one saw Gareth Hardy starting on a regular basis and good old AJ Whalley from my local Rats club trotting on from the bench and some times starting in games, you knew they weren't going to shift a lot of opponents. But the scrum is looking good now.
However they still aren't aggressive enough in the physical contests when the ball is on the ground.
As you indicate: Whittaker looks like a likely lad. He doesn't take a backward step, does he?
He played for NSW Twos in the schoolboy tournament 3 years ago. I can't remember his play to be honest - (nor that of another frontrower in the team, THP Daniel Palmer) but they both made the Oz Schools A team and both are playing in the S14 now.
Then out of the blue I read in the local paper, the Manly Daily, that the Force had picked up Whittaker, who lives in the area, for their Academy.
19 y.o.Whittaker will not be seasoned enough to be the no. 1 hooker next year though. If they can't find an established hooker from somewhere, Hardy would not be the worst as a stop gap. He played there for Sydney Uni for quite a spell when Digby Beaumont was injured a few years back and wasn't the worst thrower to lineout.
Luke Holmes has not set the world on fire; so send him back to Sydney - we could use him back at the Rats.
As for another Rat poached by the Force - "PK" Cowan - as I know him - yeah he was the best schoolboy prop that I ever saw and have mentioned it, but I also added the proviso that one shouldn't get too excited about him as a senior player until we knew what size he would get to be and how good his scrummaging technique became.
I always mention that about schoolboy forwards unless it's somebody like a David Pocock, and in the case of props you have to realise that you can't judge their scrummaging because of the schoolboy scrum laws that they play under in Oz.
He seems to be big enough now at 116kgs; so he must have been eating a few pork chops over there because I thought he was 105kgs a couple of years ago. He hasn't lost his schoolboy dash, ball playing skills and hard defence. I always thought that he should have cross trained as a hooker, but now it looks like he is going to make it as a LH prop.
As for flyhalves: they have to get a recognised guy from somewhere and give Scott Daruda a better shake from the bench next year. With the Rabbit available to sub for Giteau the Force haven't been using Daruda in matchday 22s this season.
He's over here playing 12 for Eastwood in the Sydney comp and will not be a happy camper.
On referees
The standard in the S14 this year has been crap and mostly because 4 Kiwi refs are missing from last year - Honiss, Bray, Deaker and Walsh - or has one of them been out for 2 years now?
In my eyes the best S14 refs are Lawrence and Joubert - but I like the new guy from NZ - Munroe.
PS
Leave PaarlBok alone.