Western Force 2020

[ForceFan]

Force legend Cowan relishing emotional return
July 22, 2020


Having played his entire Super Rugby career with the Western Force between 2006-2017, earning 130 caps along the way, Pek Cowan is understandably full of emotion upon re-joining the club.

The 34-year-old prop, who has 10 Wallabies caps to his name, has returned west after spending the last few seasons in Japan’s Top League with the Shimizu Blue Sharks.

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[ForceFan]

Ongoing great support for rugby from the West Australian.
Not bad for a city with 2 AFL teams and a CV19 hub for AFL.

 

[ForceFan]

Captain's Call: George Gregan and Ian Prior

Two class acts having a chat..........

 

[Shiggins]

Man it's frustrating watching this stuff. The last 3 years we have taken the East's crap and trained them into decent players and then they went back. Then next minute we are back in and missing all the players we developed.

We can't buy any luck in these games. The 50 22 rule has killed us.

I don't know why we bother playing in the comp. Grr is better to watch from an entertainment aspect anyway and we have had no chance to recruit any wallaby class players.

 

[Forceright]

Man it's frustrating watching this stuff. The last 3 years we have taken the East's crap and trained them into decent players and then they went back. Then next minute we are back in and missing all the players we developed.

We can't buy any luck in these games. The 50 22 rule has killed us.

I don't know why we bother playing in the comp. Grr is better to watch from an entertainment aspect anyway and we have had no chance to recruit any wallaby class players.

Exactly! Nothing’s changed-same old crap! Have seen the Force playing the most entertaining rugby of the teams and are being brutally penalised every game. Seems Eastern States prefer the Tahs/Rebs style - what a joke! I doubt Twiggy will want to bother being involved any further with RA if this is the ongoing attitude to the Force being any part of possible comp. much prefer GRR without the RA politics & enjoying running rugby, and most likely involving NZ rugby.

 

[Adam84]

Exactly! Nothing’s changed-same old crap! Have seen the Force playing the most entertaining rugby of the teams and are being brutally penalised every game. Seems Eastern States prefer the Tahs/Rebs style - what a joke! I doubt Twiggy will want to bother being involved any further with RA if this is the ongoing attitude to the Force being any part of possible comp. much prefer GRR without the RA politics & enjoying running rugby, and most likely involving NZ rugby.

no one likes a sore loser, which is how this read...

there is no eastern state conspiracy to penalise the Force out of the competition, they were always going to struggle coming back and playing against Super Rugby teams, they're going better then I thought they would.

 

[Boof1050]

Exactly! Nothing’s changed-same old crap! Have seen the Force playing the most entertaining rugby of the teams and are being brutally penalised every game. Seems Eastern States prefer the Tahs/Rebs style - what a joke! I doubt Twiggy will want to bother being involved any further with RA if this is the ongoing attitude to the Force being any part of possible comp. much prefer GRR without the RA politics & enjoying running rugby, and most likely involving NZ rugby.

WTF??
How can you blame the ref, east coast bias?
We was owned by a farken good team pure and simple!!

 

[Slim 293]

Man it's frustrating watching this stuff. The last 3 years we have taken the East's crap and trained them into decent players and then they went back. Then next minute we are back in and missing all the players we developed.

We can't buy any luck in these games. The 50 22 rule has killed us.

I don't know why we bother playing in the comp. Grr is better to watch from an entertainment aspect anyway and we have had no chance to recruit any wallaby class players.

Exactly! Nothing’s changed-same old crap! Have seen the Force playing the most entertaining rugby of the teams and are being brutally penalised every game. Seems Eastern States prefer the Tahs/Rebs style - what a joke! I doubt Twiggy will want to bother being involved any further with RA if this is the ongoing attitude to the Force being any part of possible comp. much prefer GRR without the RA politics & enjoying running rugby, and most likely involving NZ rugby.

 

[Rugbynutter39]

Surprised by this reaction - brumbies were not the brumbies of last week and were on fire and showed why they were favourites for this competition. By the way I was at the game and as a neutral was cheering on the force for the entire match!

Force had too many handling errors and turnovers which is what hurt them which reflected brumbies pressure defence and conditions as lightly raining throughout the match.

Force vs reds was one of best games of rugby seen for many a season and to me this game showed to the Force what they need to get in order to be a top pro rugby side. I am more glass full on this as in limited time Force showed very well coached and got a lot of good players. But some new combinations need to gel and think the Force really missed Prior as well as Holmes (as force scrum got completely dominated in second half).

It was a good game of rugby and force in first half despite down 12-0 were really in it but could not unlike brumbies convert opportunities when pressuring brumbies line with too much turnover ball and impact of brumbies pressure defence.

Force will learn from this and will continue to improve and with their recruitment and development programs will no doubt be one of the top pro rugby sides in years to come.

I doubt many force fans would not rather be playing HK or Malaysian sides vs Brumbies or NZ sides and like me glad to have Force back playing oz teams.

 

[rugboy]

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what the Force had achieved so far. With the exception of last night they have been in the contest of each of their games for the entire match. They are no doubt a couple of players short in areas, depth is also an issue. That said coming off a longer preparation with a chance to further recruit they could be right in the mix. I don’t see how heading back to GRR and potentially adding NZ teams is going to make for a more pleasing result.

 

[RugbyReg]

Exactly! Nothing’s changed-same old crap! Have seen the Force playing the most entertaining rugby of the teams and are being brutally penalised every game. Seems Eastern States prefer the Tahs/Rebs style - what a joke! I doubt Twiggy will want to bother being involved any further with RA if this is the ongoing attitude to the Force being any part of possible comp. much prefer GRR without the RA politics & enjoying running rugby, and most likely involving NZ rugby.

The Force have been a wonderful inclusion to this competition. I know they've surpassed my expectations already. They are a very well drilled team, with very good coaching, and the players all seem like quality people.

The fans, on the other hand, are 85% bitter

 

[dru]

Man it's frustrating watching this stuff. The last 3 years we have taken the East's crap and trained them into decent players and then they went back. Then next minute we are back in and missing all the players we developed.

We can't buy any luck in these games. The 50 22 rule has killed us.

I don't know why we bother playing in the comp. Grr is better to watch from an entertainment aspect anyway and we have had no chance to recruit any wallaby class players.

Welcome back, Shiggins. You have been missed.

 

[Boof1050]

The Force have been a wonderful inclusion to this competition. I know they've surpassed my expectations already. They are a very well drilled team, with very good coaching, and the players all seem like quality people.

The fans, on the other hand, are 85% bitter

No they're not Reg. We're super happy that we have a great financial leg up and no pressure to perform to hold onto our position in the Super Comp.

 

[Brumby Runner]

The Force have been a wonderful inclusion to this competition. I know they've surpassed my expectations already. They are a very well drilled team, with very good coaching, and the players all seem like quality people.

The fans, on the other hand, are 85% bitter

West coast bitter. Best drunk 10 years old.

 

[Shiggins]

Welcome back, Shiggins. You have been missed.

Haha thanks. I'm not blaming the ref at all. The game against the tahs the 50 22s that were definately not 50 22s but we played the last 20 min terribly giving away penalties and handling errors. The Reds game we dropped away at the end as well but should of won with some smart rugby in the last 10 min.

It's just frustrating that we have developed these players like Deegan and fines over the last 3 years and they had to leave to have a better chance for wallaby selection but now we are back.

The force are doing very well considering they have zero Wallabies in their team. Also no one mentions the fact we are playing so far from home. Maybe I missed it last night but nothing was said. Wasn't that our home game ? Hahaha. Also the fact we hadn't played any rugby since 2019 unlike the super rugby teams. I'm proud of the squad but the new rules are terrible and we have been unlucky with them. Will be good next year when they get rid of them.

 

[Shiggins]

The Force have been a wonderful inclusion to this competition. I know they've surpassed my expectations already. They are a very well drilled team, with very good coaching, and the players all seem like quality people.

The fans, on the other hand, are 85% bitter

Reg not bitter at all. We don't need super rugby or whatever it is to survive. Super rugby is dead, you can't argue that. The new comp next year could be great and it might be worth being a part of but the old super rugby wasn't worth being in. GRR was way more entertaining (not just because we won haha). The commentary is way better, the rugby is faster, the rules are better.
RugbyWA run the best rugby administration in the country. The east could learn a heap about how to interact with the community from RWA. Twiggy just pumped 5 million into grass roots for WA.

I do enjoy watching the boys back playing against the tradition professional rugby teams of Aus though and I hope it can continue under better circumstances.

 

[Boof1050]

Nicely said Shiggins!
I don't mind blaming the ref when they've had a barry but last night we got found out. It's great also to see Ferris, Stowers and Stander getting seriously noticed.
Not easy for the lads playing and being away from home and families. But we're not the only professional team in australia doing that at the moment.

 

[LearningCurve]

Force are looking good, having a lot of new players coming in probably makes things a bit difficult but at the same time guys like Lance and Holmes bring a lot of experience. I was impressed how well they started the game against the Reds, just couldn't last the whole game - I thought that the Force were going to win for a while. I think most rugby supporters want the Force to be a good strong team and to give the opportunity to more players to shine.

 

[Shiggins]

Yeh guys. We are off the pace but it's expected and like the east coast guys have said we are much better than expected. If we are in this thing next year with a few great signings, eome.home games and our local guys we could be a very competitive team

 

[ForceFan]

West coast bitter. Best drunk 10 years old.

I prefer Toohey's Old.