An improving home team is playing an unbeaten side of visitors who just happen to have won the Super Rugby title twice in a row.
Can the home side get the win for the most faithful fans in Australia—or will they be brought back to cruel reality?
The Force will not be fazed by the arrival of the Super Rugby champions. The Chiefs are in cracking form but the men from the west have been giant-killers before and will run onto “Force Field” with the form of first-ever consecutive bonus-point victories.
The first win was earned in a magic half hour at the start of their Round 4 game against the Rebels and the second was from a gutsy finish against the Highlanders in Round 5—holding onto a lead with only 13 men on the park for the last eight minutes.
There were signs of an improvement in form in the second half against the Brumbies in Round 3, their second game of the season, but few outside the team expected the turnaround that happened.
The Chiefs are one of only two unbeaten teams in the competition and they had their best win of their three against the Stormers last week. They improved their attacking potency with just-in-time offloads to get the ball wide and breach the vaunted defence of the South Africans with five tries.
The teams
The Force will regret the banning of no. 8 Ben McCalman because he is in the form of his life. It will be a heavy blow for the impressive Force backrow because he is the only true line-bender in the group.
Matt Hodgson, also, has hardly ever played better, and Angus Cottrell is looking like a Hodgson clone.
The second row is performing also. Sam Wykes will not dominate physically but he is playing excited like a second Honey Badger in his scrapping tight work, and South African import Wilhelm Steenkamp has been influential when the Force maul—an attribute from his days with three South African rugby franchises.
And the lineout is working a treat with Nathan Charles throwing and Cottrell and Wykes catching.
Hugh McMeniman returns from injury and plays on the blindside flank; Cottrell moves to McCalman’s spot at no.8—otherwise the matchday 23 is unchanged.
The Chiefs ran around the big, slow Stormers last week with a high-tempo game, and it won’t be much different against the Force. The locals will have to realign their defence quickly if the Chiefs turn over Force ball, and they will have to push the envelope and slow the Chiefs down at the breakdown.
The visitors have been rocked by the ailments of key players but their impressive depth should serve them well.
Centres Charlie Ngatai (calf) and Robbie Fruean (arrhythmia), plus sensational new winger James Lowe (medial ligament), will all be absent for over a month and will miss the tour to Perth and the RSA.
Asaeli Tikoirotuma comes off the bench for Lowe, who displaced him last week, Tim Nanai-Williams wears Ngatai’s 13 jersey and his wing spot is taken by Mils Muliaina, who was rested for the Stormers’ game.
It will be a big night for reserve midfielder Anton Lienert-Brown if he gets on the park because he is only 18 years old.
In his first game for the season openside flanker Sam Cane returns from injury to start, moving Tanerau Latimer to the bench, and lock Mike Fitzgerald replaces Matt Symons in the starting team.
Prediction
The Force haven’t finished better that twelfth in the last four seasons and one fears a relapse. They have started well in their last two games and will have to do the same against the Chiefs.
They will have to finish well also, without having to hold on, because the Chiefs can run any team down, as they did against the Crusaders in their first game of the season.
The Force had all Aussie rugby fans supporting them last week in their brave win and will be hoping that they get their first three-peat since 2007.
But, apart from telling everybody that they did a recount of Matt Hodgson’s Super games and it’s actually his 100th game on Saturday night, I can’t see them beating the lethal Super Rugby champions — Chiefs by 10
Team Lists
[one_half last=”no”]Western Force
1. Pek Cowan
2. Nathan Charles
3. Kieran Longbottom
4. Sam Wykes
5. Wilhelm Steenkamp
6. Hugh McMeniman
7. Matt Hodgson (c)
8. Angus Cottrell
9. Alby Mathewson
10. Sias Ebersohn
11. Nick Cummins
12. Kyle Godwin
13. Junior Rasolea
14. Luke Morahan
15. Jayden Hayward
Reserves
16. Heath Tessmann
17. Tetera Faulkner
18. Ollie Hoskins
19. Adam Coleman
20. Brynard Stander
21. Ian Prior
22. Zack Holmes
23. Marcel Brache[/one_half]
[one_half last=”yes”]Chiefs
1. Jamie Mackintosh
2. Mahonri Schwalger
3. Ben Tameifuna
4. Michael Fitzgerald
5. Brodie Retallick
6. Liam Messam
7. Sam Cane
8. Liam Squire
9. Tawera Kerr-Barlow
10. Aaron Cruden (c)
11. Asaeli Tikoirotuma
12. Tom Marshall
13. Tim Nanai-Williams
14. Mils Muliaina
15. Gareth Anscombe
Reserves
16. Rhys Marshall
17. Pauliasi Manu
18. Josh Hohneck
19. Kane Thompson
20. Tanerau Latimer
21. Augustine Pulu
22. Andrew Horrell
23. Anton Lienert-Brown
[/one_half]
Date: 22 March, 2014
Location: nib Stadium (Perth)
Kick off: 7:00 pm (local time) 10:00 pm (AEDT)
Referee: Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Angus Gardner (Australia), Will Houston (Australia)
Television match official: Steve Leszczynski (Australia)
