PREVIEW: Force v Hurricanes – The Honey Badger v The Snake

It’s March, it’s stinking hot, therefore it must be time for some rugby in Perth. Both of the teams featuring on Friday night are either coming off or are still on road trips. For the home team, they’ve come up empty in their visits to Canberra and Brisbane and will feel like both games were winnable, particularly the one against the Brumbies. It’s already starting to feel a bit like “deja vu all over again” for the Force faithful, seeing their team put up a brave fight but not getting the chocolates for the umpteenth time.

For the Hurricanes, things look a bit better after snatching a win against an improved Lions team last week in Jo’burg. With that said, they don’t look to be of the same standard as the other Kiwi teams and things are likely to get tougher for them when they start playing their local derbies.

So to the game tomorrow night: it will be the old cliche of a match between two contrasting styles. The Force have built a very serviceable forward pack after in previous years being branded a bit soft in that area. The set pieces are  are solid and the squad boasts one of the competitions stand out back rows. They’ll not lack for access to the pill. The big criticism (mostly warranted) is that when you look in the midfield there isn’t as much to strike fear in the hearts of opposition coaches. Gone are the days when the Force had a myriad of attacking options like Giteau, O’Connor and Mitchell to throw at defences. Of course the problem back then wasn’t the ability to score tries, they got bags of them, but the ability of the pack to front up against quality opposition. With the departure of those superstars, there is an obvious rebuilding phase being undertaken. The first couple of weeks have been a little difficult, with the outside backs like Cummins (a.k.a The Honey Badger) and Nalanga (the big overseas recruit for 2012) being somewhat starved of the ball. The priority has to be to get the ball to these class players as quickly and efficiently as possible, while avoiding going sideways.

The Canes on the other hand, have an up tempo, ball running style that when it comes off is pretty damn attractive to watch. There were times last week against the Lions when they played some really nice footy. Their handling in attack and option taking were overall very good and they have considerable class out in the backline, especially in the form of Conrad Smith (a.k.a. Snake), who has done nothing but confirm my view that he’s one of the premier, if not THE best, outside centre in world rugby. They also have this new kiddie Beauden Barrett, who looks a very decent prospect indeed, especially his passing game. And of course they have Cory Jane too, a very clever and fast outside back. Their problem is the opposite of the Force: their pack looks suspect in the tight stuff. Before going to uncontested scrums last week, I thought the Lions were getting right on top of them and it’s a pity they weren’t able to field a fit front row for the whole game. The Canes also lack a strong line out option other than Eaton, who I thought had a storming game last weekend.

So the tactics for both teams would appear to be pretty easy, in theory at least. For the Force, keep it tight, play field position (Stannard has a good boot), run a narrow channel around the fringes of the ruck and try to punch holes in close. That will then hopefully get the defence backpedalling so the halves can bring the outside backs into play. There is also, of course, the usual Force methodology of putting immense pressure on at breakdown. Pocock and Hodgson were fantastic last weekend and caused the Reds some real headaches in the collisions. They have every prospect to do it again this week.

For the Canes, quick ball from the set pieces and get the pill out wide as rapidly as possible. They’ll also want to avoid contact a bit, especially a brawl at the breakdown, because Vito and Eaton will be fighting a lone hand to a degree. The idea will be to try and run the Force defence off their feet, a sound strategy when you look at the undoubted attacking fire power they have.

Teams

Western Force: 15 Cameron Shepherd, 14 Nick Cummins, 13 Patrick Dellit, 12 Rory Sidey, 11 Napolioni Nalaga, 10 James Stannard, 9 Brett Sheehan, 8 Matt Hodgson, 7 David Pocock (c), 6 Richard Brown, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Salesi Ma’afu, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Kieran Longbottom.
Replacements: 16 Ben Whittaker, 17 Pek Cowan, 18 Sam Wykes, 19 Angus Cottrell, 20 Justin Turner, 21 Ben Seymour, 22 Alfie Mafi.

Hurricanes: 15 Andre Taylor, 14 Cory Jane, 13 Conrad Smith (c), 12 Tim Bateman, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Victor Vito, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Faifili Levave, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Ben May.
Replacements: 16 Motu Matu’u, 17 Michael Bent, 18 James Broadhurst, 19 Brad Shields, 20 Chris Eaton, 21 Daniel Kirkpatrick, 22 Charlie Ngatai.

Details

Date: Friday, 9 March
Venue: nib Stadium, Perth
Kick-off: 19:05 WST
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Andrew Lees (Australia), Simon Moore (Australia)
Television match official: Matt Goddard (Australia)

Game Breaker

There are two, one from each side: Pocock and Smith. The Force flanker is right at the top of his game and was a serial pest last week. He’s also developed a pretty decent running and linking game to go with it (witness his try last weekend). He won’t be alone either, as the Force have plenty of backup there. He’ll try and nullify the quick ball and steal some of his own.

For the Canes, Conrad Smith will be key. It’s not necessarily the pace, attacking lines, distribution skills or any of that stuff that makes him so valuable: it’s his footy intelligence. He instinctively knows which option to take and where to be at the right moment. To paraphrase that great Ice Hockey player, Wayne Gretsky, he runs not to where the ball is, but where it will be. He also does a lot of the little things, like spot tackling and clean out at the break down, which separates him from his peers.

Fearless Prediction

This is going to be tight. Certainly the Force won’t score eight tries, as the team is just not built around that kind of game plan at the moment and neither will the Canes deliver death by a thousand cuts through set piece penalties. I think the Force can win this and they’ll mainly do it by constant pressure and harassment of the Canes in defence and by playing the game out of their own half.

Force by 5.