The Force went down to the Crusaders in Christchurch last night in a fairly scrappy affair.
The Match
It was always going to be a tough ask for the Force, with a big travel schedule (three games in three countries in 14 days), a mounting injury toll and an away game against of the competitions better teams. Still, that’s the nature of a competition like this and any points from the match would be worth their weight in gold come the pointy end of the season.
In the early going the Force were on the back foot and found it difficult to get out of their half. Had the Crusaders been more accurate they might have been a couple of tries up within fifteen metres. There were a number of missed tackles and charge downs, but equally there was dropped ball and a lack of finishing from the home side.
The pressure had to tell eventually and after a couple of penalties, the Crusaders scored through McNicholl in the corner. The lead up play featured several phases with half breaks before a good ball to the Crusaders outside back had him crashing over. At this point it was 13-0 and the visitors were up against it.
The task didn’t seem to get any easier in the minutes following and if a penalty hadn’t been conceded by the Crusaders for an illegal clean out they would have been further behind. The rest of the half seemed like wave after wave of Crusaders attack and field position dominance, but surprisingly it was “only” a thirteen point lead to them at oranges (this off the back of 85% of territory).
The second half saw the Crusaders pick up where they left off, but the Force showed a lot more attacking intent and scored a try in their first real foray into the home sides 22. At that stage they were still a rough sort of chance to get back into the game. The next ten to fifteen minutes of the game seemed to degenerate into a kickathon. The Force were trying to some extent to get the ball over the gain line, but were unable to get any penetration whatsoever. The desire was there and they continued to work hard but they got very little reward in this period or indeed the game in general.
The last two scores of the game came from penalty tries. The first one stemmed from Sam Wykes being binned for a maul infringement and the ensuing catch and drive from a lineout saw Mike Fraser run under the sticks. Not surprising really, given the lead up play. The second came right near the end from a scrum infringement. The Force were playing with seven in the pack by that stage and understandably under the pump in the set piece.The Crusaders put on a brutal eight man shove and won a tight head. Wykes came back on for effectively the last play of the game and the home side did the same again (and again). The pressure told in the end and the referee awarded another try.
For the Force it was a fairly dirty night and they would have would have been pretty disappointed about coming away with nothing, but I think many of us watching would have had a sense of foreboding about this game. The injury list is now at a critical level, with Gus Cotterell going down with what looked like a broken ankle. The late season break can’t come soon enough, frankly, and the bright side is there are a few blokes who can either rest up and get well and a few others who are a chance to make it back into the squad after some rehab. The team would certainly look a lot better with the likes of Godwin, Matthewson, Rasolea, MMM (maybe) and a couple of others back in the mix.
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The Game Changer
There wasn’t one really
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The G&GR MotM
Matt Hodgson again, need I say more? He played a lone hand out there.
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Wallaby watch
Hodgson and Cummins confirmed to me that they should be in the Wallaby 23 next weekend [/one_third]
The Details
Crsuaders: 30 (McNicholl, Penalty 2 tries; Slade 3 cons; Slade 3 pen) defeated Force: 7 (Haylett-Petty try; Ebersohn conv)
Yellow cards: Sam Wykes
Refereee: Mike Fraser
