Force has lots of ball but no reward - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Force has lots of ball but no reward

By Tim Clarke 18/02/2006 08:00:07 PM Comments (0)

The Hurricanes barely had the ball but still held out a determined Western Force 29-5 to win their Super 14 rugby match at New Plymouth.

Brave Force resistance could not prevent the competition newcomers from losing its second successive Super 14 game.

A disastrous start by the Force, which saw it trail 14-0 after just six minutes, was followed by long periods of territorial dominance by John Mitchell's men.

But the Perth-based side was unable to turn their possession into points, and were taught a first-half lesson in finishing by the Hurricanes.

With fullback Isaia Toeava irresistible, the Hurricanes rattled up three first half tries, with Andrew Hore, Lome Fa'atau, Jason Eaton all crossing.

But the home side had to resist intense and continued pressure from the Australian new boys after halftime.

The Force again showed they would be no competition easybeats, and scored a deserved consolation try late through Scott Staniforth.

With a rejigged backline, forced by injuries to Lachlan MacKay and Josh Graham, the Force gave a debut to former Taranaki five-eighth Brock James on familiar ground.

Scrum half Matt Henjak was hoping to redeem himself after a below par performance against George Gregan last week.

But his first minute grubber kick in his own 22 was charged down, and put the Force under immediate pressure.

That pressure was turned into points almost straight away, when a free kick at a scrum led to Hurricanes hooker Hore barrelling over.

The Hurricanes' whirlwind start continued in the sixth minute with another Force turnover ruthlessly returned from his own half by Fa'atau.

But the score came at a high price, with All Black Conrad Smith suffering a suspected broken leg in the build up.

Despite the nightmare start, the Force continually gave up penalty points in favour of set pieces, but the increased territory and possession statistics did nothing to improve the error rate.

Even the early reintroduction of Scott Fava, benched after failing an intra-club alcohol breath test, could not prevent another mistake at a line out, which led to second rower Eaton plummeting over.

The loss of Junior Pelesasa in the Force midfield depleted their stocks further, but the spirit in the side was always evident.

After Gareth Hardy was denied a try by the video referee, the Hurricanes' defence was called on again to prevent apprentice Haig Sare going over and Nathan Sharpe was then denied a touchdown by a desperate Rodney So'oialo tackle.

With the second stanza looking likely to be scoreless, the Hurricanes finally broke the Force shackles with Jerry Collins' power enabling Eaton to secure a bonus point for the New Zealanders.

But Staniforth had the last say, touching down after James' neat through kick.

Brought to you by AAP AAP © 2024 AAP

0 Comments about this article

Post a comment about this article

Please sign in to leave a comment.
Becoming a member is free and easy, sign up here.

« All sports news