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Force v Reds

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It's this time of the week, RUGBY TIME! Like usual I have decided to sit down and write about the only team I know enough about to write about, the Force. Oh, and of course whoever they play against during the week, which in this case is the Queensland Reds.

It's another Australian derby for the Force against a young Reds team hit by injuries but freshened up by a bye week. Hopefully this will be a firey one, with alot of the Force squad former Queenslanders, a bit of mongrel in both teams will go a long way till making this a good game. Queensland have alot of young talent in thier team with thier captain only being 22. (Horwill)

I will be interested to look at the battle between the flyhalfs and inside centres, and how well they work together. For the Force is Lachlan McKay playing flyhalf and Scott Staniforth playing inside centre. McKay played exceptional last week when he came on at flyhalf and he'd be hoping to do the same this week, he is really turning into a valuable player after his 2 year injury spell. Staniforth is extremely solid as always and will be looking to smash into the Reds backline and causing some havoc. As the two haven't worked together most of the year it is possible the combination will be a bit off and we can see some mistakes in that area of the pitch and I would think that the Reds would target that channel to run down and pressure. On the Reds team we have Quade Cooper and Berrick Barnes, two very exciting players with heaps of potential, if they play a good game, the Reds should look very dangerous indeed, and as they have been playing together most of the year they would by now be able to read each other well.

The Reds have a heavy and a skilled scrum but after quite a few matches against the South African teams the Force should be used to that, expect to see a few Force scrums being dominated by the Reds but all in all the Force managing to neutralise much of the threat as much as they can. The newspapers over in the west have identified the battle between number 8's to be crucial to tonight, Leroy Houston against Richard Brown. Leroy Houston has been playing some good rugby but let's be honest Richard Brown has been immense in most games this season. If the Reds stop him however probably the major attacking threat in the forwards will be eliminated which will let them be able to concentrating on playing rush defence against the Force backs, as we know that is basically the way to beat the Force.

That being said I expect the Force to win comfortably against the Reds, the Reds at the moment look a lot like the Reds last year at the moment, where we absolutely crunched them at Subiaco. Hopefully the Force have been looking at thier backline attack to put some spice into it, besides the Crusaders game despite all the talent it has been pretty bland rugby.

In the trial earlier this year James O'Connor came on late in the game and ran circles around the Reds, let's see if this much hyped youngster can do the same coming off the bench in this game.
 
10-9 after 20 minutes to the Reds. The Reds scored a try after about 2 minutes, it went the the TMO and the usual ref weaseling gave them the try, despite the grounding was not visible what so ever...

Schifofske has been yellow carded for cynical play, good game so far, the Force are attacking really good, lots of ****le as well.
 
Didn't really enjoy that, Force were very disappointing. :(
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First half was fine, the Reds gave away penalties when we had scoring opportunities exactly like the Tahs did the week before.

Second half the Reds locked it up and played an English style game, smashing us with thier forwards and making the game going into a bit of a quagmire for long periods of the games...keeping possession but not doing much with it...

O'Connor came on, did anyone see his attempted tackle, he hit his arm on the side of a Reds player in a pretend tackle....I used to do that (as a prop mind you) in open play when I couldn't be stuffed making a tackle, acting like I tried but to be honest it was very rubbish commitment.

Staniforth ended up playing flanker, this is the greatest moment since Lote player flanker in the 2003 World Cup!
 
Did anyone notice during this game that the ELV's good actually make rugby far more boring in some parts, because instead of getting a penalty, slotting it and re-starting a team can just sit in the oppositions 22 slowly rumbling up all game...
 
Second half the Reds locked it up and played an English style game, smashing us with thier forwards and making the game going into a bit of a quagmire for long periods of the games...keeping possession but not doing much with it...
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Thats pretty much been the game plan for most teams now facing the force.

Hammer us at the scrum and breakdown. Queensland counter rucking was good. The second half was all reds. U cant win games if dont have the ball. The 2nd half of the Force reminded me of the Reds at the beginning of the season.

I was ****** at the way the force played against the stormers. This time im more dissapointed that it seemed like many hardly put any effort into the game.



Pocock has had 2 bad games in a row. I think its time for Hodgson to start again. I would also like to see Fava out of the starting 15. I dont see us have much of a chance against the chiefs and brumbies. I would love to see sitileki timani get a start at 6 and get some super caps under his belt.



The best for Reds - Leroy Houston or a heap of other blokes who did well.

The best for Force - Ryan Cross or tai mcisaac.
 
I would love to see sitileki timani get a start at 6 and get some super caps under his belt.
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Timani has signed for one of the other franchises for next year, now use giving him exposure if we aren't going to be reaping the rewards...
 
I think the Force might've lost all hope of making the finals with that loss, plus they have the bye next week.

If the Brumbies win tonight and beat the Lions next week (very likely) they're going to shoot up way ahead of the Force.

I just wish the Crusaders had've taken care of the Chiefs. :angry:
 
Houston played really well and has thrown in his name into the hat for Wallaby contention. Lots of good No.8s around in Oz at the moment although the same cant be said for the front-row.
 

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