Hurricanes Vs Force

[Haj]

Western Force 27 (20)TriesNick Cummins (2)Scott StaniforthRyan CrossHurricanes 28 (13)TriesZac GuildfordDavid SmithCorey JaneGoalsMatt Giteau (1pg 2c)GoalsWilliam Ripia (3pg 2c)

Hurricanes come from behind to beat Western Force on the full-time siren
By Justin Chadwick
[/i]April 10, 2009 Western Force's finals hopes are all but over after suffering a heartbreaking 28-27 last-second Super 14 loss to the Hurricanes at Subiaco Oval on Friday night.

The Force surged to a 27-13 lead in the 43rd minute courtesy of a double from winger Nick Cummins and tries to Ryan Cross and Scott Staniforth.

But the Hurricanes hit back with a vengeance in the final 20 minutes, with a penalty from fly half Willie Ripia and a 77th-minute try from David Smith closing the gap to four points.

Hurricanes fullback Cory Jane sunk the hearts of the 20,737 crowd when he stepped inside Nathan Sharpe and shook off Drew Mitchell to touch down in the corner after the full-time siren.

The loss leaves the Force five points adrift of the top four, a gap that will widen ahead of next week's clash with New South Wales Waratahs in Sydney.

"Sometimes you don't have a choice of how to lose," Force coach John Mitchell said after the match.

"I guess it hurts when it goes from a five-pointer to a two-pointer, but in saying that you've got to go the full 80 and we probably had to sustain too much pressure there towards the end.

"It's just unfortunate the game had to finish in those circumstances - I guess it will test the character of the group.

"That's the tough realities of sport, you have to accept adversity in certain situations."

The Hurricanes surged into fourth spot courtesy of their fifth win of the season, much to the delight of coach Colin Cooper.

"I thought the first half was all the Force, they beat us out wide, they pushed us too much," Cooper said.

"They make me proud really, that's why I coach them."

It was the Hurricanes who opened the scoring through Ripia's fifth-minute penalty.

Sharpe was denied a try in the 19th minute when video referee Julian Pritchard deemed the Force skipper had knocked on as he rolled over the tryline but the home side were soon on the board through Cummins, who finished off a brilliant set-piece move from the scrum.

A second Ripia penalty closed the margin to 7-6 in the 29th minute but a try to Staniforth in the 30th minute and Cummins' second in the 36th minute saw the Force skip away to a 17-6 lead.

But a knock-on from Force flanker David Pocock at the restart gave the Hurricanes great field position, with a break from centre Ma'a Nonu setting up Zac Guildford for the visitors' first on the stroke of half-time.

The first half had seen four tries scored but there was more drama to come, with Hurricanes prop Neemia Tialata sin-binned after the half-time hooter for holding back support runner Junior Pelesasa just as Mitchell made a mid-field break.

Matt Giteau's penalty made it 20-13 at the interval and just three minutes after the break the Force had their four-try bonus point when Cross slipped through a sleeping Hurricanes defence, with Giteau's conversion making it 27-13.

The Hurricanes finally clicked into gear but it appeared the Force had done enough, still leading 27-16 with just four minutes remaining.

But tries to Smith and Jane brought the Force's top-four hopes crashing to earth, with the two bonus points little consolation to the devastated home side.



AAP

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,2...5002381,00.html

 

[Haj]

Im pretty shattered by what happened last night.
Credit to the Hurricanes who really stepped up in the last 15 minutes.
I hope John Mitchell went off in the changerooms last night..............but probably wont seeing as the players are such a sensitive lot. Most of our replacements were dreadful when they came on and even tho drew mitchell isnt soley responsible he seemed to drop off 2 try saving tackles. Force made a tactical error in my mind in the end by taking scrum in their territory instead of kicking for touch at the other end. The pack had done well most game but with Cowan and McIsaac replaced our scrummaging advantage went with em.
In my mind the dissallowed try looked good to me. Didnt look like a knock on but im pretty biased.
There goes our season. I hope the Brumbies or Waratahs take it home cos atm i really wanna see an ozzie team win it this year.

 

[Wally]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Haj @ Apr 11 2009, 01:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Hurricanes fullback Cory Jane sunk the hearts of the 20,737 crowd when he stepped inside Nathan Sharpe and shook off Drew Mitchell to touch down in the corner after the full-time siren.[/b]

Lolocaust.

 

[kaino1990]

great game to watch, although i still get worked up on bad refereeing and this game was a horrible game by dickinson i thought, only at the end of the game did he start to show some leniency to the hurricanes and even went overboard by not calling a few forward passes that probably cost the force the game. That last gutsy effort by the hurricanes in the final 15 minutes was outstanding, pooor force, Even though i was cheering the hurricanes, you gotta feel some sort of sympathy to them, they are a great team to watch... DAVID POCOCK, almost single handedly stopped the hurricanes from coming back, he played terrific, turned a few crucial balls over at times and his defence again was outstanding. lols at cory janes try though \m/ doing those ones hahaha

 

[Nickdnz]

I admit that throughout the game I cursed the Hurricanes. I thought the number of errors the Hurricanes made especially knock on's made me lose compliete faith in them. Being a long time supporter the end result made me soooo happy. Considering the number of errors throughout the game, the final five minutes there was so much pressure that a knock on in over time seemed so likley however they managed to pull through and I was so excited. David Smith...how good was he. Over all it has reinstalled my faith. Bad luck to Western Force as they are a quality team however I'm still pleased we won.

I don't know if I would say the ref was too linient however I think that it could have gone either way and the Hurricanesgot very lucky.

 

[kaino1990]

yeah the hurricanes played terrible in the first half...or the force played brilliantly either way, i felt the referee slowed the hurricanes comeback in the second half with a few bad calls(matthewsons quick tap where he broke through and i think matthewson again when staniforth fell awkwardly, he blew the whistle when he had gone through the damn hole), some of the breakdown refereeing was hopeless but i guess all the referees are having problems with it. it was bad luck for the force though they should of won, my brother and mum are big hurricanes fans and even my father, they were complaining the whole game LOL so i know what you mean

 

[BLR]

Gutted, lucky I am so isolated at the moment that I can't watch these games.

 

[esoj]

I thought the hurricanes were gone for all money then they suddenly came back in the last 15 minutes. I was so sure they were going to knock it on or turn it over after the siren went but they kept their cool and managed to get down the other end and score the winning try.

 

[Flux]

I have to admit, I gave up hope about half way through the second half and just started taking the **** with my father and mate. Imagine our surprise when the Hurricanes pulled a win out of nowhere.