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Force star looking to rebound after costing his side against over Brumbies

(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

Western Force coach Tim Simpson is backing Kyle Godwin to rebound strongly from two costly mistakes in a heartbreaking Super Rugby Pacific loss to the Brumbies.

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The Force were on track to snatch a rare victory in Canberra after scoring a late try to take the lead in Sunday’s clash.

But with just two minutes left on the clock, Godwin’s clearing kick from his defensive 22m went into the middle of the ground instead of close to the sideline.

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      It allowed the Brumbies to launch a quick counter-attack with plenty of clear space on either side and Lachie Lonergan crossed a short time later to secure the 29-23 victory.

      Godwin had also committed an error a few minutes earlier when he kicked the ball out on the full from outside the 22m.

      Sampson acknowledged Godwin’s clearing kick with two minutes remaining should have gone down the line, but he’s confident the 29-year-old will rebound strongly in Saturday’s clash with the Melbourne Rebels at AAMI Park.

      “I had a good chat with Kyle about that, and he felt the same,” Sampson said.

      “He was mindful about kicking the ball out on the full.

      “He received a bit of inside pressure on his left boot, and the wind was pretty strong going left to right, which is why it sailed midfield a bit.

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      “In an ideal world we hit the 15m channel and apply pressure there with our kick chase.

      “He’s an experienced guy, got a nice left kick on him. We’ll be backing him every day of the week.”

      The Force will be without inside centre Bayley Kuenzle (concussion) against the Rebels.

      Flyhalf Reesjan Pasitoa performed strongly in his starting debut, and Sampson is keen to unleash the 20-year-in again.

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      “I’m sure the Rebels are going to target him being a young No.10, but he’s got a pretty cool head on his shoulders, and we’ve seen he doesn’t mind the physicality, so he’ll be right,” Sampson said.

      The Rebels were thumped 23-5 by the Queensland Reds last week, but Sampson wasn’t reading too much into the result due to the wet and humid conditions.

      Rugby Australia infamously axed the Western Force instead of the Rebels in 2017.

      Sampson said the history between the two clubs was just that – history.

      “What are we, four or five years on now?” Sampson said.

      “If we dwell on the past too much, it takes away key focuses for us.

      “We are well beyond that. We’ve got a lot of new players, a lot of new staff in, so I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss that or dwell on it.”

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      N
      NH 22 minutes ago
      'The Wallabies need to convert much better - or Melbourne could be much worse'

      Nice one as always Brett. I think the stats hide a bit of the dominance the lions had, and they would look alot worse in that first half when the game was more in the balance. You mention it here but I think it hasn’t been talked about enough was the lineout. The few times the wallabies managed to exit their half and get an opportunity to attack in the 1st half, the lineout was lost. This was huge in terms of lions keeping momentum and getting another chance to attack, rather than the wallabies getting their chance and to properly ‘exit’ their half. The other one you touch on re “the will jordan bounce of the ball” - is kick chase/receipt. I thought that the wallabies kicked relatively well (although were beaten in this area - Tom L rubbish penalty kicks for touch!), but our kick receipt and chase wasn’t good enough jorgenson try aside. In the 1st half there was a moment where russell kicked for a 50:22 and potter fumbled it into touch after been caught out of position, lynagh makes a similar kick off 1st phase soon after and keenan is good enough to predict the kick, catch it at his bootlaces and put a kick in. That kick happened to go out on the full but it was a demonstration on the difference in positioning etc. This meant that almost every contested kick that was spilled went the way of the lions, thats no accident, that is a better chase, more urgency, more players in the area. Wallabies need to be better in who fields their kicks getting maxy and wright under most of them and Lynagh under less, and the chase needs to be the responsibility of not just one winger but a whole group of players who pressure not just the catch but the tackle, ruck and following phase.

      17 Go to comments
      J
      JW 38 minutes ago
      Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

      Thanks for the further background to player welfare metrics Nick.


      Back on the last article I noted that WR is now dedicating a whole section in their six-point business plan to this topic. It also noted that studies indicated 85-90% of workload falls outside of playing. So in respect to your point on the classification of ‘involvements’ included even subs with a low volume of minutes, it actually goes further, to the wider group of players that train as if they’re going to be required to start on the weekend, even if they’re outside the 23. That makes even the 30-35 game borderline pale into insignificance.


      No doubt it is won of the main reasons why France has a quota on the number of one clubs players in their International camps, and rotate in other clubs players through the week. The number of ‘invisible’ games against a player suggests the FFRs 25 game limit as more appropriate?


      So if we take it at face value that Galthie and the FFR have got it right, only a dozen players from the last 60 international caps should have gone on this tour. More players from the ‘Scotland 23’ than the more recent 23.


      The only real pertinent question is what do players prefer more, health or money? There are lots of ethical decisions, like for instance whether France could make a market like Australia’s where their biggest rugby codes have yearly broadcast deals of 360 and 225 million euros. They do it by having a 7/8 month season.

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