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'The club was on its knees': Force's big scalp a reward for outgoing head coach

Western Force celebrate Hurricanes May 2022

The outgoing Western Force coach and three of their retiring former Test players got their perfect Super Rugby Pacific home send-off, but were ultimately left hoping for a big favour from one of their Australian rivals.

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The 27-22 win over the Hurricanes at HBF Park on Saturday lifted the Force one place into eighth spot.

However, the ninth-placed Highlanders will regain eighth if they win, draw or take a losing bonus point from Sunday’s away game against Melbourne Rebels, who will finish 10th irrespective of the outcome.

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Saturday’s gutsy and stirring win after they trailed 17-6 just before halftime kept the Force’s finals hopes alive.

They finished with a 4-10 record and back-to-back wins for the first time this season, having lost all six of their previous home games.

It was the perfect Perth send off for the quartet of coach Tim Sampson, who is being replaced by Simon Cron, and retiring players Richard Kahui, Jeremy Thrush and Greg Holmes.

Centre Kahui was forced off the field with a head knock in the fifth minute and didn’t return.

“It was a very emotional week and emotional build-up,” Force captain and halfback Ian Prior told Stan Sport after his 100th appearance for the team.

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“Sammo (Sampson) took this club over (when) it was on its knees and put it back up on its feet, so real credit to him there.

“Obviously the retiring guys, hopefully they get another week, the guys that are moving on.

“We haven’t done what we wanted to do in our home games but we put it together today and that was a really gutsy performance, three games in eight days with travel.”

When the Force were cut from Super Rugby in 2017, the Rebels secured the services of the West Australian team’s coach Dave Wessels and a number of their former players.

Now they will be hoping the Rebels can deny the Highlanders any points.

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“We’ll be cheering for them tomorrow watching the game and then preparing (for a quarter-final) or having a couple more beers, so go the Rebels,” Prior said.

The eighth-placed team will be away to the ladder-leading Blues in the quarter finals.

The Hurricanes, who finished fifth, were clearly the Force’s biggest scalp of the season.

All of their other wins on the road were achieved against the teams who ultimately finished in the last three spots on the ladder.

Knocks to Kahui and substitute Jack Winchester could be the major fitness concerns for the Force should they advance to the quarter-finals.

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AM 39 minutes ago
'Freelancer' Izaia Perese shows the need for true inclusivity in Australian rugby

That's Cron's job though. Australia has had one of the most penalised scrums in international rugby for a long time. Just look at the scrum win loss percentage and scrum penalties. That is your evidence. AA has been the starter during that period. Pretty simple analysis. That Australia has had a poor scrum for a long time is hardly news. If bell and thor are not on the field they are woeful. So you are just plain wrong. They have very little time for the lions so doing the same old things that dont work is not going to get them there.


Ainsley is better than our next best tighthead options and has been playing well at scrum time for Lyon in the most competitive comp in the world. Superstar player? No. But better than the next best options. So that is a good enough guide. The scrummaging in the Prem is pretty good too so there is Sio's proof. Same analysis for him. Certainly better in both cases than Super, where the brumbies had the worst win loss and scrum pen in Super. Who plays there? Ohh yes... And the level of scrummaging in Super is well below the URC, prem and France with the SA teams out.


Nongorr is truly woeful. He's 130kg and gets shoved about. That just should not be happening at that weight for a specialist prop who has always played rugby cf pone with leauge. He has had enough time to develop at 23. You'd be better off with Pone who is at least good around the field for the moment and sending Nongorr on exchange to France or England to see if they can improve him with better coaching as happened with Skelton and Meafou. He isn't going to develop in time in super if he has it at all.


Latu is a better scrummaging hooker than BPA and Nasser. and he's the best aussie player over the ball at ruck time. McReight's super jackling percentage hasnt converted to international level but latu consistently does it at heniken level, which is similar to test level in the big games. With good coaching at La Rochelle he's much improved though still has the odd shocker. He should start the November games.

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