The Western Force come up against one of their toughest oppositions yet, as they host the Hong Kong Dragons. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the game from 8:30pm AEST.
It’s quite easy to overestimate the Force’s achievements on the field. While three from five sounds pretty good, you have to be sceptical with regards to their opposition.
These next two games are a great opportunity for them to hit the NRC on the front foot, with a pair of wins.
While the Westerners began the series on the right note against “B” sides from Fiji and Tonga, when playing the Rebels and Crusaders, the first real opposition they had, the shine was quickly taken off as they were outscored 28-12 and 44-8 to the team who they lost their Super Rugby licence to, and last year’s premiers.
Three weeks later, the men in blue put on a show in the wet against a XV from Apia, Samoa, winning 33 points to five.
Hong Kong won’t be any blowover. Only recently, their national team, the Dragons, won their way to the RWC repechage, after winning the Asia Rugby Championship and crushing the Cook Islands 77-3 over a home-and-away series.
The squad looks very different to the one which secured the country’s place alongside Canada, Germany and another opponent, at the RWC repechage, but there’s still no doubt they could cause some trouble.
One of the key men for the Western Force, Andrew Deegan, will sit out this game after a good performance in the Super Rugby XV last friday, one of a raft of changes to the West Australians.
Harry Scoble, Markus Vanzati, Kieran Longbottom, Fergus Lee-Warner, Rodney Iona and George Pisi are the beneficiaries of a string of injuries and restings, which mean Andrew Deegan, Harrison Lloyd, Feleti Kaitu’u, Tom Sheminant, Chris Alcock and Masivesi Dakuwaqa will all watch from the sidelines.
If the Dragons want to win, they have to be responsible for most of the early points in this one, while the Force will want to win and win well.
Prediction: Expect the Westerners to be too strong in a fast paced game, with possibly a few power tries, king hits and sublime offloads.
Force by 7.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Given I know players from the Cook Islans team they played that looks about spot on save for a few positional errors.
Rugby101
Guest
I expect we will see a Hong Kong based team in World Series Rugby. Showed enough in this game to warrant inclusion.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Asia_Rugby_Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Rugby_World_Cup_%E2%80%93_play-off_qualifications#Cross-regional_play-offs Of course, any open source writable online reference should be treated with some wariness, but actually Wiki's not bad for this kind of stuff (if only because who can be bothered faking it!)
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Really? Where did you find them? ESPN didn't have team lists for example. I in fact never found a team list. Only a 25 man squad.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
Not difficult at all, and that would've only made you 100% wrong! ;)
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Must have been another player in one of the matches (I did only check one announced squad and assumed it was both). Was actually difficult to find team lists for the RWC qualifiers.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
Actually, Chris Calanza/Pierrepont (he seems to go by both names) wasn't the only Hong Kong player last Friday who had played in their RWC qualification matches. Admittedly, you are only 200% wrong on this point, though.
Bakkies
Roar Guru
Not for finals. https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/super-rugby/105669754/sharks-take-bite-out-of-crusaders-pocket
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Not maybe. That was it. What would be interesting is which is their perceived "A" and "B" teams and why they were different.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
Maybe, but a number of the fringe players and players playing for consideration for the RWC repecharge matches (well, according to the announcers on Friday anyway - how accurate their information was I'll leave you to imagine). Their defensive organization suggested a side who trained together regularly, rather than one who met one another a couple of days before the match.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Shiek interestingly there was only one player from their RWC qualifier tests that played vs the Force. Cris Pierrepont.
Sheikh
Roar Rookie
To be fair to Mr English, he actually said: "one of their toughest opponents yet". The Dragons were a well-drilled side who had obviously played together before (unlike some of the PI sides, unfortunately) and were fit enough to go for the full 80 (also unlike some of the PI sides). I think the public view of them was that they would be an easy-beat, and that might have reduced the crowd numbers a bit, but they weren't that and gave a slightly underdone Force a hard time. Now that the Force start playing week-in and week-out (Panasonic, the Country Stockmen and into the NRC) we should see a more cohesive side than one who have usually had a week or two off between matches.
Blue
Guest
"toughest oppositions yet" The Mighty Hong Kong Dragons! Having a laugh, surely.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
It wasn’t 121k people. TV viewing is based on the average across the program. Despite spending most of the game with 800 people the end total was 121k. If I watched, closed twitter and opened again, I was counted as 2 viewers. Based on the times I saw the stream, their number based on the same calculation as tv ratings was around 800. Not 121,000.
ForceFan
Roar Rookie
It was good to see Graham Cooper and the assistants getting into the intent of the rule changes for WSR in an effort to get more ball-in-play time.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Under the current arrangement sanzaar pays travel expenses for teams.
robel
Roar Pro
Good open game and well reffed. Both teams having a go and getting the ball wide.
ForceFan
Roar Rookie
Full HD replay of the game available on YouTube.
ForceFan
Roar Rookie
For information, the average age of the squad is 26yo. (Younger than some of the Aussie SR franchises). 9 player 30yo or older. 13 players 23yo or younger. The best game of International Rugby played in OZ this weekend.
ForceFan
Roar Rookie
Good to see a HD full-match replay on YouTube up so quickly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF62xq14_FE