Western Force coach Simon Cron has apologised to the club’s loyal fans after his team produced some of the “worst rugby” he’s ever seen.
The Force slumped to a 0-4 record after crashing to a 22-14 Super Rugby Pacific loss to Moana Pasifika in Perth on Friday night.
The defeat left the Force eight points adrift of eighth spot and facing a huge battle to make the finals.
Cron was left fuming by the error-riddle display against Moana, saying his players reverted to “club rugby heroics” at times.
“Firstly, I think we’ve got to apologise to our supporters and fans because that’s some of worst rugby I’ve ever seen,” Cron said.
“We were horrendous tonight and there’s nothing pretty about it.
“Like the first 10 minutes, we could have scored three tries and we didn’t.
“We had opportunities to (score) and then we started to put our head down a little bit and knocked the ball on. We went out to club rugby heroics.
“Every time we made a line break, somebody tried to throw a miracle ball and gave it straight back again.”
Cron was left bewildered by some of the simple mistakes his team made, including on the discipline front.
“We still gave away too many penalties. Today was not a good example of rugby by us, end of story,” Cron said.
“We went into a ruck and we kicked the ball out and it’s like, ‘oh my God, we’ve got a coach that now?’ Like, ‘we’ve got to cover that again?’”
The Force played far better in recent losses to the Rebels and Brumbies, despite giving up big leads in each of those games.
And although there were plenty of fumbles against Moana, the Force were within five points of their opponents before substitute flyhalf William Havili nailed a 53m penalty with eight minutes to go to seal victory for the visitors.
The Force will be aiming to bounce back when they host the in-form Queensland Reds next week Saturday, before facing off against Fijian Drua, Blues, Crusaders, Highlanders and Chiefs in a tough run of fixtures.
Cron no doubt will have some intense talks with his players in the coming week.
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“The first thing we do as coaches is sit down and work out how we can help the team to be better because tonight would be our worst game this year,” Cron said.
“Last week (in a 22-19 loss to the Brumbies) we played really well. The week before that (in a 48-34 loss to the Rebels), the first 10 minutes was good rugby. Today, very hard to see the good out of it.”
Cron said it was important for his players to be mentally tougher when things aren’t going their way.
Star Wallabies scrumhalf Nic White missed the loss to Moana with knee swelling and is no guarantee to return against the Reds.
piru
Roar Rookie
I suspect he's neither rubbish nor the messiah - simply a good coach doing the best he can. Don't forget we've had sustained periods of very good play this year, if he's going to get the blame for poor performances, he also deserves credit for the good stuff.
piru
Roar Rookie
It's a symptom of high turnover in players I would guess. And why is that do you reckon? When every loss turns into a discussion about whether we "deserve" to play rugby. When you've got Hoiles publicly speculating about how we need less teams, when Eddie Jones is complaining "what value do we bring" to the media. It's got to be hard to convince big names to sign here. It's obvious once it turns out it wasn't the rebels fault it will be ours again.
RahRah
Roar Rookie
That’s true and can’t be denied. The thing that sticks in my craw and perhaps many others is the continued manner of the losses. I’ll discipline repeated, wastefulness in the red zone and an inability to close out a game. These issues have plagued us for many years and many coaches and seem somehow to be part of our DNA. Why why why does it never change :crying:
piru
Roar Rookie
And since 2016 every game we don't win convincingly is "proof the experiment has failed/there isn't enough depth/we're stealing all the players". We're forever playing with the Sword of Damocles over our heads.
RahRah
Roar Rookie
Except from the moment Scot Fardy scored the inaugural try for the Wetsern Force, we’ve been having a “rough patch”.
piru
Roar Rookie
Agreed, there were quite a few times we went through the line (and would have broken through last week), but were caught by cover defenders running hard across field. Then our loosies wouldn't get there quick enough and the Moana boys would just take the ball back.
Jazz
Roar Rookie
Their first round was not their best start to the current best team, i would say that was their worst game and it hasn't helped them since from that lost. On paper, lots of experience, internationals with a few a young players, however in a couple more rounds hopefully they hit the next gear and start to get going.
Jacko
Roar Rookie
I felt MP wernt given enough credit in their quality of game. The games they have lost have been from to many errors but they are still backing their plan so thats great.
piru
Roar Rookie
I watched the replay yesterday and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it felt at the ground. Too many penalties, mistakes and desperation plays, but there was some good stuff too. I'm feeling less doom and gloom now
Jacko
Roar Rookie
The Tahs Blues game was worse.
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Too me this more so puts a question mark over Cron as a coach. Is he as good as some people have talked him up to be? The Force are dealing with injuries, but Sampson would have killed to have the same quality of roster at his disposal.
TJ-Go Force!
Roar Rookie
Yeah we are paying Rodda a bucket load to be injured.
piru
Roar Rookie
makes it very hard to argue with people who say we have the depth for 5 teams Nah it's easy mate
piru
Roar Rookie
Yeah we'll be there Saturday, not going anywhere.
piru
Roar Rookie
Yep, everyone else is allowed to have rough patches, just not WA and Vic
Rugbytrylover
Roar Rookie
Well said Gustee. It’s easy to be negative…. I thought against the Brumbies, stacked with Wallabies, they played some great rugby and only just went down. Far better attacking raids than the best ranked side in Australia for numerous years. They have had a lot of forward injuries. 0 wins from 4 is extremely disappointing but they are showing glimpses of some great attacking rugby… with the weakest pack of the Aussie sides…. I think they have plenty of potential and let’s just see how they go with their best squad on the park…. Play well Force boys!
Rugbytrylover
Roar Rookie
The Reds are playing well this year . They had some very lean years….NSW have been pretty average since 2014… and that’s with a much stronger roster than the Force have had…. Gee there’s some waffle on this forum.
piru
Roar Rookie
Yep until the NRC is back we'll always have a lack of next level players
SB
Roar Rookie
Horrendous doesn’t fully describe how bad the force were. They were truly awful. I said after first round they would be lucky to win a game. Surprised me against Brumbies. The forwards are embarrassing. Schoolboys could out muscle them. I keep hearing about Cron as a coach. Haven’t seen anything yet to convince me they are improving. Only way out of this is for the force chase and contract most of the Rebels forwards when they can Hate to say it . Not enough cattle in Aus for 5 SR teams.
kingplaymaker
Roar Guru
Teams should be allowed to break the salary cap so long as the players they bring aren't coming from Super rugby. This would enable some strengthening of the Force.