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Maori All Black to debut for Western Force against rested Waratahs
By AAP
Western Force coach Simon Cron says it's time his side started to deliver some wins to go with their increased level of performance as their Super Rugby Pacific season quickly fades away.
They'll be on the road for a fourth straight game but at least in Australia when they face the struggling NSW Waratahs on Saturday night.
Their winless three-game trip to New Zealand brought some gritty displays but Cron insisted it was their chance to start delivering.
"(A win) would be great for us," he said.
"The key thing for us is performance, building those combinations, getting cohesive playing better than we did the week before and that's really important.
"There's a lot of learnings going on in the group but it's time for the boys to ... play the whole time ... rather than just taking the foot off slightly.
"There's some key areas the boys were focusing on post the Hurricanes game."
Jake Strachan will continue at five-eighth for the Force (2-4) after impressing off the bench last time out, allowing Hamish Stewart to shift to centre.
They've also named former Maori All Black representative Jacob Norris, who's been training with the squad since March and was with them on their NZ tour, for his first Force game.
"We're always scouring for the right type of player and we feel Jacob will add (to the side)," Cron said.
"He's been with us for six weeks now so the door is open for him. We could see if we didn't add to the squad we could be light and sure enough we have.
"The key thing for us is we already have a young squad … we got a lot of guys in that NZ tour with great experiences but we need to make sure we're bringing in guys with a little bit of experience around that as well."
The Tahs have flanker Lachie Swinton back in their starting side, while Tom Lambert will start at prop in place of Te Tera Faulkner.
They're also off a bye week but their last performance was probably their best of the season to date, landing a string of punches on arch-rival ACT Brumbies before falling late in the 40-36 loss.
"They have a really good squad across the park and they've had some indifferent starts and finishes in their games ... I'm sure they are working on the background on those things," Cron said.
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Latest Comments
Vaai is finally having his breakout year getting comfortable and showing great form at lock, and there are form players and experience all across the backrow, why on earth would you drop him to 6. Ridiculous
Go to commentsSo far, the All Blacks have won 8 matches out of 11 this year. That is a near 73% win rate. AB fans and, I assume, the team itself are not content with that and have everything to play for with the remaining 3 tests this year.
Their historical average is something like 77% these days and, although some years will always be better than others it is not likely to drop that dramatically to 70% any time soon. There is too much historical inertia on the stats. It is like saying Ireland’s form of the last 10 years or so is likely to reverse a historical average of 48% wins soon. It just isn’t.
Moreover, when you say they are ‘doomed’ to a 70% flatline are you not just assuming that Ireland will beat them again? How did that work out for you last time?
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