'We'll keep throwing': Force eye finals run after gutsy Drua win
Western Force coach Simon Cron says his side have a clear focus on the Super Rugby Pacific finals after they jumped into eighth spot with their 34-14 win over Fijian Drua.
The Force kept the Fijians scoreless in an impressive second-half performance on Friday to grab a crucial bonus point win and keep their four-from-four unbeaten home record at HBF Park.
It was a must-win game for the Force with three rounds remaining and Cron said: "The boys are punching, don't worry about that. We'll keep throwing."
Cron was particularly pleased with the second period, describing it as a "good zero-point mentality".
The Force took a 12-point lead after just eight minutes with tries from winger Manasa Mataele and Wallabies hooker Folau Fainga'a and a conversion from Max Burey.
But they slipped behind with Eroni Sau and Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta scoring converted tries as the Fijians laid assault to the Force line.
Burey gave his side a slender one-point lead with a penalty after the half-time siren.
But they kept the Drua pointless after the break and second rower Jeremy Williams, Fainga'a with a second and homegrown flanker Carlo Tizzano with his first Super try on his first game back at home sealed the victory.
Force captain and back-rower Michael Wells said the side became "bored" with what they were doing well as the Drua got back into the game.
"We let them (Drua) back in. We presented opportunities," Wells said. "We missed one-up tackles, gave them penalties so they could march down the field.
"We got away from what we were doing well. In fact, we probably got a little bit bored with it.
"We got back to it second-half and closed it out.
"We needed to take away opportunities and a lot of that was on our forwards. We challenged our forwards this week. It was on us."
Cron said the return of Fainga'a from injury brought a calmness to the team.
"He can fix on the run so if something doesn't quite go right he'll talk to the people around him and fix that," Cron said.
Cron praised playmaker Burey, in just his second Super Rugby game, after being clutched from Sydney's Northern Suburbs club in the Force injury crisis.
"Max spent the whole pre-season with us, he flew back to Sydney for a couple of games, then came back to us," Cron said.
"He's a guy who has worked really, really hard in the pre-season. He's a student of the game, does all his homework, does his all study, sits with us as coaches and works through what he needs to do.
"He sat with Finesy (scrum-half Issak Fines) earlier in the week and talked about what the two of them can be better at together. Credit to him."
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Ford completely took the energy out the game for us, waving his hands telling people to calm down. Just for us to die off and lose the momentum.
Bringing him on all the time to ‘close out’ games is condescending to Smith. Get Ford out and let Marcus Smith & Fin Smith run the show. The future is them so give them the keys and let them get on with it.
Go to commentsTaking Marcus Smith off was a big puzzle and probably cost England the game. However, Abs created more opportunities and scored some tries but left a lot out there through sloppy execution, not playing to the ref and no enforcement of English off-side play. The fact the game was close all through made it worth watching but it was a frustrating pectacle. English succeeded in slowing the game down and were in the refs ear which Gardner allowed. I think Ireland or France will punish the sloppy execution more than England so still much for ABs to work on.
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