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Preview: Blues v Force
Sportal.co.nz - (16/04/2010)
Successive wins will have boosted confidence in the Force side, but disappointment from last week should prove the greater spur for the Blues at Eden Park.
HEAD TO HEAD: Played 4 – Blues 3, Western Force 1.
LAST TIME: February 13, 2009 (Perth) – Western Force 19-25 Blues.
LAST TIME AT VENUE: These teams have not previously met at Auckland.
WALKING WOUNDED: Pat Lam responded to last week's moderate showing by his forwards by showing a few of them the door this week although he would have preferred Anthony Boric not to have suffered an ankle injury against the Stormers. He has issues at prop, with brackets on both sides of the front row, but has significantly rehashed the overall look of the pack. In the one personnel change behind the scrum, Luke McAlister moves into the run-on XV at Rene Ranger's expense. John Mitchell has made two front-row changes, giving a first start to hooker Nathan Charles and the loosehead job to the experienced Nic Henderson, and one on the bench where Nick Cummins returns from suspension.
FORM:
PAST FIVE Blues:
Round 5: Bye
Round 6: Beat Brumbies 39-34
Round 7: Lost to Waratahs 32-39
Round 8: Beat Bulls 32-17
Round 9: Lost to Stormers 21-33
PAST FIVE Western Force:
Round 5: Lost to Reds 10-50
Round 6: Lost to Waratahs 10-14
Round 7: Lost to Bulls 15-28
Round 8: Beat Stormers 16-15
Round 9: Beat Highlanders 41-27
The Blues have alternated wins and losses, good performances with bad, over the last month and simply must find consistency over the closing weeks to remain with even a faint shout of making the four. They do still have to play three of the bottom four teams but must make sure of five points in each of those matches, of which this is the first. Last week it looked as if that huge effort against the Bulls had drawn their sting, and the Blues eventually committed rugby suicide and died by their own hands when a series of try-scoring passes were grassed. The Force has recovered from a terrible start and now, with a number of players returning from long-term injuries, looks a much better outfit. That win over the Stormers was a good one and they took five points at Queenstown, although the Highlanders defence was so awful that could not have been helped. That said, they almost doubled their try count for the season – it shot up from seven to 13 – and the Westerners looked a lot better than they did earlier.
WHO'S HOT: Joe Rokocoko is back to something approaching his best form and once again looks a major threat to defences, never more so than when acting in close association with Isaia Toeava. These two are the Blues best backs; the insides have to find a way to get the ball to them in a timely fashion with a modicum of space. Up front Viliame Ma'afu has impressed through a strong first season and is a willing workhorse and damaging ball-runner. Force lock Tom Hockings is a player who gets little media attention but seldom offers a bad performance and he will be influential this week. Cameron Shepherd benefitted from good work by his inside backs to score two tries, but the two standouts were David Hill and Ryan Cross, experienced players who found plenty of gaps and made the cost of defensive lapses a high one.
WE THINK: The Blues are on a win-one, lose-one pattern at present and it's time for a win, although they'll be relying on more than that on Saturday. After getting their tails kicked last week training is sure to have been unforgiving and Lam will be demanding nothing less than a five-pointer this time. We think the Blues will get it, not discounting the Force's recent improvement, and pick a margin in the 10-15 point range.
TEAMS:
Blues: 1. Tony Woodcock or Mike Reid, 2.Keven Mealamu (captain), 3.John Afoa or Tevita Mailau, 4.Kurtis Haiu, 5. Filo Paulo, 6.Jerome Kaino, 7.Tom Chamberlain, 8.Viliame Ma'afu, 9.Alby Mathewson, 10.Stephen Brett, 11.Rudi Wulf, 12. Luke McAlister, 13. Benson Stanley, 14.Joe Rokocoko, 15.Isaia Toeava.
Reserves: 16.Tom McCartney, 17. Mailau or Reid, 18.Andrew van der Heijden, 19.Peter Saili, 20.Chris Smylie, 21. Rene Ranger, 22. Paul Williams.
Force: 1. Nic Henderson, 2. Nathan Charles, 3.Tim Fairbrother, 4.Tom Hockings, 5.Nathan Sharpe (captain), 6. Matt Hodgson, 7.David Pocock, 8.Richard Brown, 9. Chris O'Young, 10.David Hill, 11. Cameron Shepherd, 12.Ryan Cross, 13.Mitch Inman, 14. Mark Bartholomeusz, 15.James O'Connor.
Reserves: 16. Ben Whittaker, 17. Matt Dunning, 18. Sam Wykes, 19. Ben McCalman, 20. Justin Turner, 21. Sam Harris, 22. Nick Cummins.
REFEREE: Keith Brown
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