New boy fires up Force engine room
Rugby may have undergone many transformations but some things never change and it will be business as usual when front rows collide next month.
A team will only prosper if it has a resolute pack and the Force will need to establish a dominating platform to launch their 2011 Super Rugby campaign - and their exciting array of backs.
And it will be up to new forwards coach Nick Stiles to make sure the scrum is performing so the side can effectively launch its attack.
"Set piece is very important," Stiles said. "You've got to have good foundations and that starts up front. Hopefully that's going to be a strength of our game.
"Look at the (back line) players we've got. We've got to make it a strength.
"Look at our back three, (James) O'Connor, (David) Smith, (Cameron) Shepherd, (Nick) Cummins, those guys. If we can provide good ball to the backs coming off strong set piece, we are going to be very competitive."
Lumbering front-rowers whose only job was to go from scrum to scrum and the occasional ruck have long been assigned to history - or at least the lower grades of local rugby.
There still has to be forward grunt but today they need mobility and good skills.
Stiles, a former Wallaby and Queensland Reds prop, played his last game of Super rugby in 2005.
"The physicality and the game has really changed in that period," he said. "You can't just run around and clean out.
"You've got to be able to pass the ball, have good control of the ball in hand and have something extra to your game now."
Stiles believes he has the right blend in his front row with the experience of props like Tim Fairbrother and Matt Dunning, and youth in prop Pek Cowan and hookers Nathan Charles, Ben Whittaker and Siliva Siliva.
"Pek has played for the Wallabies but I think he has got a lot of growing to do. To get him coming into his prime is going to give us a lot of good football," Stiles said.
"He's exceptionally good with the ball carry, he's good in contact situations and that's what we need from him.
"The three young hookers have had a fantastic pre-season. I think you'll see all three of them step up this year."
The loss of captain and second row Nathan Sharpe for at least next month's two trial games while he recovers from a hernia operation is a blow but opens the door for some of the younger players.
"It puts pressure on the young guys to step up in terms of line-out calling and roles that they might not have done in the past," Stiles said.
·The boots O'Connor wore when he scored the after-the-siren try to level the scores and then convert to win last year's Bledisloe Cup Test in Hong Kong have raised $2425 for the Queensland Premier's flood relief appeal.
Did you know? - 21 The number of days to go before the Force kick off their Super Rugby season against the Queensland Reds at Suncorp Stadium.
