Sharks see Force as easy meat
Western Force’s wretched 2015 has been highlighted by a glaring lack of respect from tonight’s opponents, the Sharks.
The Durban-based Sharks have rested three of their Springboks, indicating they believe they have sufficient arsenal to counter the Force, who have lost five games in a row.
Flanker Marcell Coetzee, scrum-half Cobus Reinach and fly-half Pat Lambie were supposed to have been rested last week under the agreement with the South African Rugby Union not to use key players in more than five consecutive games ahead of the World Cup.
Last week’s match against the Chiefs was their sixth.
But Force coach Michael Foley said he would not let the issue cloud the task ahead.
“Irrespective of who we are playing or what they are doing, we’ve got to be committed to what we are doing,” Foley said.
“Anything that potentially dilutes the focus on that is dangerous for us.
“We can’t let any of that type of thing cloud our view and our focus.
“If we are going to be motivated by those external things, there’s a problem for us.
“South African teams have incredible depth and when you look at their team on paper you’d be silly to think that it’s going to be anything but a very, very big challenge for us.”
Foley said they had studied the penalties awarded against them last week by Kiwi referee Nick Briant, who will be in charge again tonight, the third time in six matches.
Briant found 22 penalties against the Force in the loss to the Bulls, adding to the 13 he blew in the round-two loss to the Reds when Foley expressed concern about his handling of the scrum.
In those games only 17 penalties went the Force way.
Foley said players were “a little confused” by some decisions.
“The first thing we did was to understand the decisions that were made that we could have controlled or had a positive influence over,” Foley said.
“We removed any of that confusion by looking at each of those decisions that were made against us ... not letting any of the ref’s decisions that we may not have agreed with cloud that.”
Foley will be hoping for another big game from young second-rower Adam Coleman, who made 89m in eight runs and scored the first try against the Bulls.
“He adds a real level of physicality around the breakdown area,” Foley said.
“He is an extremely physical player which provides us with an edge and he brings a skill level that does not necessarily go hand-in-hand.”
While the Sharks have lost captain and hooker Bismarck du Plessis, who was suspended for kicking Chiefs No.8 Michael Leitch in the face last Saturday, fly-half Frans Steyn is free to play.
The Sharks successfully argued for a postponement of yesterday’s SANZAR appeal of a ruling by their own judiciary that cleared the playmaker of dangerous play for an alleged tip tackle.
