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Force could pull tricks to snap streak

Force could pull tricks to snap streak

Will Western Force coach Michael Foley gamble with a surprise move in a bid to halt his side's sorry 10-game Super Rugby losing slump?

He could be tempted to bring Luke Burton into the key playmaker role for Saturday night's clash with reigning champions Waratahs at nib Stadium.

Foley does not make rash changes but he needs to get his backline firing and would have nothing to lose with the Burton experiment.

Burton, a utility fly-half for Australia at the 2013 and 2014 Junior World Cups, has been training in the role and was back-up to Sias Ebersohn for the Force's two-games in New Zealand.

He has played centre for most of the season where he has been a fearless ball carrier and tackler. However, at just
92kg, he is not the big player that Foley needs to regularly break or at least bend defence lines.

Foley made a similar change in his first year in charge, moving Kyle Godwin from fly-half to centre, a switch that put him on the Wallabies radar.

He needs to give his side a shake-up after last Saturday's 41-24 loss to the Blues that left them bottom of the ladder.

Their 34 missed tackles highlighted the inability of some players to maintain 80 minutes of rugby at the highest level.

Attitude was missing, particularly in the first half when the Force were passive in contact and let a ruthless Blues dominate the breakdown.

For the second week running the Force grabbed a bonus point four tries but by they time they had got their game in order with 30 minutes left it was all too late - the Blues had already raced out to an unbeatable 31-point lead.

Foley made no excuses.

“Way too many missed tackles. That tells the story,” he said.

“It’s a physical game and you have to aim up. We were passive in contact. We just have to be honest about it…fair dinkum.

"The difference was our physicality in defence. We were standing on the line waiting for them to run at us…that’s fundamentally an attitude problem.'

The Blues were also smart in the tackle.

They identified the high carry position of some Force players, held them up in the tackle and slowed down any chance of a quick recycle, allowing them to realign their defence.

The Force did maintain sustained pressure and forced the Blues to make 134 tackles compared to 73 of their own, but it is no good having the ball for multiple phases if you don’t do something with it.

"We worked our way into good scoring positions but they were better at the breakdown," Foley said.

"They were able to get under our body height and underneath us at the breakdown."