{"id":487346,"date":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487346\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T06:15:08","slug":"jeremy-williams-shifts-to-blindside-in-western-force-team-to-play-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/487346\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeremy Williams shifts to blindside in Western Force team to play Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Western <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/force\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Force<\/a> have welcomed back <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/darcy-swain\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Darcy Swain<\/a> to the starting XV for round 2 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/super-rugby\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> season, moving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/jeremy-williams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jeremy Williams<\/a> to the back row to accommodate the lock alongside Puma Franco Molina.<\/p>\n<p>Vaiolini Ekuasi moves to No.8 as part of the reshuffle, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/nick-champion-de-crespigny\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nick Champion de Crespigny<\/a> sidelined due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the starting XV remains unchanged for Simon Cron\u2019s side, with the addition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/kane-koteka\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kane Koteka<\/a> the only change on the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Cron was unsparing following his side\u2019s 56-24 loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/brumbies\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brumbies<\/a> in round 1, signalling an urgent need for answers after his side let a 10-0 lead slip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">\u201cWe have to be better than that,\u201d Cron said. \u201cLook, you don\u2019t get to cry about it, you don\u2019t get to mourn that \u2018we played a poor game\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got to review straight away, get the fixes that are most critical for the team. We\u2019ve had a discussion in the sheds around that, and now get back out on the park and start fixing it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">\u201cI\u2019m bitterly disappointed, mainly because the first 20 we controlled the ball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">\u201cI feel then we just got really narrow and started overworking our forwards quite a lot\u2026 have to look at how and why and fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The challenge doesn\u2019t get much easier against another 2025 semi-finalist, but the coach has more experience in the engine room to help counter the Blues\u2019 tight game.<\/p>\n<p>     <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771395308_925_703.png.webp.png\"\/>  <\/p>\n<p> Head-to-Head <\/p>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771395308_979_401.png.webp.webp\"\/>   <\/p>\n<p>Last 5 Meetings<\/p>\n<p>Average Points scored<\/p>\n<p>   <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/live\/blues-vs-force\/?g=949216\/\" class=\"link-box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">   <\/p>\n<p>Western Force team to play the Blues<\/p>\n<p>Tom RobertsonBrandon Paenga-AmosaHarry Johnson-HolmesFranco MolinaDarcy SwainJeremy Williams (c)Carlo TizzanoVaiolini EkuasiNathan HastieBen Donaldson (vc)Bayley KuenzleHamish StewartGeorge BridgeDivad PaluMac Grealy<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">16. Leonel Oviedo<br \/>17. Sef Fa\u2019agase<br \/>18. Misinale Epenisa<br \/>19. Lopeti Faifua<br \/>20. Kane Koteka<br \/>21. Henry Robertson<br \/>22. Max Burey<br \/>23. Kurtley Beale<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Injury list<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Nick Champion de Crespigny (knee) \u2013 short term<br \/>Darby Lancaster (thigh) \u2013 short term<br \/>Dylan Pietsch (foot) \u2013 short term<br \/>Feao Fotuaika (foot) \u2013 medium term<br \/>Alex Harford (shoulder) \u2013 long term<br \/>Doug Philipson (knee) \u2013 long term<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Force have welcomed back Darcy Swain to the starting XV for round 2 of the Super&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-487346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}