Western
Force coach Simon Cron rued missed opportunities after the side went down 24-14
to the Chiefs in Saturday’s Swyftx Super Rugby Pacific Round 7 clash at HBF
Park.
Cron said
that despite being in the game for long periods they had not been clinical
enough in big moments and could have handled momentum shifts better.
A gritty
Force were denied their first bonus point of the year when Damian McKenzie
slotted a penalty in the penultimate minute.
The Force
were just seven points down at the break with a Max Burey try converted by Ben
Donaldson.
Captain Luke
Jacobson and fly-half Josh Jacomb crossed for the visitors with McKenzie
converting both.
After the
break Force captain Jeremy Williams brought his side level but they were
punished for poor discipline.
Reserve
front-rower Samisoni Taukei’ahou put the Chiefs ahead before McKenzie put them
out of bonus point reach.
Cron had
praise for the side’s fight but said they needed to take opportunities when
presented.
“There’s
been a few games like that where boys fight hard, work hard, make a lot of
tackles,” he said.
“We’ve
just got to be able to take those opportunities that we had, that we created.
“There’s
big moments in games that will dictate outcome, silly penalties, momentum
shifts. We’ve got to handle those.
“We’ve
got to take those opportunities and get those big moments right and that’s what
we’ll reflect on.
“We had
every opportunity. We’ve just got to be clinical in small moments.”
He said
there were key elements that needed to be worked on.
“Little
parts of our games that we need to keep working on as individuals,” he
said.
“In
terms of the boys getting off the ground and defending for long blocks, working
their arse off, I can’t fault them. Our
boys will never stop.
“We’ve
played Brumbies, Chiefs, Blues, Hurricanes who are all sitting right up there.
Four of the best I would reckon.
“Punch
for punch we were in those fights but we need to make sure we nail those little
moments in our game to get those points.”
Captain
Jeremy Wiliams said they had worked hard on not repeating previous drop-offs
after the break.
“Tonight
we came out energetic, got advantage, kept playing on top,” Williams said.
“We
were in the fight there for a long period of time. We had
some great defensive efforts, defending for long passages of play.”
But he also
said ill-discipline had let them down.
“It’s
crucial not to give away penalties when you are down by seven points and you’ve
got time pressure as well,” he said.
“We are
just chasing our tails there. We
review it really hard, take the learnings out of the game that we need to take
out but also commend the stuff we are doing really well and double down on
that.
“It
doesn’t take much to motivate our group. It
hasn’t been the right start to the year, but you can’t fault the effort.
“We’ve been in all the
games, just need to tweak a few little things and it will come.”
The Force are next in action away to the Queensland Reds on Saturday from 4:35pm WST live on Stan Sport.