Tickets are on sale now for the Force’s next home game – the Force Members Game – against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday 30 May 5:35pm via Ticketmaster. Book here.<\/a><\/p>\nThe second-rower, whose late disallowed try would have meant
\njust one more five-pointer was needed for the important extra point, said it
\nwas a weird feeling at the final whistle.<\/p>\n
“It’s really bittersweet,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You’re obviously really happy to get the win, for the
\nteam, the fans, the club, KB (Kurtley Beale who became the third most capped
\nplayer in Super Rugby with 186) and Boston (Fakafanua) on debut.<\/p>\n
“Really happy to get the win for those guys but it’s
\nalso shattering because something you’ve worked so hard for all year just gets
\ntaken away from you.<\/p>\n
“It’s on us. We’ve got to put ourselves in better
\npositions at the end of the year to do things on our own terms. It’s really
\ndisappointing.<\/p>\n
“It’s kind of weird. You’re stoked to get the win – but
\nis the team song going to be all that energetic. It’s going to be a weird vibe.<\/p>\n
“It’s something we’ve got to take on the chin and
\ncoming into next week we’ve still got a lot to play for.<\/p>\n
“We want to put a performance in that we’re really
\nproud of and is what the Western Force is about.”<\/p>\n
Coach Simon Cron was equally disappointed.<\/p>\n
“The boys are gutted. I’m gutted,” he said. “The
\nstandards and expectations in that team are high<\/p>\n
“Very disappointed for the boys and how much work
\nthey’ve put in.”<\/p>\n
The Force got off to a slow start and were pinned in their
\nhalf for long periods.<\/p>\n
They finished making 222 tackles, 120 more than the Drua.<\/p>\n
Cron said the side had been “massive” all year in
\nthe tackle count.<\/p>\n
“It’s been a huge area of the game,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The heart and spark that they showed to get up off the
\nground every time and keep hitting people is phenomenal.”<\/p>\n
Cron said they would review speed to the ruck ahead of
\nSaturday’s clash.<\/p>\n
“We were too slow at the breakdown,” he said. “The
\nball carry was OK but we were going to ground before we arrived and we can’t
\nhave that.<\/p>\n
“You just need to get a little bit closer before we hit
\nthe ground. The key part for us is when we are in attack is some simple skill
\nexecution areas.”<\/p>\n
He said the loss highlighted the need for more bonus points
\nduring the season.<\/p>\n
“We are still a team that is learning a lot in big
\nmoments, tight moments, how to roll a team at the end,” he said. “They
\nwill take a lot out of the season.”<\/p>\n
Homegrown flanker Carlo Tizzano opened the scoring with his
\n30th Force try, equalling foundation player Cameron Shepherd’s long-standing
\nrecord.<\/p>\n
His 11th five pointer in 11 games at HBF Park and Max
\nBurey’s conversion were the only Force first-half points.<\/p>\n
After the break barnstorming No.8 Vaiolini Ekuasi added the
\nForce second, Burey converted, and winger Zac Lomax crossed wide.<\/p>\n
The Drua crossed twice before the break from flanker Kitione
\nSalawa and hooker Zuriel Togiatama. Kemu Valetini converted one and added a
\npenalty after the break.<\/p>\n
Tickets are on sale now for the Force’s next home game – the Force Members Game – against the NSW Waratahs on Saturday 30 May 5:35pm via Ticketmaster. Book here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Force captain Jeremy Williams was “shattered” after the side’s 19-15 Swyftx Super Rugby Pacific win over Fijian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105,28899],"class_list":["post-456426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-western-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}