Job done: Reds celebrate their win
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The Reds booked themselves a home play-off spot after scoring a late try to beat the Western Force 24-21 in Perth on Saturday.
It looked like another upset was on the cards with the Force five points in front and three minutes of the match remaining.
However, replacement back Dom Shipperley took a long Quade Cooper pass, dived over in the corner and broke Western Force hearts in a repeat of the last meeting between the two sides that ended in a last-gasp victory for the Queenslanders.
The Force wasted little time getting on the scoreboard first thanks to a long-range penalty kick from James O'Connor with barely two minutes gone on the clock.
The home side were celebrating their first try when centre Rory Sidey took an O'Connor offload and dotted down for his first of two tries of the evening.
O'Connor missed the conversion from bang in front, but the Force meant business whilst the Reds were struggling to get their hands on the ball early on
A rare touch of the pigskin was an intercept from Cooper, who grabbed hold of a Sidey pass and raced a good 70m for an opportunistic try in the corner. Cooper added the touchline conversion, and made it a one-point ball game (8-7) after 12 minutes played.
The hosts were hit with a massive blow when influential skipper Nathan Sharpe was forced off the field with an ankle injury, which may spell the end of his Super Rugby season.
A few minutes later, Sidey was over for try number two and once again O'Connor failed to add the extras. It allowed the Reds to sneak in front with another converted try - this time to Scott Higginbotham, after the flank scooped up the ball that made its way through the tunnel of the scrum and galloped 20m to score in the same corner as Cooper.
It took half an hour, but the Reds finally were in front for the first time in the match (13-14).
The Queenslanders' lead didn't last long though, after O'Connor slotted his second successful penalty to take his team into the half-time sheds 16-14 ahead.
The Reds came out firing in the second half and retook the lead just two minutes after the break thanks to a Cooper penalty. From then on in, it was an arm-wrestle between the two sides - with neither really threatening the tryline.
That was until 13 minutes from full-time when Force flanker David Pocock took a Sidey pass and powered his way over in the right-hand corner for a try confirmed by the TMO. O'Connor's range was still off though, as his third conversion attempt went wide.
It meant the Reds only required a try to win the match, and they did just that.
For Force:
Tries: Sidey 2, Pocock
Cons: O'Connor
Pens: O'Connor 2
For Reds:
Tries: Cooper, Higginbotham, Shipperley
Cons: Cooper 3
Pen: Cooper
Western Force: 15 James O'Connor, 14 Nick Cummins, 13 Patrick Dellit, 12 Rory Sidey, 11 David Smith, 10 James Stannard, 9 Brett Sheehan, 8 Richard Brown, 7 David Pocock, 6 Matt Hodgson, 5 Nathan Sharpe, 4 Sam Wykes, 3 Matt Dunning, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Kieran Longbottom.
Replacements: 16 Ben Whittaker, 17 Tim Fairbrother, 18 Tom Hockings, 19 Ben McCalman, 20 Mark Swanepoel, 21 Mitch Inman, 22 Alfie Mafi.
Reds:15 Jono Lance, 14 Luke Morahan, 13 Will Chambers, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Rod Davies, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Radike Samo, 7 Liam Gill, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 James Horwill (c), 4 Rob Simmons, 3 James Slipper, 2 Saia Faingaa, 1 Ben Daley.
Replacements:16 James Hanson, 17 Greg Holmes, 18 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 19 Jake Schatz, 20 Ben Coridas, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Dom Shipperley.
Referee: Stuart Dickinson
Comments
7ton says...
Tri-nats
So what are you trying to say Now? Australia have never lost to NZ when they have had 15 on the park. Your just making things up as usual
Posted 23:07 18th June 2011
7ton says...
Tri-nats
Yes I'm sure you do have heaps more of these.
Trouble is you only pick out the ones that suit you, go on about them for ten years and at least more than half the time your wrong anyway.
Posted 07:57 18th June 2011
7ton says...
sorry I meant Thankyou Justice
Posted 21:36 17th June 2011
7ton says...
Justice
I don't have a great deal of time these days to really study all the details of laws and perhaps you could help me out here
There seems to be so many grey areas especially around the breakdown and scrum
For instance a tackler is supposed to release the tackled player immediately and before he can go for the ball (please tell me if I'm wrong) yet if the tackled player is not held properly he can get up and run with the ball again otherwise he must release the ball before playing it again.
Apart from the obvious what is the exact definition of being held in the tackle and how long is immediately? Half a second, one second or two?
There is so much open for interpretation and it is a shame that players have to spend a good part of the game second guessing the referee.
Thanks
Posted 23:34 15th June 2011
7ton says...
Justice
Great bit of research and it is obvious that unlike tri-nats you actually put a great deal of thought into things before expressing an opinion. LOL.
Seriously it does show how difficult it can be to be a referee and how many close games can be decided by a particular ref¿s interpretation.
All teams get their share of good and bad but it is sad that some games can be a bit of a lottery
Posted 08:13 15th June 2011
Ramage says...
@benski I rate Joubert ,Kaplan and Rolland as the top referees at the World Cup and Lawrence (SA) who has been dropped is also as first class referee and should be there.. Lawrence (NZ), Owens, Walsh and Jonker can be good on their day but also flakey. Dickinson (dropped) Poite and Pearson extremely flakey. Barnes should never have been given that France NZ game as he wasnt ready and its not the forward pass he missed that worried me as that will happen. It was the fact the French were never penalised once in that second half which must have been extremely good discipline. Which we all know wasnt the fact. Still he was Paddy's boy and whilst he has improved his attitude hasn't and the way he talks so condescendingly to the players really grates with me. Thus I don't rate him until he improves his management of players as he seems too often to be the policeman.
Yes I agree the way the laws are written and applied leaves much to the referees interpretation and this is unfair on players and referee alike. We know only too wello that those interpretations can when wrongly applied kill the hopes of many teams and players chances. Something is basically wrong because with the call for uniformity in rulings it seems to me to be going the other way and we have some outrageous differences of interpretations. However I hope that they do clean up two areas that are a blight on the game that is the way teams go through and take players away from the play and continue to hold onto them and stop them from returning to the ruck or maul that is formed and also the way some players are still getting away with flopping on or near the ball as I understood the game was meant to be played on the by players on their feet.
I do rejoice that Dickinson, Australia and Lewis, Ireland, will not be at the World Cup.
Posted 12:05 14th June 2011
Ramage says...
@ benski No I do not think he is on the take I would never accuse any referee of doing that. They have a hard job but I fear that these mistakes every week they take the field calls into question their competence. Lindsay Bray and Sanzar have a very serious problem on their hands with the level of competence in Australian refereeeing. Look at the list Dickinson ?, Walsh an import from NZ not without his problems. Who else is there? Pearce and Smith huh ? Not given much of a run this year WHY? Competence or lack of it . Won't be long before Pearce and Smith are also relegated to the touch lines only, where Pearce is fast overtaking Leckie ,another failed oz ref, as a poor touchline operator. Oh by the way where has Marks gone? Another failed oz ref relegated to touch he seems to have disappeared from the touchline as well.
Posted 00:39 13th June 2011
BDAUSSIE says...
Seems like there is a lot of people on this site that are jealous of the Reds' success.
Suck on it! hahaha
Win this weekend and they wont be stopped. Lose and it could be tough
Posted 12:03 12th June 2011
kahui says...
SA will ruin Cooper in the tri nations! Players like burger, vermulan, alberts, bekker and bismark will make it there goal 2 take him down! What then will you do Aus?
Posted 10:53 12th June 2011
Ramage says...
Interesting that the pair of Dickinson and Pearce, his assistant, again managed to cock up another game where there failure to see or call Reds mistakes led to tries. First a ball to be hooked must go behind the feet of the front row and not come out the tunnel on either side.. What was this muppet Pearce thinking of ? The second, which like the knock on missed by him in the lead up to the last reds try against the Crusaders, he makes no call on the illegal charge on O'Connor despite being asked by Dickinson. Once maybe but twice? This already underperforming referee, when he does get the chance to take the field, also shows his utter incompetence on the touchline as well and should be stood down. Oh well the finals are approaching and I am a great believer in Karma. Lindsay Bray and SANZA have a big problem on their hands as the standard of refereeing in Australia is at an all time low.
Posted 05:47 12th June 2011
fingolfin says...
Dear Western Force,
please play like that every week.
With love,
Your long suffering supporters.
Posted 02:13 12th June 2011
adamk says...
Nick Cummins lost it for the force I felt. Too many errors that either led to no tries, or tries for the opposition. Reds were lucky against a pretty intense force side.
Posted 17:26 11th June 2011
fatflanker says...
S15's luckiest team shades S15's unluckiest team! Still, Reds would have done well just to stay in touch given their injury count.
Posted 15:21 11th June 2011
pacfcrugby4eva says...
Phewww! That was too close for comfort. Stu Dickinson is a worry. The injury list is taking its toll. The overall outlook for the wallabies is promising,with outstanding individuals in each team.
Posted 15:01 11th June 2011