Western Force head coach Simon Cron and captain Jeremy Williams were disappointed by Saturday’s loss to the ACT Brumbies but excited about the side’s run of three home games as they remain hopeful of a finals berth.
Saturday’s 32-15 defeat to the Brumbies left the Force nine points outside the top six with three games to play, but the Force can narrow that gap to four points when they play the sixth-placed Queensland Reds next up on Saturday at HBF Park.
That game will be followed by two more at HBF Park, against the Fijian Drua (May 23) and NSW Waratahs (May 30), offering hope of a late-season finals push.
Cron conceded the Brumbies loss was disappointing, bemoaning bad decision along with their discipline and losing the collision battle, but remained hopeful of a finals push.
“One hundred per cent,” Cron replied when asked if he felt they were still in finals contention.
“We’ve got three games at home. I think the boys will be keen to get back home in front of the crowd back in Perth.
“We’ve got a job to do. We’ve got to recoup, fix and get into it again.”
Reflecting on the Brumbies loss, Cron added: “It’s disappointing. I thought in the first half we made a couple of bad decisions. We got inside the 22 and we flung it wide too early rather than going through the front door.
“A few key decisions around maul time, we let them off the hook. A little bit of discipline and collision. They won the collision I felt tonight and we gave away quite a few penalties that put us back in our 22.
“I felt like we kicked the ball away a bit too much. Just keep attacking sometimes, especially when we get 55 out from their line. It’s better for us to attack. There’s some things that went well out there tonight.”
Force skipper Williams agreed with Cron about home comforts and their finals aspirations.
“Can’t wait to get back to Perth in front of the Sea of Blue,” Williams said.
“Knocking off all our away games and travel has been awesome. Can’t wait to get back home and reconnect with the boys back there.
“We’ve got to get on with it. Next up is the Reds.”
The Force downed the Reds a month ago in Brisbane with arguably the side’s best performance of the season, but Williams said this was a brand new ball game.
“We’ve got to prepare like we do every week and start back at the bottom of the mountain and work our way up,” Williams said.
“It’s not a given at all. We’ve got to work hard for everything we get and I know we’ve got the team that does that.”
Scrum-half Henry Robertson will be under an injury cloud for the Reds’ game, having limped off in Canberra after 15 minutes.
Cron said: “He’s hurt his knee. Not the one that is strapped up.
“He’s a great player, he’s had an amazing season for us. He was a big loss for us early on. We’ll just recoup and see where he’s at. We’ll keep driving Nathan Hastie and Tutin (Moyano) to get them up to scratch.”
Saturday night’s game against the Reds is the Force’s zero2hero Charity Game, with tickets on sale via Ticketmaster.
For every attendee’s ticket, $1 will go to zero2hero, while the Club will auction off all 23 player-worn jerseys via Match Worn Shirt, with proceeds going to zero2hero.
Zero2hero is a WA-based youth mental health charity. Find out more about zero2hero via this link.
Every $60 helps zero2hero impact a young person's life. Every $420 delivers a mental health school workshop. Every $1250 sponsors a student to attend camp hero.
