FORCE OVERPOWERED BY HURRICANES IN PALMERSTON NORTH
The Western Force have gone down to the Hurricanes 41-6 at Central Energy Trust Arena in Palmerston North tonight.
The Force were in the contest for the first 50-minutes of the game trailing 10-6 before the floodgates opened, missed opportunities came back to bite the Western Australians as the Hurricanes ran in five second half tries.
Force skipper Matt Hodgson said the side’s inability to capitalise on opportunities against a quality Hurricanes outfit was their undoing.
“We created three good opportunities in the first half and couldn’t turn it into points,” he said. “I thought we were there or there abouts for a lot of the match but they have attacking threats all over the park and that showed.”
“When we held the ball we looked good. I think when we had chances we probably pushed it a little bit, one more pass and we probably would have scored and if we did, it would have been a different ball game.”
The Hurricanes dominated the opening few minutes controlling possession but strong defence from the men in blue forced handling errors from the home team.
On their first meaningful possession the Force marched down into the Hurricanes half to force a penalty at the breakdown and Peter Grant made no mistake spitting the middle to put the Force up 3-0.
Sensing they had momentum the Hurricanes turned down a shot at the posts in order to kick for the corner. The home side then executed a perfectly worked lineout move to put skipper Dane Coles over in the corner for the first of the night. Barrett slotted the conversion from just inside the sideline to put the Hurricanes up 7-3.
A knock-on from the Force just five-metres out from the line came back to bite the Western Australians as the Hurricanes rebounded through a break from TJ Perena. A late tackle allowed Barrett to nail a penalty on the stroke of halftime to have the home side leading 10-3 at the break.
The Force wasted no time getting on the front foot in the second half going straight down into the Hurricanes 22 and catching them offside. Grant made no mistake from right in front to close the gap to 10-6.
The Hurricanes looked to rebound immediately but Dane Haylett-Petty made a heroic try-saving tackle on Vaea Fifita to drag the big flanker into touch just two-metres short of the line.
The Force went devastating close only to turn the ball over in the maul and the Hurricanes went straight back down to the other end playing with pace they created space for James Marshall to go over in the corner. Barrett missed the conversion to have the home side in front, 15-6.
Another turnover in the midfield cost the Force dearly as Halaholo made a break before a series off offloads to set up TJ Perenara to lunge for the line and touch down. Barrett again added the extras to extend the lead to 16-points, 22-6.
The Hurricanes began to flex their muscle in the final 15-minutes as another line break from midfield saw the Hurricanes burst into space and after a string of offloads Blake Thompson got the reward going over under the posts. Barrett extended the lead to 29-6.
Ngani Laumape added the Hurricanes fifth try of the match after receiving the ball from Ardie Savea before breaking a tackle and going over in the corner to take the score line to 34-6.
With time ticking down the Hurricanes continued their dominance as Ardie Savea went over from a rolling maul in the 79th minute to finalise the 35-point victory, 41-6.
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