Giteau saves the Force
Matt Giteau landed a last-minute penalty from 40 metres to hand the Western Force an ultimately deserved 16-15 win in the Super 14 on Friday.
Last Updated: 22/02/08 6:49pm
Matt Giteau landed a last-minute penalty from 40 metres to hand the Western Force an ultimately deserved 16-15 win in the Super 14 on Friday.
Conrad Barnard had a shot for the posts to seal the deal for the Cheetahs in the dying moments, but pushed it right, and from the two-minute-long counter-attack from behind their own line, the Force managed to eke out the penalty for Giteau to land.
It was rough justice in a way, for the Cheetahs had clung on tenaciously, but the overall domination of the Australians over the 80 minutes deserved little less than the win.
Giteau, scorer of all his team's points, varied play wisely. He kicked prudently and economically, and gave his centres and runners all the space they needed to run into to make the hard yards.
But what the home team lacked in comparative playing intelligence, they made up for in enthusiasm and strength. It was only two pieces of silliness late on that cost them a valiant victory.
They even held the lead for roughly half the match. After some promising play from the Force, a portent of things to come, the Cheetahs scored off their first meaningful spell of pressure in the sixth minute.
Gavin Passens broke the line out on the left and got himself to the Force's 22. Back the quick ball came to the right, with Barend Pieterse making some hard yards up the middle, and then out it went right again to tall full-back Hennie Daniller who powered home in the corner. Jacques-Louis Potgieter's conversion was superb from the touchline, and it was 7-0 to the home team.
Back came the Force, winning the restart, and just two minutes later it was back even. Drew Mitchell made a stepping break up the left and when the ball came back, Giteau had an acre of space to step through and saunter under the posts.
Excellently
The Cheetahs were kept continually on the back foot for much of the first half hour, with the Australians retaining ball excellently - perhaps helped by the rub of the green on occasion - and with Mitchell in particular looking lively with the ball in hand.
A cynical 'off-your-feet' penalty gave Giteau the chance to give his side the lead for the first time after 17 minutes, but cracks were beginning to appear in the Force's veneer.
The Perth scrum was under heavy pressure. Where the Cheetahs had no problem stabilising their set piece, the Force's was often reset, a clear indicator that the props were shaking.
Eventually the pressure told. A Force scrum in their own 22 disintegrated and big flanker Heinrich Broussouw peeled off the back of it to take the loose ball, brush Giteau aside, and crash over for the score in the 33rd minute. It was 12-10 to the home team, yet they had had only 29 per cent of the possession and had been forced into making more than three times as many tackles as their guests.
Those stats persisted, as did the pattern of the game. By the hour mark the pattern of the game had not changed, and the Force had had both 65 per cent of possession and territory. Yet still, all they had to show for their efforts post-break was another Giteau penalty - a bizarre one awarded when Conrad Barnard ran on as a substitute without the referee's assistant's permission.
Grunt
Slowly, the Cheetahs, presumably taking advantage of the acclimatisation difficulties being suffered by their opposition, wore their way down to the Force 22 with a mixture of astute kicking and hefty forward grunt, and Barnard was given the chance to atone for his earlier misjudgement with 15 to go. He slotted it, and the home team led once more, 15-13.
So it stayed. The Force tired, and the Cheetahs held their shape, with Barnard, Meyer Bosman, and Daniller punting huge energy-sapping kicks way back down into Force territory as their defensive line grew in stature and turnovers were forced.
And in the final minute: another Bloemfontein finale to match that of last week. Barnard was given a shot at goal. He sliced it across the face. Mitchell and Scott Daruda ran it back superbly to the half-way line. Back and forth the ball went for two precious minutes, with the metres slowly being eaten up as the Force runners, all fifteen of them, utilised every last ounce of strength to carry it on or drive over in support.
The pressure got too much for Broussouw, who lay on a ruck ball as innocently as if he had been planted there, and Giteau made no mistake. Another one-point home loss for the Cheetahs, but considering the nature of the penalties that sacrificed the win, they have only themselves to blame.
