Frustrated Force left deflated
A determined fight back was not enough for the Force to haul in the Rebels on Sunday, and although there were positives to take from the defeat at home the Perth side were left frustrated with their performance.
Skills and defence Coach Phil Blake said the poor start had put them on the back foot, and although they put together a much more encouraging display after half-time they know that they were not consistent enough over the 80 minutes to earn the victory.
He explained: "It was a game of two halves as they say. We certainly didn't get off to the start that we wanted to and that put us on the back foot.
"We addressed a few things at the break and the second half was much more committed, our attack at times was really asking questions of the defence and we clawed our way back into the game where we were in a position at the back end of the half to be in front.
"We are not looking at the last incident in isolation. We're looking at the whole 80 minutes, a lot of things contributed to that loss, it wasn't just the penalty at the end. We're copping it as a team and we understand that we need to start a lot better than what we did today," he added.
In what was eerily like their first meeting this season the Rebels made the most of the early going and finished the opening half with a four try bonus point in their back pockets.
All four of the Rebels tries came courtesy of some lax defence by the Force backline, particularly down the left hand wing where three of the Rebels' tries were scored.
Captain David Pocock said it was hard to accept losing at home to their Australian rivals and highlighted the weak defensive effort that saw them concede four tries in the first half as particularly frustrating.
He said: "We're very disappointed as a group. While you saw the character of the group to get ourselves back in the game we just missed too many opportunities.
"Missing simple tackles which then lead to tries it makes it very hard to build any pressure and that is something that is going to have to improve."
