The Western Force will face the Chiefs in what is forecast to be a wet and windy match tomorrow at HBF Park.
They’ve started the season slow, only managing to chalk up one win from five matches, with that win coming off their recent travel stint in New Zealand.
Sitting in tenth, they’re hoping tomorrow’s conditions can bring some uncertainty to the match to topple over sixth placed Chiefs.
Force assistant coach Craig Dunlea joined SportFM this morning.
“The weather is uncontrollable… we’ve had a bit of a chat around how we change tactics and what we need to do, but at the end of the day it is what it is, you just have to do what you have to do to make sure you’re on point,” he said.
“At the end of the day it’s still footy. You’ve got to hold onto the ball, you’ve got to look after the ball. Sometimes if the weather is really bad like that it’s better not to have the ball and back your defence.”
They’re time spent in New Zealand gave fans some promising signs for what the team is capable of, with Dunlea saying that they’re disappointed to have only returned home with one victory.
“If you look at the three games, we would have, should have and could have won all three.”
“We definitely let the Highlanders slip, we should have never lost that. Realistically, Hurricanes for 65 minutes of that game we were the better side, we just had a lapse for 15 minutes and they put some points on us and we tried to come back and we couldn’t quite at the end.
“We could have been sitting completely different this season, but we’re obviously not and it’s up to us now to make sure we keep getting results. We’ve put ourselves in that situation, so we’ve got to get ourselves out of it too.”
A big inclusion for the Force was announced this week with the return of Vaiolini Ekuasi at number eight.
The back-rower returns from quad concerns suffered earlier in the season.
“He was in outstanding form. He’s been awesome for us earlier on.”
“He picked up an injury but at the same time it’s probably given him a bit of a break because he played big minutes through preseason and then those first few rounds.
“Watching him at training, he looks fresh, he’s energised, so we’re expecting him to carry on where he left off before the injury.”
League superstar signing Zac Lomax has been training with his new side, with the switch in codes showing promising sides for the Force’s season.
“Some of the stuff he does is outstanding, he’s obviously a hell of an athlete.”
“He’s come straight into our environment and he’s been world-class. He’s contributed, he’s obviously got a bit to learn around the game, but that’s just natural. But then he can also bring some stuff from League that’s going to help us massively as well.”
The match kicks off tomorrow at 4:35pm, and you can listen in on SportFM.
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