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McKenzie: 'Reds must work on new law'

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:19

Reds head coach Ewen McKenzie conceded his players have more homework to do on the new tackle law interpretations, after being heavily penalised in last Friday's 12-31 pre-season Super 14 loss to the Western Force in Perth.

McKenzie said the Force played well to deserve their three tries to two win, but lamented his side's mistakes and the 12 points they conceded from penalty goals - just a week out from their tournament opener, against the Waratahs in Brisbane on Saturday .

"I think we learned that if you kick the ball away and give away stupid penalties it's hard work," McKenzie said.

"There's a couple of lessons there but nothing mind shattering. It's pretty much the basics of the game we didn't get right, but that's fine - it gives us something to work on."

McKenzie said his players will also need to work on adjusting to life under the SANZAR directive to referees to crack down on defending teams attempting to slow the clearance of ball from the ruck by lying over the ball or failing to release the tackled player.

"Some of the guys are still playing the game that was being played last year and it's definitely a different game at the tackle now," McKenzie said.

"You only saw two penalties I think rewarding the defending team for stealing the ball. All the penalties went the other way in terms of tacklers not rolling away. That's the way it is; it gives a lot more confidence to attack as you could see in the game - you get a lot more momentum, a lot of phases to play around with. So we'll work with that and that's the benefit of the trials, to see what we've got."

McKenzie said he was disappointed to lose the trial, but said the pre-season had served its purpose of giving teams the chance to test combinations and systems.

"All credit to them [the Force], I thought they played with good endeavour and enterprise. I'm certainly not denigrating the Force; they played well but we were pretty average.

"We didn't come here to come second so it's disappointing from that point of view, but a lot happens in seven days in rugby.. so we're pretty determined to make sure our first home game at Suncorp is a good one."

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