Mitchell keeps the faith in losing squad
Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:14
Western Force head coach John Mitchell has named an unchanged run-on side for Saturday's clash with the Waratahs in Perth, backing in his players' ability to respond to the challenge.
There are three forced changes on the replacement bench - with injured trio Pek Cowan (shoulder), Matt Dunning (concussion) and Jono Jenkins, who broke his ankle just moments into his Super Rugby debut, being replaced by Ben Whittaker, Kieran Longbottom and Luke Jones respectively.
The disappointing result in last Sunday's match against the Reds has only served to strengthen the resolve amongst the group to turn their fortunes around and Mitchell said continuity with the match-day squad was important in that process.
"We have selected the same team and put accountability back with on the same players. They are good players, so it is just a matter of being more attentive to the detail," Mitchell said.
"You would think that from previous performances some players will want to respond because they weren't happy with the last performance."
Western Force: 15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Scott Staniforth, 13 Ryan Cross, 12 James O'Connor, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 David Hill, 9 Brett Sheehan, 8 Richard Stanford, 7 Matt Hodgson, 6 Ben McCalman, 5 Nathan Sharpe (captain), 4 Sam Wykes, 3 Tim Fairbrother, 2 Ryan Tyrrell, 1 Nic Henderson.
Replacements: 16 Ben Whittaker, 17 Kieran Longbottom, 18 Tom Hockings, 19 Luke Jones, 20 Chris O'Young, 21 Sam Harris, 22 Mitch Inman.
Date: Saturday, March 20
Venue: ME Bank Stadium, Perth
Kick-off: 19.10 (11.10 GMT)
Referee: Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Stuart Dickinson (Australia), Lourens van der Merwe (South Africa)
TMO: Julian Pritchard (Australia)
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