Western Force fly-half Ben Donaldson says he’s feeling good about his own form but it means nothing unless the side start piecing together 80-minute performances to bring up wins.
Donaldson was central to several of the Force’s three tries in Saturday’s hard-fought 22-19 loss to the ACT Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday.
The 24-year-old Wallaby, who crossed from the NSW Waratahs to the Force in the off-season, has impressed onlookers, with Stan Sport discussing him or Carter Gordon as Australia’s top fly-half this week.
While Donaldson was feeling good about his own form, he brushed off the accolades, firmly focusing on getting the Force’s maiden win of the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific season against Moana Pasifika on Friday night at HBF Park.
“I’m quite happy (with my form), to be honest,” Donaldson told reporters. “ Obviously it’s always tough when you’ve not won a game yet but it’s building that consistency week-in week-out.
“We’re building a little bit of consistency, we’re improving week-by-week, even though we’ve not got a win yet. We know if we stick to that process.
“We’re going to continue to play some good footy and string some 80-minute performances together, get some wins on the board and build some momentum into the season.”
The seven-cap Wallaby, who can play either fly-half or full-back, added that the Force coaches had encouraged him to take on the defensive line more in recent weeks, leading to numerous line breaks against the Brumbies.
“Obviously the coaches have been trying to get me to run a bit more,” he said. “I feel like I’m playing my best footy when I am running, challenging the line and getting the boys off me outside me.
“I tried it at training last week, trying to carry a bit more. Being a bit more physical. The coaches set up some nice plays that allowed me to run a bit more. Definitely helped and hopefully we can look to do that this week again.”
Donaldson said he’d seen improvements each week from the Force in their defeats to the Hurricanes, Melbourne Rebels and Brumbies which offered hope, but stringing together a full 80-minute performance was the key.
Along with that, Donaldson said it’s still very early in the season, with Irish forwards coach Jimmy Duffy citing an example in the changerooms from his past that things can turn around.
“There’s a lot of footy to be played this week,” Donaldson said. “Jimmy said it after the game, he’s been part of teams that went 0-3, 0-4, and went on to won the premiership.
“We have that belief. We know we can win those games. We probably felt we should’ve closed out that game on the weekend and even against the Rebels, we felt we did enough for 50-60 minutes and then a few lapses hurt us.
“It’s a long season, we’ve shown plenty of good stuff, we just need to back that up on the training paddock this week.
“I think (captain) Jeremy (Williams) made a good point about not looking too far forward, taking it week by week, if we do that, focus on this week and hopefully get a win, it just builds it.”
Kick-off against Moana Pasifika is 7pm, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. View our GameDay Hub for more info about what's on.
The game is part of a double-header with the Force hosting the Buildcorp Super Rugby Women’s season opener against the Rebels from 4:30pm. Both games are live on Stan Sport.
