Western Force captain Trilleen Pomare has called on her side to put aside the disappointment of missing out on a home semi-final as they prepare to embark on the SMARTECH Super Rugby Women’s semi-final.
The Force could have secured a maiden home semi-final with victory over the Queensland Reds on Sunday but went down 47-10, leaving them fourth on the ladder.
As a result, the Force will play minor premiers the NSW Waratahs in the semi-finals from 1:05pm WST on Sunday at Leichhardt Oval, live on Stan Sport.
“Credit to the Reds’ girls,” Pomare said after the game.
“They came out and got their home crowd behind them. We can’t take that away from them. We’ve just got the harder route next week.
“I think if we don’t take our learnings it’s going to be the same result. We’ve got the harder route. We don’t have a home semi-final.
“That’s something we’ve got to live by and just got to put our head down and grit our teeth. That’s what wins games.”
Pomare, who had eight tackles, nine carries and five defenders beaten on Sunday, identified the Reds’ fast start and dominance at the collision zone as the keys behind the seven-tries-to-one result.
“We’ll take our learnings from that,” she said. “You can’t win the game without the ball.
“I think early we got put under pressure and they came out with points back to back. We need to be better next week.
“We wanted to dominate the collision zone. We didn’t do that. I think that’s why we were put under so much pressure. Couldn’t play in the right zones.
“It starts off with that first-off collision. We lost that battle today. The girls put on a clinic, to be honest.”
The Force returned to Perth on Sunday evening and will head to Sydney later in the week for Sunday’s game, starting at 1:05pm WST.
