Western Force looking to lift in skipper Matt Hodgson’s 100th game

THE speech Matt Hodgson won’t be delivering before his 100th game for the Western Force tonight was articulated by the club’s other Wallaby, Ben McCalman.

Matt Hodgson (centre) will be looking to guide his side to a win in his 100th Super Rugby

THE speech Matt Hodgson won’t be delivering before his 100th game for the Western Force in tonight’s derby clash with the Melbourne Rebels was articulated by the club’s other senior Wallaby statesman, Ben McCalman.

The big No.8 wasn’t diluting the importance of routing the Rebels and saluting their skipper with the right result on the scoreboard when he described Hodgson’s legacy as a “selfless player” who puts the team above himself and plays above his weight.

“We want to make it special for him and the crowd as well, because we’re not happy with the way we played in the first 20 minutes against the Brumbies (last Saturday) when the damage was done. Now we want to turn it around, put in an 80-minute performance and give Hodgo what he deserves,” McCalman said.

Hodgson will run out tonight achieving the dual distinction of having played in the Force’s first-ever Super Rugby match in 2006 and becoming the first man to play 100 games for the club.

And McCalman wants to strike the right chords of celebration, particularly as the club’s last major historic milestone - former skipper Nathan Sharpe’s record-breaking 162nd, and last, Super Rugby game in 2012 - ended on a losing note to the Crusaders in New Zealand.

To win tonight the Force are going to have to turn around a diabolical record against the Rebels that has seen them losing five of their six matches to the newest club in the competition.

McCalman, 25, was on the winning side and delivered a man-of-the-match performance when he played his 50th game against the Highlanders last season. His powerful ball carrying was again a feature in last Saturday’s second-half revival for the Force that gained some respectability from the 27-14 capitulation to the Brumbies.

The Force pack struggled to generate go-forward momentum in the match, in particular launching driving mauls from lineouts close to the tryline, but McCalman said the team had identified its shortfalls.

“At the breakdown we lacked intensity early on that put them (Brumbies) on the front foot and us defending on the back foot. We gave them a 21 point head start before we switched on and started to play, but any side would find it hard to come back from that,” said the No.8.

“It starts with good clean ball at the set piece. Then our backs have got good, front-foot momentum to build off. We saw that in the second half last weekend. When we turned around our defence and then secured first phase it was not too hard.

“The problem in the last two games was us giving away easy points, but that is an attitude that is easy to fix. Hopefully we have done so now, but we’re certainly confident and willing to play to give Hodgo a win from a match we want to remember for all the right reasons,” McCalman added.

There’s little time to dwell on poor results in Super Rugby, but McCalman acknowledged that the Force’s kicking game would also have to improve tonight to yield the desired outcome.

“The execution of our kicks (against the Brumbies) was not where it should have been and how they landed in terms of applying pressure to playing where we wanted to play. Now we have to make sure we’re on the money with our kick and chase. We were also criticised for playing wide instead of through the middle, but that too is something we have adjusted to this week,” McCalman said.

The matchj kicks off at 4:40pm and is live on Fox Sports.

FORCE: 15. Jayden Hayward 14. Luke Morahan 13. Junior Rasolea 12. Kyle Godwin 11. Nick Cummins 10. Sias Ebersohn 9. Alby Mathewson 8. Ben McCalman 7. Matt Hodgson (capt) 6. Angus Cottrell 5. Wilhelm Steenkamp 4. Sam Wykes 3. Kieran Longbottom 2. Nathan Charles 1. Pek Cowan. Reserves: 17. Heath Tessmann 18. Tetera Faulkner 19. Ollie Hoskins 20. Adam Coleman 21. Brynard Stander 22. Ian Prior 22. Zack Holmes 23. Marcel Brache.

REBELS: 15. Jason Woodward 14. Tom Kingston 13. Tamati Ellison 12. Mitch Inman 11. Tom English 10. Angus Roberts 9. Luke Burgess 8. Scott Higginbotham (capt) 7. Colby Fainga’a 6. 5. Cadeyrn Neville 4. Hugh Pyle 3. Paul Alo-Emile 2. Pat Leafa 1. Max Lahiff Reserves: 16. Shota Horie 17. Toby Smith 18. Laurie Weeks 19. Luke Jones 20. Lopeti Timani 21. Ben Meehan 22. Bryce Hegart 23 Lachlan Mitchell.