Latest news with #Cron
West Australian
25-05-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Super Rugby Pacific: Western Force coach Simon Cron crestfallen after promising season ends on sour note
Western Force coach Simon Cron says a combination of a lack of high-intensity training, fatigue, injuries and jet lag contributed to a six-game winless run to end their season which ruined their final hopes. When the Force beat the Highlanders on April 5 to move into fourth spot, a first Super Rugby Pacific finals berth beckoned; instead the Force are now at risk of the wooden spoon after their super-point 22-17 loss to the Waratahs. Darby Lancaster's spectacular 90th minute try after the sides could not be separated at the end of regulation gave the visitors a win to keep their own season alive while condemn the Force to a fifth loss in a row. After their first bye, the Force failed to win and only picked up two points the rest of the season, coming in their first game post-break in a 17-17 super point draw with the Hurricanes. While they had chances to beat the Waratahs, Cron conceded they were their own worst enemies and had made poor decisions. Part of the reason for those errors was a lack of sharpness. 'There's a few things tout of our control a little bit in that last six game block. The S&C (strength and conditioning) department was telling me,we probably trained them six times in six weeks at any sort of intensity,' he said. 'That makes makes it more challenging as a coach, because you like to coach when you're on field but unfortunately, that's just the way the cookie crumbled this year with what we were doing.' Injuries and a heavy travel schedule contributed to the Force's lack of high-intensity training in the second half of the season. A swell of injuries to first-team players and key rotational pieces blighted the Force in the run home; starters Marley Pearce, Vaiolini Ekuasi and Divad Palu all missed long stretches through injury. Prop Pearce's shoulder issue was compounded by starting-calibre front-rowers Harry Hoopert and Harry Johnson-Holmes both tearing ACLs before the season even began. In recent weeks, star flanker Carlo Tizzano and important back-rower Nick Champion de Crespigny also missed time, while Wallabies duo Dylan Pietsch and Brandon Paenga-Amosa were restricted to seven games each. 'You're going to lose players at Super Rugby. It's just when we lose that many, we've just got to try and continue to build the depth behind that so that we don't get hunting worldwide,' Cron said. The Force's second bye of the season comes next week, in the final league round of the season — something Cron has repeatedly complained about after his side travelled more than 49,000km in the air this season. 'Funnily enough, this is the boys' bye week, which lines up nicely with our season, giving the highest-travelled team a bye at the end,' Cron said. But both Cron and captain Jeremy Williams conceded they butchered chances against the Waratahs and their decision-making eluded them. 'The big area of growth for us is our very brains in key moments, we sometimes make it a bit hard for ourselves,' Cron said. 'There are probably moments in the game I'd like over, potentially around those penalties and decisions to go to the corner; in hindsight now I would have loved to go to the points, so that's hurting me a fair bit,' Williams said.
West Australian
23-05-2025
- Sport
- West Australian
Super Rugby Pacific: Western Force coach Simon Cron says no motivation needed for final game of season
Western Force coach Simon Cron has dismissed any notion their final Super Rugby Pacific game of the season being a dead rubber despite the finals hopes having bitten the dust. After last week's loss to Fijian Drua slammed the door shut on their finals hopes, an injury-afflicted Force regain a bevy of starters for Saturday evening's clash against the Waratahs at HBF Park. And with the wooden spoon still in play and inter-state pride on the line for the Force, there is plenty at stake heading into the game. While Cron was not focusing too much on the result and insisted his focus was on the performance, he said no motivation was needed for his players despite their finals hopes ending. 'It's extremely disappointing, and you can see it in the faces of everybody in the organization. 'We started really well, and in terms of petering out, there's definitely a few things we can fix in a lot of that season. 'Hopefully that will help us be stronger and continuing to build depth in key positions is a big part of that. It's what we've got to keep driving forward to do. 'Last game is critical for us; we've got the Sea of Blue, we've got supporters, it's our home, our house: you can't give much more motivation than that. 'I don't think you should have to 'g' a player up.' Carlo Tizzano, Nic White, Harry Potter, Ben Donaldson, Dylan Pietsch, Nick Champion de Crespigny and Hamish Stewart are all back for the Force while Fatongia Paea gets a debut at loosehead prop. 'We've got seven guys coming back into the squad this want to play rugby, we want them to play rugby,' Cron said. 'Their rugby brains are really important for us to make good decisions under pressure, and that's big part of experience.' Tizzano has signed a new deal with the Force to take him through to the 2027 Rugby World Cup and Cron said he was excited to have the star flanker back on board. 'We've got a number of guys doing that at the moment. Going forward, the most important thing for us is maintaining our core. 'One was developing the core players, and now it's maintaining and keeping them for the next year. 'There's been a lot of change in the last two years as we start to fight our way back in and he's a big part of that core, so that's awesome for him to re-sign.'
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Yahoo
Stolen tree cutting tools found during Dauphin County traffic stop
SUSQUEHANNA TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WHTM) – Two people were arrested after a traffic stop in Dauphin County that led to the recovery of more than $1,600 worth of stolen tools and tree-cutting equipment. Pennsylvania State Police say on April 22, Troopers initiated a traffic stop on a Ford 500 for multiple traffic violations on I-81N. Troopers say the driver and passenger, Terry Cron and Melissa Geertgens, both of Binghamton, New York, were in possession of drug paraphernalia. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Both were transported to the Dauphin County Booking Center for arraignment, and their vehicle was towed. Throughout their investigation, State Police say they discovered that Cron and Geertgens were in possession of stolen tree-cutting equipment belonging to a man in Endicott, New York. State Police recovered $1,200 worth of chainsaws, as well as hundreds of dollars worth of tools, ropes, straps, and shoes from the vehicle. According to court records, Cron is currently facing a misdemeanor drug charge and multiple traffic offenses, while Geertgens is facing a drug-related misdemeanor. State Police say they're investigating the incident at this time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Refreshed Force aim to prove they're the real deal
Western Force coach Simon Cron insists his team won't rest on their laurels as they prepare for what shapes as a season-defining match against the Hurricanes on Saturday night. The sixth-placed Force have never reached the finals in a full Super Rugby competition, but destiny is in their hands after going into their bye week with a 4-4 record. The Force (20 points) emerged from their bye week refreshed and in sixth spot, and Saturday's match in Perth against the eighth-placed Hurricanes (16 points) looms as a fork-in-the-road moment. After hosting the Hurricanes, the Force travel to New Zealand for games against the second-placed Chiefs and ninth-placed Blues. They finish their campaign against the Brumbies (home), Fijian Drua (away) and Waratahs (home). The Force have never been this well placed to make the finals, but Cron is fully aware it would have been even better had his team not let late leads slip on two occasions against the Reds this season. "The boys won't accept mediocrity, they won't accept average," Cron told reporters on Friday. "The point we've made in our team is that we should have been a little bit higher (on the ladder) had we executed in a couple of other games. "The last thing they will do is accept where they are now." The Force have lost Wallabies winger Dylan Pietsch (quad) for the next three to four weeks. But Bayley Kuenzle will play his first game of the Super Rugby season after recovering from a long-term knee injury. Kuenzle, the runner-up in the 2024 Nathan Sharpe medal, underwent surgery in July last year after injuring his posterior cruciate ligament and medial cruciate ligament playing club rugby. The 26-year-old usually plays flyhalf or inside centre, but he's been named on the wing against the Hurricanes. Nothin' but love for the home fans 😘Throwback to this CLUTCH 2022 try when the @westernforce stole the W away from visiting @Hurricanesrugby 😮💨Who gets bragging rights in Saturday's clash in Perth?#SuperRugbyPacific — Super Rugby Pacific (@SuperRugby) April 18, 2025 "He's really good at shutting down those outside channels, it's a real skill set," Cron said of naming Kuenzle on the wing. "Defensively, from 13 and wing, you've got a lot of space to cover and Bayley has the speed and ability to do that. "He's fast, he's powerful, and we love having him in the team. "BK, from the moment he got injured until now, he's worked so hard to get himself back into a position to get selected." Since thrashing the Waratahs 57-12 on March 28, the Hurricanes have suffered tight losses to the Blues (19-18) and Crusaders (31-24).
