Super Rugby Pacific: Western Force outside back George Bridge hoping to kickstart season against Hurricanes

Former All Black George Bridge will enjoy a homecoming of sorts on Friday night, and he hopes a return to his old haunt can help kick-start the Western Force’s Super Rugby Pacific campaign. And while Friday’s clash with the Hurricanes in Napier is occupying Bridge’s current thoughts, the outside back has pledged to do everything he can to help star recruit Zac Lomax when the rugby league-convert arrives at the club. After three losses in their opening four games, the Force will face one of their toughest assignments of the season when they take on the Hurricanes in a match which shapes as a season-defining game. The venue for Friday’s game of Mclean Park is just 20 minutes from Bridge’s alma mater of Lindisfarne College, which put the now-30 year-old on the road to his try-laden stint with the Crusaders, 19 All Blacks caps and three years in France Top 14 with Montpellier. “I’ve got lots of cousins here in Hawke’s Bay, and then my family’s from up the road in Gisborne, two and a half hours away. My whole family’s got a whole tent booked out on Friday, which is great,” Bridge said. “It should be good to catch up with everyone and then got lots of schoolmates in Hawke’s Bay too, so it’s a pretty social week for me, but I’ve obviously got to focus in on the footy as well.” Bridge has quickly made an impact at the Force with his defensive acumen and two tries over the past couple of games, but admits the team’s lean start to the season — and especially their 39-31 loss to the Highlanders last week — had left the squad frustrated. “Results haven’t really been going our way, and it’s been pretty disappointing. We set our standards pretty high for each other, and want to get the results week in, week out,” he said. “We’ve been taking learnings from each game so far, and there’s been little bits and pieces that we can take away from them, and hopefully we can get a win this weekend and lead us into the bye next weekend, and then continue to grow from there.” With much of the talk this week revolving around the imminent arrival of former NSW State of Origin star Zac Lomax, Bridge said as a seasoned outside back, he would be happy to get Lomax up to speed on the 15-aside game. “For us as a club, it’s an amazing opportunity for us to help him and get him on board. It’s going to be reasonably big job for me to get him up to date with everything, with union and positional play and stuff like that, which is going to be an exciting challenge for me,” Bridge said. “He’s an amazing athlete, so if we can get him up to date really quickly, then he’s going to be very helpful for our team.” Bridge made his name as a winger but has lined up at outside centre for most of the season, with coach Simon Cron utilising his defensive instincts in midfield. “I’ve been really enjoying it so far. I played wing on the weekend, but it’s been a good challenge,” Bridge said. “The defensive side of things, it’s just making a few more tackles and whatnot now, but I’m enjoying the physicality. Super Rugby’s a lot quicker than than French rugby, that’s for sure, so it’s keeping me on my toes.”