The Western Force started their tenth season in Super Rugby with a shock 13-25
bonus point victory over the champion Waratahs in Sydney.
The Force outscored the 2014 Super Rugby champions by four tries to one to
win their opening fixture for the first time in their ten year history.
The result comes after a weekend of upsets as six of the seven teams playing at home lost their opening fixture as only the Brumbies won their home match.
The Waratahs handling let them down in the fixture and lacked any urgency compared to the Force who were deserved winners and never behind on the scoreboard.
The Waratahs, who beat the Crusaders for their maiden Super Rugby championship
last season, were lethargic and error-prone as the Force pulled off a bonus-point
victory for their third win in Sydney.
The Force, who narrowly missed out on last season’s playoffs, scored four tries
to two with their South African goalkicking fly-half Sias Ebersohn landing only
one conversion and a penalty from seven shots.
It was a lacklustre effort from the Waratahs, who trailed 3-8 at half-time
and conceded some soft tries in the second half to get their season off to a
shaky start.
The Force scored tries through Chris Alcock, Angus Cottrell, Luke Morahan and
Francois van Wyk, while Wallaby winger Rob Horne scored a try double for the
Waratahs.
The Force scored their opening try just before half-time when former Waratah
flanker Alcock barrelled over the line in a pushover try from a lineout win.
Fullback Dane Haylett-Petty was held up over the Waratahs in-goal before blindside
flanker Cottrell crashed through two poor tackles to score under the crossbar
six minutes after half-time for a 3-15 lead.
Horne scored the first of his two tries in the absence of sin-binned Alby Mathewson,
but the Kiwi scrum-half atoned with a smart-thinking kick downfield with no
one at home for winger Morahan to score.
The Perth-based side grabbed the bonus point when replacement prop van Wyk
charged down Kurtley Beale’s risky chip kick inside his own quarter to gallop
over.
Horne grabbed his second try with three minutes left and the Waratahs went
after a losing bonus point but time beat them.
“It wasn’t pretty with our set-piece but we just fought our way out of
it and we just stayed on the whole game, the boys were outstanding,” Force
skipper Sam Wykes said.
“We want to go one better than last year and we have performance goals
along the way that we need to tick off and we have a hard game next week against
the Queensland Reds.”
Final Score’Waratahs 13 (3) W.Force 25 (8)’
Scorers
Waratahs’
Tries – R.Horne 2
Pen – B.Foley
Con –
Drop -‘
Cards -W.Palu (34th min yellow)
W.Force
Tries -”C.Alcock, A.Cottrell, L.Morahan,’F.van Wyk
Pen – S.Ebersohn
Con – S.Ebersohn
Drop -‘
Cards -A.Mathewson (53rd min yellow)
Match Officials
Referee: Steve Walsh
Assistant Ref 1:Damien Mitchelmore
Assistant Ref 2:Michael Hogan
TMO‘: Ian Smith
Teams
Waratahs
Benn Robinson , 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau , 3 Sekope Kepu , 4 David Dennis (C) , 5 Will Skelton , 6 Jaques Potgieter , 7 Michael Hooper (VC) , 8 Wycliff Palu , 9 Nick Phipps , 10 Bernard Foley , 11 Rob Horne , 12 Kurtley Beale , 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper (VC) , 14 Taqele Naiyaravoro , 15 Israel Folau
Replacements: 16 Tolu Latu , 17 Jeremy Tilse , 18 Paddy Ryan , 19 Sam Lousi , 20 Mitchell Chapman , 21 Stephen Hoiles , 22 Brendan McKibbin , 23 Matt Carraro
Western Force
1. Pekahou Cowan , 2. Nathan Charles , 3. Tetera Faulkner , 4. Sam Wykes (c) , 5. Adam Coleman , 6. Angus Cottrell , 7. Chris Alcock , 8. Ben McCalman , 9. Alby Mathewson , 10. Sias Ebersohn , 11. Marcel Brache , 12. Solomoni Jnr Rasolea , 13. Kyle Godwin , 14. Luke Morahan , 15. Dane Haylett-Petty
Replacements : 16. Heath Tessmann , 17. Francois van Wyk , 18. Oliver Hoskins , 19. Steve Mafi** , 20. Brynard Stander , 21. Ian Prior , 22. Zack Holmes , 23. Luke Burton ,
** denotes Western Force/Super Rugby debut