Super Rugby Pacific: Western Force fall to 24-14 loss to Chiefs as finals hopes appear slimmer by the minute

Western Force’s disappointing Super Rugby Pacific season continued as they failed to take advantage of late-game opportunities in a 24-14 defeat to the Chiefs at HBF Park. Just six games into the campaign, the Force are already 10 points off the pace of a finals berth and remain second bottom as they once again failed to collect a bonus point from the defeat. And they could be without star loose forward Carlo Tizzano for their looming two-game road trip to Queensland and Fiji after he came off at half-time and sported a knee brace post-game. “It’s precautionary, he got cleaned out in one of those breakdowns, and it’s a little bit of mobility in the knee,” Force coach Simon Cron said post-game. “They’ve put in the brace for precaution and we’ll obviously go through the process medically as to how he pulls up. Around the 38th minute, he tweaked it again, he wasn’t right to play on after half-time.” The Force battled hard, coming back from a 14-7 deficit to level the scores midway through the second-half, but threw away a golden chance to tie the game with a one-man advantage in the final 15 minutes. While they did not ship points in the same manner of their other defeats, with five losses from six games the Force’s hopes of a drought-breaking finals berth appear to be getting slimmer by the minute. Entering the match, the Chiefs had earned the mantle of the league’s fastest-starters due to their ability to rack up points early, but the Force were able to keep them quiet early by keeping the ball in hand and applying territorial pressure. With a number of changes in their backline, the Chiefs struggled to gel early and their attack was narrow at times. When they did pierce the line, they were met by some desperate Force defence as Nick Champion de Crespigny (24 tackles) and Vaiolini Ekuasi (20 tackles) led the way. The Force did well to hold out a 26-phase Chiefs assault which ended on their goal-line in the 21st minute, but with the visitors holding a penalty advantage, Luke Jacobson found some space for the game’s opening try. With the away side slowly starting to starve the hosts of possession, they began to poke holes in the Force’s defensive line and only a forward pass from Xavier Roe and a scrambling breakdown penalty won by Henry Robertson prevented the Chiefs from adding to their lead. The Force’s response just after the half-hour mark almost came out of nowhere as George Bridge out-duelled Chiefs star Damian McKenzie in the air inside 22 and the ball bobbled backwards off his arm into the lap of Max Burey to make it 7-7. But the Chiefs regained the lead just before the break as Josh Jacomb found a soft spot down the left edge and rolled home untouched. While the storm some were expecting never materialised, the rain did make its presence felt as the two sides emerged for the second half. The Force looked like they had blown a line-out in the corner when Champion de Crespigny could not grasp the throw, but a Chiefs knock-on gave them a second bite of the apple and in the 49th minute they capitalised when Jeremy Williams touched down to cap several waves of pressure. Immediately, the visitors went on the front foot. Two enterprising breaks under advantage by Leroy Carter — the second of which saw him bobble the ball over the try-line — came to nothing, before the Force held out for 18 phases but infringed again. A minute later, the Chiefs finally made the penalty advantage count as Samisoni Taukei’aho fell over the line, before Mackenzie’s third conversion of the afternoon extended the lead to 21-14. But the Force were not done, and Darby Lancaster made use of the slick surface as he almost grubbered his way to a try and while Kaylum Boshier just did enough to ground the ball first, it gave the Force a scrum close to the line. When the hosts were held up over the line, Chief prop Ollie Norris was yellow-carded — however, the Force failed to make the attacking scrum count and quickly ceded possession. Mackenzie missed a 73rd-minute penalty goal which would have likely out the game out of reach for the hosts, but the Force got in their own way late and Mackenzie made amends from the tee late in the game to deprive the hosts of a bonus point.