Emirates Western Force

Cheetahs (SA)

The Western Force won their first ever Super 14 match on Saturday night producing a brilliant defensive display to emerge 16-14 victors over the Cheetahs in Kimberley, South Africa.

The Force were under pressure for most of the match but were able to repel wave after wave of Cheetahs attack and record the historic victory.

The West Australians were down 14-9 deep into the second half after the scores were tied at 6-all at halftime and were on the ropes after being starved of possession.

The Cheetahs spent nearly all of the second half camped inside the Force 22 and had plenty of opportunities for the easy penalty goal but inexplicitly opted to go for five-pointers and the decision backfired on them.

The Force defended grimly on their line and against the run of play, attacking Force defence forced an intercept to replacement centre Junior Pelesasa. He quickly offloaded to a flying Scott Staniforth and the in-form back bolted away for his fourth try in the last two matches.

Cameron Shepherd converted and the Western Force found themselves in front 16-14 with just eight minutes to play. And as if having learnt after coming so close with two draws in their last two games the debutant Australian outfit held on.

Earlier, the first half was a dour affair punctuated with solid defence, dropped ball and long ranging kicks. Cheetahs flyhalf Willem de Waal and Force fullback Shepherd kicked two penalties each for the only scores as neither team looked like threatening the tryline.

After the break, both sides kicked a penalty to take the score to 9-all before the Cheetahs gained the ascendancy.

In the 48th minute, de Waal found himself on the end of a scrappy backline movement to go over for a try out wide. He missed his conversion to leave the home team 14-9 ahead and with the momentum.

The Cheetahs should have gone on to win the match after a mountain of territory and possession but they paid the price for eschewing penalties and running sideways in attack in the face of ferocious Force defence.

And as the final siren sounded the Western Force team threw their arms into the air in a sense of relief and joy at finally recording the first Super rugby win in their history.

Western Force 16

Tries: Staniforth

Conversions: Shepherd

Penalty Goals: Shepherd 3

Cheetahs 14

Tries: de Waal

Penalty Goals: de Waal 3