Force stun champs in Sydney
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The Western Force started their season in style with a 25-15 bonus-point victory over the Waratahs in Sydney on Sunday.
The Perth side outscored the defending champions by four tries to two to cap an opening round which saw six out of seven away victories.
It was a slow-paced and scrappy game throughout, but the Force made good use of their opportunities to hand the Waratahs their first defeat at home since 2013.
It was a lacklustre effort from the Waratahs, who trailed 8-3 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 wing Rob Horne scored a try double for the Waratahs.
The Force scored their opening try just before half-time when former Waratah flank Alcock barrelled over the line in a pushover try from a line-out win.
Fullback Dane Haylett-Petty was held up over the Waratahs in-goal before blindside flank Cottrell crashed through two poor tackles to score under the crossbar six minutes after half-time for a 15-3 lead.
Horne scored the first of his two tries in the absence of sin-binned Alby Mathewson, but the Kiwi scrumhalf atoned with a smart-thinking kick downfield with no one at home for wing Morahan to score.
The Perth-based side grabbed the bonus point when South African 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 Reds."
Waratahs captain Dave Dennis said his team had let themselves down with a welter of mistakes.
"I thought the preparation and attitude was good, but we just let ourselves down with simple mistakes and turnovers in the game, it was disappointing," Dennis said.
"We are a work in progress, we didn't want a start like that and we've got a bit of work ahead of us now."
Man of the match: Force No.8 Ben McCalman was the only loose forward not to score, but he was impressive throughout, getting his team on the front foot regularly.
The scorers:
For the Waratahs:
Tries: Horne 2
Con: Foley
Pen: Foley
For the Force:
Tries: Alcock, Cottrell, Morahan, Van Wyk
Con: Ebersohn
Pen: Ebersohn
Yellow cards: Wycliff Palu (Waratahs, 35 mins – deliberate infringement) Alby Mathewson (Force, 53 mins – repeated infringements)
Teams:
Waratahs: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Taqele Naiyaravoro, 13 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 12 Kurtley Beale, 11 Rob Horne, 10 Bernard Foley, 9 Nick Phipps, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Jacques Potgieter, 5 Will Skelton, 4 David Dennis (captain), 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
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: 15 Dane Haylett-Petty, 14 Luke Morahan, 13 Kyle Godwin, 12 Solomoni Rasolea, 11 Marcel Brache, 10 Sias Ebersohn, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Ben McCalman, 7 Chris Alcock, 6 Angus Cottrell, 5 Adam Coleman, 4 Sam Wykes (captain), 3 Tetera Faulkner, 2 Nathan Charles, 1 Pek Cowan.
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.
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Damien Mitchelmore (Australia), Michael Hogan (Australia)
TMO: Ian Smith (Australia)
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