Final buzzer heartbreak for Western Force in the most dramatic of fashions
The Western Force have suffered a heartbreaking 20-19 loss to the Chiefs after Argentinian flyhalf Domingo Miotti missed a conversion attempt after the final siren.
The Chiefs skipped out to a 20-7 lead in the 57th minute of Saturday night’s match after producing a two-try burst following a yellow card to Force winger Jordan Olowofela.
But the match took a dramatic twist when Chiefs No.8 Luke Jacobson was red carded in the 66th minute for his second bookable offence of the match.
Force winger Richard Kahui crossed in the 68th minute to close the margin to six points, and the gap was just one when Miotti scored after the final siren.
It meant Miotti could win the game with his conversion attempt – but he hooked his kick.
The finish was eerily similar to the Crusaders’ 31-29 win over the Brumbies earlier in the day, in which Brumbies flyhalf Noah Lolesio missed a conversion attempt on the final siren to cost his side a draw.
The pulsating victory for the Chiefs meant all five of New Zealand’s sides posted wins in week one of the Super Rugby Trans-Tasman competition.
Chiefs centre Anton Lienert-Brown thought he opened the scoring in the fifth minute, but the try was disallowed after the TMO spotted a knock-on from scrumhalf Brad Weber.
The reprieve didn’t last long for the Force, who lost their own scrum soon after in a piece of play that resulted in a try for Chiefs centre Alex Nankivell.
Scrum issues continued to plague the Force, and they were forced to defend grimly for long periods of the opening half.
The home team received a double slice of luck when Lienert-Brown and Jacobson were sin binned within two minutes of each other.
The Force were awarded a penalty try in between the two yellow cards to level the scores, but the Crusaders took a 10-7 lead into halftime when they slotted a late penalty despite being down to 13 men.
The Crusaders held fir m early in the second half while still down to 13 men , and the Force went down a man in the 53rd minute when Olowofela was sin-binned for a cynical knockdown.
This absolutely heart-breaking for the Force ?#FORvCHI #SuperRugbyTT #SuperRugbyTransTasman
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Credit: @rugbycomau https://t.co/CGcEcl9Tpq— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 15, 2021
Chiefs hooker Nathan Harris and winger Jonah Lowe crossed over for tries within minutes of Olowofela’s exit to stretch the lead to 20-7, with McKenzie failing to nail the conversion on both occasions.
The Force were given a glimmer of hope in the 66th minute when Jacobson, who had been back on the field for less than 20 minutes following his first yellow card, was shown a red card for interfering at the breakdown.
That glimmer of hope became a realistic victory shot when the Force swung the ball wide to the left for Kahui to cross over.
The home fans were in ecstasy when Miotti crossed at the death to set up a match-winning conversion attempt, but the kick was wide of the target.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments