Force fire on their travels
The Force grabbed their second successive win in New Zealand with a 36-28 result against the Highlanders in Queenstown.
Last Updated: 22/03/08 7:14am
The Force grabbed their second successive Super 14 win in New Zealand with a 36-28 result against the Highlanders in Queenstown.
The home side were beaten by poor discipline in the closing stages, with three late penalties allowing first Matt Giteau and then Cameron Shepherd to kick the game-clinching points.
The Highlanders were in a winning position but could not close the game out. 28-20 up with 20 minutes to go, the concentration evaporated completely.
In contrast, the Force were clinical about the chances they did get, hence their victory in a game which they had little control of. Giteau and Shepherd kicked seven-from-seven between them.
Cagey opening
Giteau and Bowden exchanged penalties in a cagey opening ten minutes, before Highlanders centre Aaron Bancroft opened the serious scoring with a blistering solo try.
Suddenly the game opened up. Drew Mitchell made a 50-metre break to near the hosts' line and then saw his offload knocked on.
Back the momentum swung to the home team, with Tom Donnelly intercepting a pass out wide and breaking but holding on a little unnecessarily in the tackle.
Then the Force went back on the attack and this time they scored, with lock Tom Hockings feeding off an inside pass from Ryan Cross to score, Giteau converting.
Cross had an excellent game, and five minutes later it was his clean break that put the Force in the lead. The back-row support nearly made a hash of the final movement, but just as soon as Fetu'u Vainikolo had stolen the loose pass, he had it ripped off him by Richard Brown, who went on to score.
In a game of ebb and flow, the Highlanders seized the initiative back one more time before the break, and Bowden landing a penalty to make it 13-17.
See-saw half
There were fewer twists and turns in the second half. The first part of it belonged to the Highlanders, the second to the visitors.
Within three minutes of the restart, Paul Williams finished off a terrific inter-passing move between himself, James Wilson and Hoani McDonald, and then a Staniforth try for the Force was disallowed for the winger's use of his elbow to crawl over the line.
Within two minutes, Vainikolo had taken a switch pass from Williams and steamed home from 50 metres. Bowden had missed the first conversion, but notched this one, and the Highlanders led 25-17.
Now James Stannard made a break for the Force, and he saw his offload batted down rather cynically by a retreating Highlander. It could have been a penalty try, but referee Mark Lawrence decided it was only a penalty offence, and Giteau made it 25-20.
Bowden restored the gap to eight on the hour mark with a penalty of his own but the Force refused to give up, despite feeling hard done by on both the Staniforth and Stannard decisions.
The Highlanders were awarded an advantage at a knock-on, but on that first phase of advantage, Cross intercepted a Cowan pass. Referee Lawrence decided advantage had already run its course and Cross raced home for the try under the posts.
From here, the Highlanders should have closed the game out. But three offsides, one at a tackle, one stupid one at a kick, and one for breaking early from the scrum, were all punished.
