Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\nSo what did we learn?<\/p>\n
1. So close, yet so far<\/p>\n
With 12 minutes to play, Force fans could\u2019ve been forgiven for thinking their horror run against Kiwi opponents across the ditch was finally over.<\/p>\n
George Bridge\u2019s 68th minute try put them ahead 31-29 and hopes were high of securing back-to-back wins in NZ for the first time since 2008.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t to be as the \u2018Landers struck back through Caleb Tangitau before Reesjan Pasitoa\u2019s late penalty goal twisted the knife.<\/p>\n
The Force did so much right – especially around their defensive line out – but missed conversions and ill discipline around the ruck took their toll.<\/p>\n
2. Line out highs and ruck lows<\/p>\n
No-one does a defensive line out like the Force.<\/p>\n
Simon Cron\u2019s side made life a living hell for the Highlanders with seven line-out steals under the roof.<\/p>\n
Jack Taylor couldn\u2019t catch a break as Williams, Swain, Champion de Crespigny and Harris picked off throws at will.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the Force\u2019s set piece highs were tempered by their lows at ruck time.<\/p>\n
Timoci Tavatavanawai had a field day over the ball as the \u2018Landers forced seven ruck and maul turnovers.<\/p>\n
3. Cool-hand Jeremy<\/p>\n
Jeremy Williams deserves a round of applause for his quick-thinking try.<\/p>\n
Caught half a metre short from the chalk after a pick-and-drive, Williams went to ground and deftly placed the ball – forwards – over the try-line.<\/p>\n
His 36th minute masterstroke stunned the Highlanders (and the crowd) with referee Ben O\u2019Keefe the only one to react.<\/p>\n
The Sky Sport commentary team were also left momentarily speechless while Williams laughed all the way to the halfway mark.<\/p>\n
4. Reesjan’s final blow<\/p>\n
There’s a cruel irony in seeing a former teammate and Perth junior sink the Force in Dunedin.<\/p>\n
Reesjan Pasitoa was lining up for Simon Cron last year and spent several injury-plagued years with the Force.<\/p>\n
Now he’s the man who delivered the killing stroke – his late penalty goal pushing the margin out to eight points, the result beyond doubt and denying the Force a losing bonus point.<\/p>\n
No-one can begrudge seeing the man once anointed Australia’s next generational flyhalf succeed but it’s a tough pill to swallow when that success comes at an Aussie team’s expense.<\/p>\n
5. Rough road ahead to Welly<\/p>\n
No bars about it, that narrow loss will be a sucker punch to the Force’s hopes of a maiden finals berth.<\/p>\n
Cron’s men now take their three-week Kiwi tour to the nation’s capital where the red-hot Hurricanes lay in wait.<\/p>\n
The Canes were imperious in their 59-19 demolition of the Waratahs and will enter Round 5 as heavy favourites.<\/p>\n
Now sitting 1-3 and with a Round 6 bye ahead, the Force risk losing touch with the pack and will be desperate to take something home from the Windy City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Force fell just short of a hoodoo-busting win across the ditch, falling 39-31 in Dunedin They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,29898],"class_list":["post-524143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-super-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}