Grab a Force 3-Game Flexi Membership from $84 for adults, with all the added Member benefits like 10% merch discounts, Members-only bars, priority access to Wallabies tickets and more.<\/a><\/p>\nThe Force were left to rue errors and penalties in the
\nsecond half, having stormed into a 21-17 half-time lead following consecutive
\ntries late in the opening 40, including Hamish Stewart\u2019s on the siren set up by
\nBen Donaldson\u2019s line break.<\/p>\n
The visitors had found an edge with Nathan Hastie\u2019s kicking game
\ncombined with several lineout steals in the first half, finishing with seven
\nfor the game.<\/p>\n
But the home side played smarter in the second 40,
\nnullifying those advantages, with Timoci Tavatavanawai a major factor as they
\ngot their running game going.<\/p>\n
The game ended five tries each as Highlanders backs Tangitau
\nand Jonah Lowe both scored doubles. <\/p>\n
The Highlanders won the key stats with ball in hand, with
\n536 metres gained compared to the Force\u2019s 300, along with 33-16 defenders
\nbeaten and 9-2 clean breaks. The visitors weren\u2019t helped by 37 missed tackles. <\/p>\n
The WA side are now 1-1 from their three-game New Zealand
\nroad trip, with their final assignment coming next Friday against the Hurricanes
\nin Napier from 2:05pm WST live on Stan Sport.<\/p>\n
Earlier it was the Highlanders who scored first after
\nprobing early, with Veveni Lasaqa dotting in the ninth minute as the home side
\ncapitalised on broken play down the left edge.<\/p>\n
The Otago side went 10-0 up Cam Millar\u2019s 15th-minute
\npenalty but the Force rallied with a period of possession dominance with 17
\nphases before Hastie\u2019s box kick set up an opportunity. In-form back-rower
\nVaiolini Ekuasi barged over after a Force lineout.<\/p>\n
Millar missed a penalty at 10-7, but out of nothing the
\nHighlanders scored again with Jonah Lowe shrugging off a taken down the right edge
\nto score.<\/p>\n
Stewart came up with a now-trademark 50-22, opening up a
\nForce attacking raid that ended with captain Jeremy Williams stretching over to
\nscore.<\/p>\n
Moments later, the Force had a half-time lead as Donaldson
\njinked inside and burst through the \u2018Landers line, offloading inside for Stewart
\nto cross.<\/p>\n
The Force had field position early in the second half but couldn\u2019t
\nland a punch to open up a two-score game, with back-to-back penalties after a
\n10m lineout allowing the Highlanders out.<\/p>\n
\u2018Landers centre Tavatavanawai went on a set of rampaging
\nruns, before Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens\u2019s grubber bounced kindly Lowe to
\nscore again. Jona Nareki\u2019s wide cutout pass set up Caleb Tangitau\u2019s try as the
\nhome side went 29-21 up.<\/p>\n
But the Force responded again, turning to their lineout maul
\nto narrow the gap as Carlo Tizzano got over for his fourth try in four games.<\/p>\n
In the 66th minute, the Force went ahead for the
\nsecond time, with reserve Kurtley Beale darting clear and laying off for
\nBridge, who showed strength to power over despite three Highlanders trying to
\nhaul him down.<\/p>\n
However, there was a fifth lead change as the Highlanders
\nre-claimed the lead barely 60 seconds later after Noriki\u2019s chip and chase, led
\nto Tangitau scooting over unmarked down the right as the Force defence
\nscrambled. <\/p>\n
The visitors couldn\u2019t connect as they tried to build late
\npressure, before Pasitoa\u2019s penalty with four minutes to play iced the game.<\/p>\n
Highlanders 39<\/p>\n
Tries: Lasaqa (9\u2019), Lowe 2x (27\u2019, 53\u2019), Tangitau 2x (58\u2019, 69\u2019)<\/p>\n
Conversions: Millar 34, Pasitoa 1\/1<\/p>\n
Penalties: Millar 1\/2, Pasitoa 1\/1<\/p>\n
Western Force 31<\/p>\n
Tries: Ekuasi (20\u2019), Williams (35\u2019), Stewart (39\u2019), Tizzano
\n(64\u2019), Bridge (66\u2019)<\/p>\n
Conversions: Donaldson 3\/3, Burey 0\/2<\/p>\n
Penalties: Nil<\/p>\n
@ Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin<\/p>\n
Grab a Force 3-Game Flexi Membership from $84 for adults, with all the added Member benefits like 10% merch discounts, Members-only bars, priority access to Wallabies tickets and more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Force threw everything at the Highlanders but have gone down in a see-sawing affair 39-31 at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,11229],"class_list":["post-524295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-western-force"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524295","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=524295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}