The Western Force have snapped a 10-match losing streak, upsetting defending Super rugby champions New South Wales Waratahs 18-11 at Perth Oval.
The Force held their nerve in a tense finish, despite being a man down for the last 10 minutes when their skipper Matt Hodgson was sin-binned, to register just their second win of a frustrating season.
Their only other win was also against the Waratahs in the opening round. Since then, they have lost 10 in a row, while the Waratahs had won seven of their last nine.
"I asked the boys to aim up physically this week and they responded," Hodgson said. "Hopefully we can use the last few games to build up some momentum into the last few games and next season."
The Waratahs picked up a bonus point for losing by less than seven to inch ahead of the ACT Brumbies at the top of the Australian conference standings but with both teams level on points with five matches each to play.
"I'm disappointed in the performance more than the result," said NSW captain Dave Dennis.
"The urgency in our attacking ruck and overall intensity was poor."
The Force outscored the Waratahs two tries to one and might have win by an even bigger margin had they not missed five shots at goal.
The Western Australians opened the scoring in the 20th minute when scrumhalf Ryan Louwrens followed the NSW defence with a dummy and darted through a big hole to score untouched.
The visitors could only manage two penalties to Bernard Foley in the first half and went to the break trailing 13-6.
They cut the margin two points when giant NSW winger Taqele Naiayaravoro barrelled his way through the Force defence to score out wide.
But the Force restored their seven-point gap when Hodgson scored off the back of a rolling maul 15 minutes from the end.
There were some anxious moment for the home side when Hodgson was given a yellow card for an infringement at the breakdown but NSW were unable to capitalise on their one-man advantage.
