Force 18 Lions 16

Western Force emerged with a second narrow win from the South African leg of their Super 14 campaign, scoring a two-point victory over the Lions in Johannesburg early yesterday morning, Sydney time.

Victory meant the Force, in their third season, had finally achieved wins over all the South African teams, following a draw and a one-point loss in their two previous encounters with the Lions.

The Perth-based team scored two tries to one and overcame a 16-15 half-time deficit and the late withdrawal of Wallabies back Scott Staniforth with a knee injury suffered last week.

The Force dominated possession and territory in the second half, but sloppy execution prevented them adding to first-half tries from fullback Cameron Shepherd and Tamaiti Horua.

Shepherd put the visitors in front with a 54th-minute penalty goal from near halfway and they hung on to register two wins in South Africa for the second successive year. The result gave the Force nine points from the three games.

Force skipper and lock Nathan Sharpe conceded they didn't play as well as they did in their one-point win over the Cheetahs last weekend.

"We had a lot more line breaks and tonight we were very, very sloppy in terms of the last pass going to hand," Sharpe said. "Certainly not our best performance and I think the pleasing thing for us is to get away from Africa with two wins and that's what we'll look on and build from there.

"A lot of the guys in our team have never been to Africa before and never played at Ellis Park, so it's a fantastic experience and coming over here and winning two games is no mean feat."

After Lions five-eighth Louis Strydom opened the scoring with an early penalty, the Force bolted to a 15-6 lead following two well-constructed tries.

Shepherd crossed after smart work by halfback James Stannard, Staniforth's replacement Scott Daruda and winger Nick Cummins. Matt Giteau converted and played a major part in the Force's second try after Strydom had cut the visitors' lead to one point with another penalty. The pivot opened up the defence with a slashing run before passing to Horua, who took the ball overhead and dived over in the corner.

The Lions scored the next 10 points to edge ahead at the break. Strydom landed a close-range penalty and then converted a try to Jaco van Schalkwyk.

The Force appeared to catch a lucky break eight minutes after half-time when New Zealand referee Kelvin Deaker disallowed what seemed to be a legitimate try to Lions halfback Jano Vermaak. Six minutes later, Shepherd landed the decisive penalty from more than 40 metres to regain the lead for the Force, though Giteau missed with a subsequent attempt.

Agencies