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WESTERN FORCE CROWNED WORLD CLUB 10S MAURITIUS CHAMPIONS
By Fraser Smith on Sun 19th June 16
The Western Force pulled off a remarkable 7-0 win over the ACT Brumbies tonight to be crowned World Club 10s Champions at Anjalay Stadium in Mauritius with Nedlands star Michael Ruru named player of the tournament.
The Brumbies dominated possession and territory for large portions of the match but herculean defence from the young Western Force team saw the Western Australian’s hold their Australian counterparts scoreless to secure a thrilling victory.
The Force made the most of their limited time with ball in hand with Brad Lacey’s early second half try proving the decisive score.
After overcoming the Italian All Stars 29-0 in a high paced encounter in the semi final just hours earlier the Western Force found themselves on the defensive from the outset with the physical Brumbies side coming out hard.
The Brumbies spent most the first half camped in the Western Force half only to come up empty handed with the Western Force’s defensive systems and tireless work at the breakdown forcing multiple turnovers.
Locked at 0-0 heading into the halftime break head coach Dwayne Nestor gave his side some words of wisdom and inspiration going into the final 10 minutes of the tournament.
Spurred on by the words of Nestor the Force came out firing after the break and on their first meaningful possession of the second stanza Ammon Matuauto broke the line before offloading to Michael Ruru who found Brad Lacey and the speedster crossed for the first and only try of the match.
Ruru calmly slotted the extras to put the Force up by seven with eight minutes to play.
The Brumbies threw everything they had at the Force in the final minutes but the Western Australians held strong to once again force turnovers in the final third thanks to the work the Oliver Hoskins and Riley Winter.
With just 60 second’s on the clock the Brumbies attempted to go 90-metres to level the scores only to knock on just 10 metres from the line.
As the final siren sounded the Western Force survived multiple scrum resets before Angus Taylor flung the ball back to Ruru who booted it into the stands and finalise the Force’s victory thrilling 7-0 victory and right to call themselves World Club 10s Champions.