The Force failed to live up to all the pre-match hype and they held the Brumbies for almost 60 minutes - mostly due to the Brumbies own ineptness - but then the visitors scored in the 58th and 62nd minutes to turn a 10-8 deficit into a comfortable win.

The Super 14 is new this year, and the newest of the new is the Western Force. This was their first-ever match, and from the start there was nothing at all wrong with their organisation and commitment.

They were slightly more brittle than the Brumbies with the steady heads of Stirling Mortlock, Matt Giteau, Stephen Larkham and George Gregan. What they lacked in cool heads they made up for with fiery enthusiasm.

They ended their first 40 minutes behind 8-3, but the Brumbies were in that position thanks to an opportunistic try by Mark Chisholm and a missed penalty attempt by Scott Daruda - a longish kick but from straight in front. It had the distance, not the direction.

Daruda kicked off this historic match for the men in  blue with the black motif that was part black swan, part wind. And there was an enthusiastic crowd of 37 037 to see that kick-off thanks to a great marketing exercise by enthusiastic Western Australia.

The match itself was a stop-start affair. There were 12 penalties in the first half - as against 13 in the whole match between the Blues and the Hurricanes - and the scrums were Wallaby messy.

The first three scrums produced four resets and two penalties. In the second half there were another nine penalties and in 11 scrums there were eight resets, two penalties and a free kick. That did not make for entertainment!

The referee found the tackles a problem. There were eight penalties at the tackle/ruck in the first half and eventually a yellow card for Julian Salvi - who became the first player to be sin-binned in Super 14.

There was a long hold-up in the match when replacement Josh Graham got his head on the wrong side in tackling Mark Gerrard and was knocked out, to be taken off on a stretcher but, apparently, without grievous damage.

But the crowd got on with their enthusiastic support, slapping their slapsticks into the night air and cheering everything their side did. None of the cheering was anything like that for the Force's try, the best try of the nights as several players handled to send Scott Fava, head bandaged like a wounded soldier, galloping over the line. More than the try, the first score of the second half, the conversion put the Force into the lead and hope surged in the far west of Australia.

Eventually missed tackles cost the Force as the legs simply could not carry the willing spirits to the ball-carrier often enough. Their own attacking, Fava's try and the last bit of play apart, was pedestrian, the best of it a charge and slip by Junior Pelesasa who seems in need of boots with studs.

The Force may just have been less of an attacking force because of a poor performance by scrum-half Matt Henjak, who was under much pressure and transferred the pressure to his back by taking steps before passing and being seemingly out of contact with his fly-half.

That said, the history of the moment and the enthusiasm of the Western Australians was probably the real feature of the nights at Subiaco Oval - that and the promise that the Force will not be embarrassed.

Just after Daruda had missed a penalty attempt, Mark Chisholm opened the scoring on 18 minutes with a bit of opportunism. Henjak was slow - four steps slow - getting the ball away. When he did the lock's big hand was in the way. The ball bounced up off his hand, Chisholm caught it and galloped 50 metres, passing fullback James Hilgendorf with a little dummy and acceleration, to score as Lachlan MacKay tried to scrabble at his broad shoulders.

When the Force were penalised Jeremy Paul tapped and gave to Mortlock who was close, and Adam Ashley-Cooper was close, but the force held out till Mortlock goaled a penalty for the wrongful use of hands at a tackle/ruck.

The Brumbies were penalised at a tackle and then marched 10 metres to give Daruda the chance to become the first Force player to score points.

That made the score 8-3 at half-time though the Brumbies could have been further ahead had they not squandered an overlap.

The Force's try was a splendid won as the passing went form Hilgendorf, now playing centre, to energetic Digby Ioane, to Matt Hodgson, to Matt Henjak. Henjak turned it inside to Fava to give the burly flank a straight run for the line and into the history books and the hearts of all Western Australians.

Daruda converted and the Force led 10-8.

George Smith made the try that got the Brumbies back into the lead. The Force were in their own territory and tried to run the ball away from a rickety scrum. Smith won the turnover and the Brumbies moved the ball right. They came back left and replacement Joel Wilson somersaulted the ball over the line for a try in the corner, which Mortlock converted. 15-10.

When the Brumbies put the ball into a scrum five metres from the Force goal-line, again on their left, they sped long passes right and Matt Giteau simply cut through for the try. Mortlock converted. 22-10.

Mortlock goaled a penalty for a tackle/ruck infringement. The Force were well shut out of a bonus point for being an honourable looser, but the Brumbies could also not get the fourth try for a bonus point.

Man of the Match: There was a massive game from Scott Fava for the Force and a typically effective game from George Smith who seems never to tire, not even to breathe. George Smith is our Man of the Match.

The scorers:

For the Western Force:
Try: Fava
Con: Daruda
Pen: Daruda

For the Brumbies:
Tries: Chisholm, Wilson, Giteau
Cons: Mortlock 2
Pens: Mortlock 2

Yellow card: Julian Salvi (Brumbies, 32)

Teams:

Western Force: 15 James Hilgendorf,  14 Scott Staniforth, 13 Junior Pelesasa, 12 Lachlan MacKay,  11 Digby Ioane,  10 Scott Daruda,  9 Matt Henjak,  8 Scott Fava,  7 Matt Hodgson, 6 Luke Doherty,  5 Nathan Sharpe (captain), 4 John Welborn,  3 David Fitter, 2 Brendan Cannon, 1 Gareth Hardy.
Replacements: 16 Tai McIsaac, 17 David Te Moana, 18 David Pusey, 19 Richard Brown, 20 Chris O'Young, 21 Josh Graham, 22 Cameron Shepherd

Brumbies: 15 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 14 Clyde Rathbone, 13 Stirling Mortlock (captain), 12 Matt Giteau, 11 Mark Gerrard, 10 Stephen Larkham, 9  George Gregan, 8 George Smith, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Daniel Heenan, 5 Mark Chisholm, 4 Alister Campbell, 3 Nic Henderson, 2 Jeremy Pau, 1 Bill Young.
Replacements: 16 David Palavi, 17 Guy Shepherdson, 18 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 19 Jone Tawake, 20 Patrick Phibbs, 21 Gene Fairbanks, 22 Joel Wilson.

Referee: Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
Touch judges: Paul Marks, James Scholtens (both Australia)
Television match official: Bradley Wahl (Australia)
Assessor: Sandy MacNeill or Ian Hailes (Australia)