PERTH – All Black flyhalf Aaron Cruden kicked the Chiefs to a grinding 16-7 Super Rugby win over a determined Western Force in Perth on Saturday.
Cruden landed a conversion and three penalty goals from his four attempts to prove the difference after both sides finished with a try apiece.
In winning the Chiefs stretched New Zealand teams’ dominance over Australian opposition to 14-0 in this season’s Super Rugby.
The Force, with their future Super Rugby participation under major threat over SANZAAR restructuring for the 2018 season, never gave the Chiefs a moment’s peace and kept them under the shackles.
The Chiefs finished off a gruelling tour where they split their two games in South Africa against the Stormers and Cheetahs.
The Chiefs remain in third spot three points behind the Crusaders in the New Zealand conference after seven wins from eight games.
“I was proud of the way the boys were able to dig in during that second 40 minutes and grind it out,” Cruden said.
“We knew that the Force coming off a bye, and obviously everything they are going through would show an immense passion and pride, and that’s certainly what they did.”
Parent body RugbyWA has launched legal action against the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) in a bid to keep threatened Force franchise afloat as the axe hovers over the Perth-based club.
Super Rugby’s governing body SANZAAR announced earlier this month that two South African teams and one from Australia would be axed from 2018, streamlining the 18-team competition to a three-conference 15-team format.
Both tries were scored in the first half, with Liam Messam plunging over in the eighth minute and Force skipper Matt Hodgson scoring off the back of a rolling maul from a lineout win.
The Force suffered an injury setback midway through the opening half to their Wallaby back Dane Haylett-Petty, who came off with a damaged right hamstring.
The Chiefs have now won nine of their 11 meetings with the Force, but both of their losses have come in Perth.