Western Force

History

The first season

On 10 February the Western Force made their 2006 season rugby debut against the Brumbies at a near sold out Subiaco Oval in Perth, losing 25–10. After this result, the Force had a difficult debut in Super 14. A one-sided loss to the Hurricanes and an ugly loss at home to the Chiefs in Perth followed. Many fans were unimpressed, with only approximately 23,000 turning up to watch a match against the Bulls. On 31 March, in front of 24,000, the Force came closest to their first win, losing 26–25 to the Stormers at Subiaco Oval. This was after leading 10–0 early on in the match. This was the Force's first competition point ever, and was the longest it had ever taken a side to get a point in Super rugby history (8 rounds/7 matches).

On 21 April a crowd of 32,231 saw the Force nearly pull off the upset of the year, drawing 23-all with the undefeated defending champion Crusaders. Though the Force were leading 7–0 after several minutes the feeling was still that the Crusaders would win, especially after they scored a try seconds later to make it 7–5. Only when the Force had blown the score out to 17–5 did anyone begin to talk of an upset. Leading 20–8 at half time the Force did not hold on for the win after the Crusaders scored two tries and a penalty within the closing half. At 23-all with seconds left the Force crashed over the line but were denied by the television match official.

Two days after the draw with the Crusaders, the Force were able to sign rising star Matt Giteau from the Brumbies, effective with the 2007 season. Giteau, whose contract with the Brumbies ended after the 2006 season, inked a three-year deal reportedly worth A$4.5 million, making him the highest-paid player in the history of any Australian football code.

On Saturday 6 May the Force announced they had managed to sign another player, Reds winger Drew Mitchell. However, during the same week the Force were fined $110,000 after an "independent committee found that Rugby WA had entered a negotiation process with Al Kanaar in a way that was contrary to and in breach of the contracting protocols." The Force notched up their first win by defeating the Cheetahs 16–14 on 6 May.

Super Rugby years

The Western Force continued to play in Super Rugby until the 2017 season. During this time they struggled to achieve much success, failing to qualify for the playoffs in a single season. Their best season came in 2007, where they finished 7th out of 14 teams. Ahead of the 2018 Super Rugby season, SANZAAR made the decision to reduce the competition from 18 to 15 teams, deciding to cut 2 South African teams and 1 Australian team. On 11 August 2017 it was announced that the Western Force would be the Australian team to be axed from Super Rugby.

Global Rapid Rugby and National Rugby Championship

In September 2017, Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest made plans to launch an Indo-Pacific Rugby tournament, consisting of the Western Force and other teams from the Indo-Pacific region. Several countries – such as , and – expressed an interest in joining the new competition.

While organisation of the Indo-Pacific tournament was still underway, Andrew Forrest announced that the Western Force would play a series of matches in 2018 in what would be known as World Series Rugby. The Force played matches against Fiji A, Tonga A, Samoa A, the second tier national sides of those countries, along with the Hong Kong national team, Super Rugby sides Melbourne Rebels and the Crusaders, and Japanese club Panasonic Wild Knights.

Andrew Forrest's Indo-Pacific Rugby tournament was officially announced as Global Rapid Rugby and began in 2019. The inaugural 2019 season consisted of a series of showcase matches with the competition adopting a full home and away round-robin format for the 2020 season. The Western Force played in Global Rapid Rugby against teams from Fiji, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Samoa and Singapore.

During this time the Western Force also played in the 2018 and 2019 National Rugby Championship (NRC) seasons, replacing Perth Spirit, who had previously acted as a feeder team for the Force during their Super Rugby years. The National Rugby Championship was Australia's second-tier competition below Super Rugby, taking place after the Super Rugby season and featuring players who were not selected to play for the Australian national team in the test season, similar to New Zealand's Mitre 10 Cup and South Africa's Currie Cup. The Western Force finished 3rd in the 2018 season, being knocked out in the semi-finals, and won the 2019 season, beating the Canberra Vikings 41–3 in the final.

Return to Super Rugby

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Global Rapid rugby season, which the Western Force were competing in, was cancelled. The pandemic had also caused the cancellation of the 2020 Super Rugby season, and international travel restrictions meant that it was unfeasible for the competition to continue in its current state, as it spanned multiple countries. Due to this, Rugby Australia (RA) launched a domestic competition known as Super Rugby AU. The Western Force were soon announced as one of five teams entering the competition. The inaugural season (2020) ran from 3 July to 19 September 2020.

The Western Force competed in the 2021 Super Rugby AU season, along with Super Rugby Trans-Tasman, a trans-tasman competition that featured the five Super Rugby AU teams taking on the five Super Rugby Aotearoa teams.

Beginning in 2022, the Super Rugby was restructured into a twelve-team competition containing four Australian teams, one Fijian team, five New Zealand teams, and a Pacific Islands team based in New Zealand. This competition included the full-time return of the Western Force. In the inaugural season (2022), the Force finished ninth on the ladder, narrowly missing the Finals on point-difference. They recorded four wins from 14 matches, accumulating a total of 23 competition points, Moana Pasifika; and a final-round (Round 15) victory over the Hurricanes.

In their following season (2023), the Force picked up one more win than their previous season despite being of mixed results. The Force opened their season with a 34–27 victory over Australian rivals, the Melbourne Rebels. Missing just 13 tackles to the Rebels' 35, which included a 30–17 surprise win against the Highlanders, being described by ESPN as "their best first-half performance of the Super Rugby Pacific season". However, the young team struggled with consistency which kept them out of Finals contention.

The following two seasons (2024, 2025) were much of the same for the Western Force as compared to their previous Super Rugby Pacific seasons; the latter being marginally better in terms of points scored. 2025 also saw the Western Force rank best in the Super Rugby for lineouts won (stealing 2.07 lineouts per game, and holding the highest ratio of steals in the world for the season), and tries per game that came from the maul (which was also the highest in the world). carries, metres gained, defenders beaten, and offloads.

In June 2025, the Western Force played the British & Irish Lions for just the second time in their 2025 British & Irish Lions tour of Australia. The match was played at Perth Stadium. The British & Irish Lions won the match 7–54 in front of an attendance of 46,656, the biggest crowd for a Western Force match.

Beginning in late 2025, the Western Force, alongside three Australian Super Rugby teams (, , ), began competing in the newly established Super Rugby AUS: Australia's national rugby union competition organised by Rugby Australia (RA).

Name and colours

In 2005, RugbyWA unveiled the franchise team name as well as the logo, at a reception at the Burswood International Resort in Perth. Months of detailed community involvement went into selecting the name for the team. "Western Force" was chosen as the name, which best reflected the franchise's location (state) and its "values of strength, energy and community". The logo was unveiled to be a black swan, which is the state's official state emblem. The swan is set in a blue background, representing the Western Australia coastline and sky, whilst the gold represented the beaches, mineral wealth and sunshine. Some speculated that the team was going to be called the "Black Swans". The Force's jersey and naming rights sponsor was also revealed. The home jersey was unveiled on player Brendan Cannon, being blue with a black swan. Lachlan MacKay emerged with the side's alternate strip, which was gold with a black swan; black and gold being the State colours of Western Australia. The team's first jersey was auctioned off for 30,000, and the first alternate strip was then also auctioned off for 30,000 as well.

Logo

In March 2018, the Western Force changed their logo and jersey. The logo was very similar to the previous logo, this came after being axed from their most recent season of Super Rugby (2017).

File:Western force rugby logo.png|2023

Support

Shortly after RugbyWA won the fourth Australian franchise, an on-line register was set up for members to record their interest. In the space of weeks, 10,000 people had registered. When membership was officially launched in July, more than 13,000 were registered, with around 400 companies expressed interest in hospitality packages. Soon the Force had the largest membership base of any of the Australian Super 14 teams. By the time pre-season had started, the Force had 16,000 members.

Australian Rugby Union CEO Gary Flowers told the media that "people power" was a key factor in Western Australia being awarded the franchise ahead of Victoria. Prior to the announcement, more than 25,500 Western Australians signed a petition in support of their state's bid. In addition, 5,000 people, including the state's premier Dr Geoff Gallop, attended a rally at Subiaco Oval, organised by two rugby mothers "the Scrum Mums" (Jennifer Hoskins and Irma Cooper) to show how much the people of Western Australia wanted the franchise. By the end of the first season, the Force finished with the highest crowd average out of all the Australian teams, despite finishing in last place, the fans still came out to see Wallaby stars such as Matt Giteau, Drew Mitchell and Nathan Sharpe (though Mitchell and Giteau were not in the 2006 line-up).

Region and stadium

The Western Force represents the state of Western Australia, the largest and least densely populated state in the country. The Western Force have been based in Perth (the state capital), since its creation, where than three-fourths of state residents live. The stadium was demolished in 2019.

In 2010, the Western Force permanently moved to the Perth Rectangular Stadium (known as ME Bank Stadium). As of 2019, the stadium is known as HBF Park after Western Australia's biggest health insurer took over naming rights. Between 2010 and 2011 the State government developed a masterplan for an improved rectangular stadium and then completed a business case which saw 88 million allocated to the first stage which was to include a new permanent East stand, new lights, two video replay boards, LED signage at pitch level, replacement of the playing surface and replacement of the south scaffold stand with new scaffold. A Project Definition Plan was then completed and following this, the government allocated a further 7.14 million to add corporate amenity including 48 corporate boxes and a 250-seat BBQ deck to the new Eastern stand. In June 2012 builder BGC were awarded the head building contract for the project and on 7 June 2012 the Minister for Sport and Recreation Terry Waldron MLA announced that hard work by the project team, led by the Department of Sport and Recreation, and a keen price by builders would enable the south stand to become a permanent, unroofed structure rather than new scaffold. It was completed in September 2013, with a capacity of 20,441.

In 2023, playing in the Toyota Challenge, the Western Force hosted the Cheetahs at Rushton Park, Mandurah and Claremont Oval in the south-western Perth suburb of Claremont.

In 2025 the Western Force played in front of their biggest crowd when they hosted the British & Irish Lions at Perth Stadium on their 2025 British & Irish Lions tour of Australia. Losing the match 7–54, the stadium had an attendance of 46,656, eclipsing their previous high of 37,037 set in their first ever professional match against the Brumbies in 2006.

{{anchor|A|U19|U20}}Development teams

RugbyWA's two elite development squads just below full-time professional level are the Western Force A and WA Under 19 teams. These teams are closely aligned with the Western Force and train at McGillvray Oval, the training base used by the Force. RugbyWA also previously fielded a separate National Rugby Championship team, the Perth Spirit, until the end of season 2017 but competed in this tournament as the Western Force from 2018. From 2019 the Development Team, Perth Gold, competes in Emerging State Championship.

Western Force A

The Western Force A team plays matches against interstate and international representative teams, and has also competed in tournaments such as the Pacific Rugby Cup. Teams known by various names over the years including Western Force A, Western Force Gold and Force Academy have been selected from the best emerging rugby talent in Western Australia. The current squad is a mix of Western Force contracted players, Force Academy players from elite youth programs, and selected Premier Grade club rugby players.

In 2006 the Western Force Gold, playing in the traditional gold and black colours of Western Australia, undertook a two-week tour to South Africa. The team played the Golden Lions and Blue Bulls before returning home to Perth to play Manu Samoa and Japanese Top League teams Toshiba and Yamaha. In 2008, the Force Academy beat the Singapore national side by 113–7.

• 2019 Emerging States Championship Champions

Under 19

The Western Force under 19 side plays in the URC competition. Western Australian teams played in the Southern States Tournament up until 2015 and also played occasional matches against other representative sides such as Pacific Rugby Cup teams. Prior to 2008, state colts teams at under 21 and under 19 age levels were fielded in national tournament but these teams were consolidated as under 20s ahead of the inaugural World Rugby U20 Championship. In 2018, an under 19 age limit was reinstated for the state colts teams.

Season positions

Super Rugby

National Rugby Championship

Global Rapid Rugby

Notes: Summary of all matches in the 2019 Global Rapid Rugby season, including the Asia and Pacific showcases.

Honours

• Super Rugby AUS
  • Runner Up: 2025
• National Rugby Championship
  • Champions: 2019
  • Playoff appearances: 2018
• Global Rapid Rugby
  • Champions: 2019
• World Club 10s
  • Champions: 2016

Minor honours

• Toyota Challenge: winners 2 times runner up 3 times

Notes: Western Force won both the Asia and Pacific showcases in an undefeated 2019 Global Rapid Rugby season.

Current squad

The squad for the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season is:

Super Rugby AUS

The squad for the 2025 Super Rugby AUS competition is:

Coaches

Updated 2 June 2024. ** denotes combined record across Global Rapid Rugby, National Rugby Championship and all Super Rugby competitions.* ^ denotes combined record across Super Rugby and all post-season capped tour games.

Statistics

Competition

Super Rugby

National Rugby Championship

Individual records

Most appearances

Most points

Most tries

Most points in a season

Most tries in a season

Most points in a match

Most tries in a match

Firsts

• First pre-season game – vs the Cheetahs (lost 19–29)
• First season game – Round 1, 2006 vs Brumbies (lost 10–25)
• First try – Scott Fava vs Brumbies
• First points – Scott Daruda (3-point penalty kick) vs Brumbies
• First conversion – Scott Daruda vs Brumbies
• First draw – Round 11, 2006 vs Crusaders (23–23)
• First drop goal – Matt Giteau vs Cheetahs
• First penalty try – Pre-Season 2006 vs Cheetahs (19–29)
• First win – Round 13, 2006 vs Cheetahs (16–14)
• First home win – Round 6, 2007 vs the Hurricanes (18–17)

Controversies

In November 2007, Western Force players Scott Fava and Richard Brown were fined and ordered to do community service for mistreating protected native quokkas at a team bonding session on Rottnest Island, 19 km off the coast of Perth.

Eye-witness accounts stated that the players had mishandled the animals, including trapping and throwing them, though none were known to be seriously injured. Alcohol was said to be a factor.

As a result of the actions, Australian Wallaby number 8 Fava was ordered to pay $11,000, attend a week of community service and undergo counselling for alcohol abuse, while flanker Richard Brown was sentenced to a $5000 fine as well as seven days' community service. Both fines were payable to the Rottnest Island Conservation Foundation.

In February 2008, Matt Henjak and Haig Sare were involved in a fight at a pub in Perth. Henjak hit Sare and broke his jaw and was sacked by the Force for misconduct. Haig Sare returned to play for the Force at the end of Season 2008 once his injuries healed.

Firepower funding debacle

Sponsorship payments from the fuel technology company Firepower were a major factor in luring Wallaby star Matt Giteau and others to play for the Western Force in Perth.{{cite web | access-date = 29 September 2010 | archive-date = 16 March 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120316050536/http://www.perthnow.com.au/sport/rugby-union/firepower-debacle-hits-giteau/story-e6frg263-1111116467742 | url-status = dead A new consortium offered to cover the Firepower money if Giteau extended his existing contract; he, however, chose not to and returned to Canberra to play for the Brumbies.

References

References

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