Western Force stand-in captain Nick Champion de Crespigny says Saturday night’s bonus-point win away to the Queensland Reds “keeps the fire going inside” as the side strives for the top six.
The Force produced an outstanding display in defence and attack to triumph 42-19 over the Reds, securing the side’s second win of the 2026 Swyftx Super Rugby Pacific season.
The result moves the Force up to nine points and up to ninth position on the ladder at the halfway mark of the season, nine points behind the sixth-placed Reds.
“It keeps our fire going inside of us,” Champion de Crespigny told reporters after the win over the Reds.
“We’ve got that belief of where we want to go. We want to be the first team from the Force to be in the finals. That’s our objective.
“Now it’s just about building into next week. We’ll focus on training on Monday and prepare for Fiji who are a hell of a good side especially at home.”
Champion de Crespigny, who stepped in as skipper with Jeremy Williams absent due to head injury protocols, added: “We spoke about it all week, sticking to our process. Staying tight as a group. Building on the performances we’ve had.
“We’ve been in a lot of games and haven’t been able to seal it out. Key moments letting them back in. We wanted today to have the complete performance.”
💙 WE WIN, YOU WIN! 💙
— Western Force (@westernforce) April 4, 2026
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The victory comes after three hard-fought and narrow losses, all by 10 points or less and Force head coach Simon Cron said the triumph was nice nourishment for his players.
“It is a long time coming,” he said. “However, within the squad, there’s been some solid belief around those performances. Chiefs, Hurricanes, Blues, where we were eight to 10.
“The big one in those games was we let them come back into the game. It was nice tonight for the boys, even that last try, it’s important to keep fighting until the end.”
Cron was glowing in his appraisal of Champion de Crespigny’s display as captain.
“We lost two Wallabies before this game in Carlo (Tizzano) and Jeremy who couldn’t play,” he said.
“Tom Robertson goes down 13 minutes into it, then Pietschy (Dylan Pietsch) goes off, Darby (Lancaster) goes off. Crep just led them all the way without any fault.”
Cron was also full of praise for returning full-back Mac Grealy as well as fly-half Ben Donaldson, who pulled the strings at 10 while converting six from six.
“(Mac) played brilliantly tonight,” Cron said. “He’s one of the players in our group who’s a bit of a lifeblood. He’s a funny man, or thinks he is.
“As you saw tonight, he’s talented. I watched him be part of a team that ripped us up a couple of years ago. He swings really well, he’s got a huge engine and work rate.”
On Donaldson, Cron said: “Thursday I thought was his best training of the year. Vocal. Flattening up. Taking on the line. He did that tonight again which was awesome for the team.”
Champion de Crespigny added: “We’ve got full belief in Ben. We know what he brings. It’s awesome to have a guy like that lead us around.
“He’s got a real strong voice out there. It’s very easy as a forward, because you know what he wants. We’re really proud of him. We’re behind him the whole way.”
Cron added that the medical team will assess both Darby Lancaster (ankle) and Dylan Pietsch (foot), but indicated pulling the latter at half-time was precautionary.
The Force head coach also explained the late withdrawal of Zac Lomax due to hamstring tightness.
“Zac trained fully on Thursday but only got up to 80 per cent speed,” he said. “He was just a bit tight in his hamstring. Maybe got a very minor strain in there.
“Because he’s a power athlete who, if we put him away down the edge, he’s going to sprint, it’s just too high a risk for him and for us. I pulled him on Thursday night. I said to him ‘mate unfortunately with what you’ve got there it’s too big a risk for you and the team’.
“It gives him another week of training. He’s only really been here for a few weeks. He’s still building that load.”
The Force will remain in Brisbane for the next few days before travelling to Fiji to face the Drua in Lautoka on Saturday from 12:35pm WST live on Stan Sport.
