Waratahs sneak to tight victory against Force

The New South Wales Waratahs moved into Super 14 playoff contention after they battled to a 14-10 victory over the Western Force in a tense and tightly contested match in Perth.

The Waratahs, who had the majority of possession, made too many errors at crucial times, while the Force also had problems giving away penalties when they were hot on attack as both teams hammered away at each other throughout the match.

The winless Force have a tough match at home next week against the top-of-the-table Bulls, while the Waratahs, who are now in fourth place on 18 points, host the Auckland Blues in Sydney.

"It was very gutsy. We got the game we expected. It wasn't our best rugby ... but we got away with the win," Waratahs captain Phil Waugh said in a televised interview.

Waratahs inside centre Berrick Barnes opened the scoring with an early penalty before his opposite number James O'Connor replied in the first 10 minutes.

Drew Mitchell, who scored four tries last week in the Waratahs' rout of the Lions, added to his season's tally after he gathered a clever grubber kick by Daniel Halangahu, though Barnes missed the conversion.

Force winger Scott Staniforth then intercepted and ran 70 metres to score under the posts, which made the conversion a formality for O'Connor and gave the home side a 10-8 lead at halftime.

Barnes, who had missed three shots at goal in the first half, handed the goalkicking after the break over to Halangahu, who slotted two penalties to give the Waratahs a 14-10 lead.

The Force had the better of the final 15 minutes but were unable to convert their possession and territorial advantage into points.

"That was a much better performance by us and the pleasing thing is that we really got in there ... and we will get better from that," said Force captain Nathan Sharpe.

"We got through some patterned play, had some good hard defence and certainly towards the end a few things didn't go our way but that's rugby."

- AAP