The Western Force scored their eighth win of the season and moved into second spot on the Australian Vodacom Super Rugby conference but the Lions can feel aggrieved at the circumstances that led to their 29-19 defeat in Perth on Saturday.

That scoreline doesn’t tell you how close it was for most of the way as the Lions simply refused to lie down in the second half against a Western Force team that was given a significant leg up by yet another diabolical TMO decision before halftime.

The Lions, determined to get one win on the road before heading back to Johannesburg, were leading 9-3 and looking well in control after a wet start to the game when loosehead prop Corne Fourie was yellow carded for what the TMO saw as a no arms tackle. The replay suggested it was a dubious call and even the Australian commentators were in agreement that it was a “soft” yellow card.

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It had a massive impact on the game though, for the Force scored a try through skipper Matt Hodgson from the scrum that they opted to take instead of kicking the penalty for posts. Sias Ebersohn kicked the conversion to put the Force into the lead for the first time since the fifth minute.

The Lions seemed to reel after that score, and the Force stormed back onto the attack and nearly scored immediately. However they never dotted down, a scrum five was awarded, and after Ben McCalman came close the ball was spread wide for Jayden Hayward to go over in the corner. Ebersohn produced a horrid conversion kick but it didn’t change the fact that the game had been turned on its head in a matter of a few minutes.

It all started with that highly questionable yellow card and yet again it has to be asked – are the yellow cards, and what they are awarded for, ruining the game, and are the TMOs interfering too often?

As it was, referee Steve Walsh referred to the TMO before awarding most of the tries, and it does leave you wondering how on earth rugby was able to be played for all those many years without the television match official. Were the referees just guessing when awarding tries in the past?

The Force nearly scored another try while Fourie was off the field. Nick Cummins went over in the corner and this time the referee got it wrong when on the basis of the television replay on the big screen he decided a Lions player had been obstructed in trying to defend. It was also a highly dubious call, although the Lions will consider it justice that a 50/50 call finally went their way.

After that the Force spend most of the rest of the half on attack, but full marks to the Lions for the massive commitment they showed in resisting the Force attempts to score the try that would put them more than a score ahead.

Indeed, it looked like it might work out for the Lions when off their only break-out of the half up to that point, they forced a penalty which Marnitz Boshoff kicked to make it 15-12 with 15 and a half minutes to play.

It has to be said that the Lions played some dumb rugby once they were in with a sniff. On one occasion they took a quick tap from a penalty when the logical thing was surely to kick the ball up the touchline and put the Lions in an attacking position from where they could apply pressure. Going into the last minutes they also played too much rugby in their own half when they might have been better off transferring play into the Force territory. They still had enough time at that point.

The Force punished their attempts to run the ball out, and although the Lions did survive a few narrow calls from the TMO as the Force went over the line, eventually the dam wall had to break, and it did when Chris Tautara-Morrison scored near the posts to make it 22-12 with the conversion.

But while that should have been it for the Lions, they still never gave up. Replacement Elton Jantjies was cruelly denied as he spilled the ball in the act of scoring a try, the ball being dislodged from his hand just millimetres from touching the ground.

A bizarre moment was to follow though, with Cummins aka “The Honey Badger” kicking the ball from behind his tryline in an attempt to clear. Unfortunately for him the kick wasn’t long enough to reach the tryline, and there was Jantjies to dot down and make it a game going into the last three minutes.

This time though the Lions were forced to run from their own territory if they were going to win and in doing that they conceded possession and skipper Hodgson scored his second try and the one that clinched the bonus point that takes the Perth team ahead of the Brumbies on the log.

Scorers:

Force:

• Tries: Matt Hodgson (2), Jayden Hayward (1), Chris Tuatara-Morrison (1)
• Conversions: Sias Ebersohn (1), Jayden Hayward (2)
• Penalties: Sias Ebersohn (1)

Lions:

• Try: Elton Jantjies (1)
• Conversion: Elton Jantjies (1)
• Penalties: Marnitz Boshoff (4)