Zac Lomax helped the Western Force in a gutsy five-point victory over the Crusaders, starting on the field for the first time in blue.

The Force were off to a rough start down by 19 points until they scored their first try in the 35th minute, credit to Henry Robertson.

In the 54th minute, Lomax broke through to score his first Super Rugby try and bring scores level.

SportFM rugby commentator Mick Colliss joined Sports Breakfast this morning.

“The thing that I liked about it was the celebration. You could really see how much that try meant to Zac Lomax, because he’s obviously been under a fair bit of pressure,” he said.

“To see the way he has been embraced by the Western Force fans and the team and how much he was engaging with his own teammates when he scored that try, you just think good on him, you feel happy that he’s part of the squad because he showed what that meant to him.

“I think they’ll get really good value out of him at the back end of this year. I think if they can somehow manage to defy all sorts of odds and somehow scrape into these finals, I think Zac Lomax will be playing a big role in that.”

The winger has added a new dynamic to the Force side, giving them the option to utilise box kicks as an offensive advantage.

“In rugby, they talk about the aerial game… you’ve got a guy like Zac Lomax on the wing chasing those kicks, all of a sudden that becomes a bit of an attacking weapon.

“Out of the probably six box kicks that he contested, he probably caught four of them. So you’re basically getting the ball back another 30 or so metres down the ground. So from that point of view, he was very good. His defence is good and he runs incredibly well with the ball.”

A second half shootout gave spectators their money’s worth, with a total of six tries scored in the final 40 minutes.

Macca Springer was denied a crucial 75th minute try to put the away side in front in the dying moments of the game after a knock on was spotted in the build up of the play by Sevu Reece.

The Force held on for a tight victory over the reigning premiers and are now hoping to make a late push for finals in the back half of the season.

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