'He is tormenting his former side': Zac Lomax's Force down woeful Waratahs in shock win at Allianz Stadium

The Western Force kept their Super Rugby Pacific finals hopes alive with a grinding and well deserved 20-17 win over the misfiring NSW Waratahs on Friday night.

The Force kicked high and often in the direction of star recruit Zac Lomax, but the Waratahs mainly dealt well with that aerial bombardment at Sydney's Allianz Stadium.

But on the other wing Dylan Pietsch wreaked havoc, scoring two tries against his old club in a typically wholehearted performance.

Watch the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season with every match streaming live and on demand on the home of rugby, Stan Sport

"He is tormenting his former side," commentator Sean Maloney said on Stan Sport.

The Waratahs also scored two tries, to Lawson Creighton and Folau Fainga'a, but Ben Donaldson's second penalty proved decisive for the Force.

"It's a huge upset. It's a shock win in Sydney for the Western Force," Maloney said.

READ MORE: Referee slammed for 'not doing the right thing'

READ MORE: Rugby has a giant poaching problem and Australia is getting hammered

READ MORE: 'Puts it to shame': Rugby figures blown away by $6m extravaganza

Waratahs centre Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was kept quiet with just three carries on his return from injury.

The Force (18 points) improved to ninth on the ladder - just two points behind the eighth-placed Waratahs, who share their 4-6 record but have collected two more bonus points.

The top six teams qualify for the playoffs.

Lomax played 60 minutes and had 10 carries before making way for Kurtley Beale.

It's now two starts and two wins for the Wallabies hopeful - and this was the Force's first win in Sydney in five years.

"It's a massive change (from league) but it's super exciting and that win was a very similar situation to the game against the Crusaders. Super pumped," Lomax told Stan Sport's Michael Hooper.

"I'm loving it. It's massive for our confidence but we've got to keep going. I mean we're down the bottom of the ladder and we definitely don't want to be there. We want to be playing finals footy and we've got to do the job next week again."

The Waratahs now travel to New Zealand to play the Highlanders next weekend while the Force take on the ACT Brumbies in Canberra.

NSW coach Dan McKellar looked bereft at fulltime in front of a disappointing crowd of just 10,096.

"Hurts a lot, mate, yeah, it's disappointing, really disappointing," McKellar told Stan Sport's Justin Harrison.

"We just couldn't get out of our end and they squeezed us to death. It's a simple game if you get the simple things right and we didn't. It's all pretty raw at the moment.

"I thought physically they dominated us in and around the ruck, and I thought they squeezed us to death. It's pretty simple, that's how the Force play. We spoke about it all week, we weren't good enough to deal with it.

"To be honest, I get sick of talking about a reaction, you know, I just want to see it week on week on week.

"And that's the challenge for me and the coaching group to get this out of the players, and the reality is at the moment we're not."

After a scintillating Super Round in Christchurch, this was a big come down as the game never rose to moderate heights, let alone great ones.

Even the winning coach wasn't super impressed.

"No. It was a bit of a tough watch, that one," Force boss Simon Cron told Stan Sport.

"However, sometimes you've got to win ugly, and I'd strongly suggest that was pretty ugly. But winning's good."

In Friday's opening game, the Hurricanes edged the defending champion Crusaders 38-31 in a thrilling shootout in Wellington.

Victory saw the Hurricanes leapfrog the Chiefs at the top of the table.

The Queensland Reds host the Brumbies in Saturday's feature game in Brisbane.

Western Force 20 (Tries: Pietsch 2; Cons: Donaldson 2; Pens: Donaldson 2) def NSW Waratahs 17 (Tries: Creighton, Fainga'a; Cons: Harvey 2; Pens: Harvey)