Western Force coach Simon Cron says learning and reflecting on the history of past teams helped push them to the gutsy, thrilling after-the-siren 45-44 win over Moana Pasifika at HBF Park on Saturday.
The dramatic victory was clinched by fly-half Ben Donaldson who overcame an ankle injury picked up early in the second half to sprint 50 metres through the defensive line and finish an incredible 26 phase, 70-metre breakout.
His conversion rounded off a perfect night with the boot, adding another 15 points in the heart-stopping game.
Local product and flanker Carlo Tizzano crossed twice, full-back Mac Grealy and winger Dylan Pietsch both scored on their Force debuts while homegrown prop Marley Pearce also scored a five-pointer.
The Force came back from a 13-point deficit with 10 minutes remaining in the first game of the club's 20th anniversary season and Cron said: "We've talked about previous teams in Western Force history having a lot of unwavering grit and fighting to the 83rd minute.
"I think these boys did that. For us at the end we showed some unwavering grit, which is important for us."
Cron is now preparing for the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday (kick-off 4.35pm).
"The fixes will start tomorrow," he said after the game.
"It's important to learn how to win late. It's important to learn in the last 10 minutes you can score two tries.
"That's really important. But we can't leak that many points."
He pinpointed poor exits from their own half as one problem allowing Pasifika to pounce on scraps that came from errors.
"The big one for us is to be able to hold possession for long blocks and secondly to stabilise our defensive line so they don't break us that easily," he said.
"We'll have a number of critical fixes that we will work on and the boys will kick that into gear tomorrow morning.
"All players who experience a game like that, where you win it in the 83rd minute through a number of phases, start to build some belief, fight for each other.
"We can take a lot of learnings out of it.
"The group we have are pretty good learners and are starting to evolve a lot quicker than we had in the past."
Cron was full of praise for the nine debutants, including Nic Dolly, Nick Champion de Crespigny and Divad Palu in their first Super Rugby Pacific appearances, and for Donaldson.
"Donno, six from six (conversions), we don't win the game without that," he said.
"When he set off (for the try) I said 'run son'. He's fast, Donno's quick.
"He got a half-gap and I thought 'how bad is his ankle. Can he finish it'.
"When he started opening up I thought 'he's good'".
Captain Jeremy Williams said he would review his own game and the way the side made their exits, particularly when they were 14-points down early in the game.
"We were trying to focus on clean exit and we couldn't do that at stages," he said.
"There were chances to exit clean, put pressure on them, play in their half.
"There were times we did it but it was tit for tat.
"We spent the majority of that second half down in our own end.
"We lacked discipline.
"It was down to that last play, we knew that we were going to have to exit and probably run the ball from our own end.
"Big focus on our breakdown, making sure we can secure the ball, and let Donno do the work.
"It shows the type of bloke he is and what he is willing to do for the team.
"He bit down on his mouthguard, stayed out there (after his injury). We definitely needed him.
"It's awesome to see guys are willing to put their body on the line for the team."
