Canberra Vikings' NRC campaign left in dire straits after Western Force defeat

The Vikings are fighting for a chance to return to the NRC finals after suffering a crucial 45-28 defeat to the Western Force in Perth on Saturday.

The Vikings have now lost two out of their four matches so far this season, and have only three matches left to place their finals' bid.

The Vikings have a tough road to the finals and will face powerhouse Fiji Drua at Viking Park next week, but coach Nick Scrivener said their home ground advantage won't be enough to pull them across the line.

"It'll be good to play in front of our crowd but we certainly need a better performance than what we dished out [on Saturday]," Scrivener said.

"We've just got to make sure we're mentally staying in the game and just nailing the basics. The basis of the game is without the ball, you can't win."

Canberra boasted a stacked line-up of representative players with fullback Banks returning from Wallabies duty and the promotion of Powell to No.9, but the Vikings struggled to get out of second gear as the Force dominated from the opening siren.

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An intercept by Western Australia's Byron Ralston was all it took to unravel the Vikings' charge in the second minute.

The 19-year-old winger intercepted a flat pass by Viking Noah Lolesio and outran Andy Muirhead to score, forcing the visitors to play catch up on foreign ground.

The Force rode on the momentum as Jeremy Thrush dived over the line, and two success conversions to Ian Prior extended their lead to 14-nil after just nine minutes.

"We were in the back-foot straight away with that intercept and struggled to get back into the game," Scrivener said.

"We just have to learn how to hold onto the ball and build some pressure, we gave the opposition too much ball and gave them every opportunity to score. It was a poor performance."

The Vikings showed glimpses of promise as they tried to claw their way back from the 14-point deficit and narrowed down the margin to three points.

A crucial missed tackle by Chris Tuatara-Morrison allowed Lolesio to fly through a gap and feed the ball through to Muirhead, who scored on the wing to salvage the opening half.

But the Force responded with another clinical play when Jake Strachan orchestrated Jonah Placid's first try with a perfectly placed kick.

Canberra had a chance to close down the first half as Lachlan Lonergan pushed through a rolling maul to score in the 31^st minute. George Morseau, who replaced Muirhead after he came off the field with a knee complaint, had a try disallowed on the halftime siren when his right foot scrapped over the touch line.

"There were some good patches but we just didn't do it long enough," Scrivener said.

"Everything we did well, they undid very quickly.

"We showed when we maintain possession we can score points but we just kept giving the ball back to the opposition."

The Vikings blew another two chances to take control of the match when the Force had two tries disallowed in the opening two minutes of the second half.

The Force scored on their third attempt as Brynard Stander crossed over the line from a rolling maul.

The Vikings suffered another blow when Wallaby Pete Samu was sent to the sin bin but managed to secure another five-points as Blake Enever powered over the line in the 62^nd minute.

But the Force extended their lead with another two tries to Placid and Feleti Kaitu'u to close out the match.

NRC ROUND FOUR

Western Force 45 (Ralston, Thrush, Stander, Feke, Kaitu'u, Placid 2 tries; Prior 5 conversions) bt Canberra Vikings 28 (Muirhead, L Lonergan, Ikitau, Enever tries; Lolesio 4 conversions)