Western Force coach Simon Cron believes some of their early season results acted as a catalyst to produce wins like Friday night's gutsy 20-17 victory over the Waratahs at Allianz Stadium.
The win came after the 31-26 comeback victory over the Crusaders in their last Swyftx Super Rugby Pacific outing. The triumph made it three wins from the Force’s past four games.
Cron said they had learned from early season defeats and close results, identified game management problems, found mental toughness and a growth mindset.
"There were a couple of games early on in the season that we took a lot of learnings from around the ability to manage those games," Cron said.
"But you know what, you learn from those ones so you can handle the ones like tonight.
"The group has grown from those experiences. Sometimes you've got to live those games to be able to get better.
"The team has found some cadence there, they've found some strength and belief in each other and that's a big part of rugby."
Cron said the side had been "laser-focused" in the build-up to the game.
"They drove the end of the week, the intensity coming into the game, major focus (was) on how we play, who are we and what are we doing,” Cron said.
"That's what we'll do in the review. There will be some key parts that we will review where there will be good opportunities to learn."
The "must win" game moved the Force into ninth, five points out of the top six, as they head to Canberra to take on the Brumbies next Saturday.
They hung on after dominating all facets of the game as the Waratahs launched one final surge at their line.
Winger Dylan Pietsch was the star of the show with two tries. Playmaker Ben Donaldson kicked both conversions and added two penalties.
Cron said he was pleased there was no panic after the Waratahs scored their second try in the 74th minute to close the gap to three points.
"The boys went to work in the defensive set at the end to make sure we won," he said.
"It was clean, we didn't give away a penalty so that was a great job. There's quite a lot of learnings we'll take from the game. We'll review that and get better."
The Force tightened the game for long periods holding the ball for 62 per cent possession.
"In the first 30 minutes we got a little bit wide inside the 22, we started throwing long passes," Cron said. "That was a mistake so we had to tighten up.
"We didn't want a lot of ball-in-air time and we know we can build phases in that zone, ideally get a penalty and play on top.
"Once we got inside the 22 we definitely didn't want a huge amount of ball in-air time. We wanted to go front door ideally."
Captain Jeremy Williams said he would like to have put the Waratahs away earlier and not have to defend their line to seal the win.
"But that's a growth in our team," he said. "To be able to do that two weeks in a row now is pretty cool.
"It's about being squeaky clean around the breakdown. Make sure the boys staying focus. Don't search for opportunities just see and do. We did a really good job of that.
"We really wanted to focus on us this week...really proud of the effort, really proud of the team."
Cron said full-back Mac Grealy who ran for more than 100 metres, and produced a great offload for Pietsch's second try was a key member of the squad.
"He's a great man, he's been a major asset for us," he said.
"He has a huge engine on him, he covers a lot of ground, gets in the backfield, gets high in the air. He's playing some great rugby."
Cron said Donaldson, who is pushing for a Wallabies spot, was extremely driven.
"He's working on his craft the whole time," he said. "There's little parts of his game he's working on and we're working on with him.
"He's extremely driven, he looks relaxed, but he's an amazingly driven athlete and he wants to keep getting better at the one per centers. That's what the Wallaby coaches will be looking for."
The Force face the Brumbies in Canberra next from 5:35pm WST Saturday live on Stan Sport.
