Brumbies survive first-half red card to beat Force in Super Rugby thriller

The Brumbies overcame a disastrous red card to claim a thrilling 39-38 win over the Western Force in Perth and maintain their unbeaten start to the Super Rugby Pacific season.

The sixth consecutive win makes this the best start to a Super Rugby season that the Brumbies have ever had.

AS IT HAPPENED | Western Force v Brumbies

The visitors could not have asked for a better start either after Sefo Kautai won a turnover less than 120 seconds into the encounter before the Brumbies sent the ball through the hands in the backline out for Ryan Lonergan to open the scoring. He converted his score to make it 7-0.

Ian Prior pulled three points back for the home side before the Brumbies were at it again in the sixth minute.

After a mammoth 11-phase possession, the Force ran out of defenders and Andy Muirhead was easily able to get in for his side's second try of the game.

Lonergan missed the conversion but kicked a penalty soon after to bring his side's lead to 15-3.

They looked to be cantering off into the sunset when they had a third try before the 20th minute thanks to a lovely run and offload from Len Ikitau to Thomas Banks, allowing the latter to score with ease.

They thought they had a fourth 10 minutes later but it was ruled out by the TMO after it was revealed that Banks dropped the ball in his attempt to ground it.

The match flipped on its head entirely in the 29th minute, though, as Banks was shown a red card for a dangerous tackle on Toni Pulu. The Force were also awarded a penalty try for good measure.

In a stunning turnaround, their second try of the game came just two minutes later when Manasa Mataele made a huge gap by slipping two tackles before sending Kyle Godwin through to score. Prior's conversion brought the score to