Rebels stun Western Force

Melbourne Rebels completed a thrilling 26-25 victory over Western Force to keep their Super Rugby finals hopes alive on Saturday.

After trailing 15-3 within 10 minutes of the start, the Rebels stunned their hosts with two second-half tries in the space of five minutes at Perth's nib Stadium.

The visitors then held off of their rivals to claim their third win of the season and their first away from home.

Mark Gerrard, Hugh Pyle and Richard Kingi touched down for the Rebels, while Danny Cipriani added three penalties and one conversion.

Sam Wykes, Nathan Charles and Rory Sidey crossed for the home side and James O'Connor chipped in with 10 points with the boot,

The Perth side charged into an early lead with two tries in the opening 10 minutes. Wykes crossed in the fifth minute after collecting the offload from Nathan Charles.

Clever

Then it was Charles' turn to celebrate his first try in Super Rugby thanks to a clever move by O'Connor.

The number 10 blasted through the middle on a 50-metre sprint before feeding the hooker for the try.

O'Connor slotted three points on 19 minutes after Cipriani was penalised for blatantly obstructing an opponent deep inside his own defence.

But the former England player made amends two minutes later when he dummied an outside pass then fed fullback Gerrard, who sprinted in at the left corner.

Fly-half Cipriani slotted two more penalties in the second quarter to cut Force's lead to a single point and take his side into the break trailing 15-14.

O'Connor added three shortly after the restart but from that point on the hosts seemingly fell apart.

Crafty

Pyle struck the first blow when he intercepted a wayward Shepherd pass in midfield and galloped 40 metres to the line.

Cipriani converted and soon after pulled a crafty move when making as though he was going to kick a penalty inside his own 22.

Rather that take the three points the fly-half booted the ball instead to Kingi who dived over in the corner for an easy try.

Sidey scored for the hosts in the 66th minute and O'Connor slotted the conversion to cut the margin to one.

But the Force fly-half spurned the chance to grab the win with seven minutes to go when he missed a penalty five metres in from touch.