The Waratahs’ Super Rugby finals hopes are alive. Somehow.

After the Waratahs and Western Force couldn’t be separated at the end of regular time, a stunning try to Darby Lancaster on the final play of the ten minutes of extra time saw the visitors seal an incredible 22-17 win on Saturday night in Perth.

“It was an interesting game,” Waratahs skipper Jake Gordon said. “We knew it was going to be back and forth throughout the game and the weather followed us from Sydney.

“That second half was ugly, but I thought some of the control and ball work in the conditions was impressive, and it was a great finish from Darby.”

Darby Lancaster’s try in extra time sunk the Western Force and kept the Waratahs’ finals hopes alive. (Photo by Steve Christo – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

The win saw Dan McKellar’s men close to within two points of Moana Pasifika and the Blues (both 28) with one round left in the regular season, with the Waratahs to travel across the ditch to Auckland to take on last year’s champions for the chance to likely scrape into the top six. Moana Pasifika, who were thumped 85-7 by the Chiefs earlier on Saturday, will meet the fourth-placed Hurricanes (34) in Wellington next week.

“We’re excited. We’ve got a lot to work on, but we’re excited for the week,” Gordon added.

The win snapped a four match losing streak for the Waratahs, while it was the Force’s fifth straight defeat to end their season.

“It’s devastating,” Force skipper Jeremy Williams said. “The season’s over now and it’s definitely not the way that we wanted to finish.

“It could have gone either way at the end there, and the refs had a really tough call to make and it didn’t go our way, but we could have done things to make it go our way.”

The only people chewing through the footage of the contest will be the respective coaches because the game should otherwise be never seen again.

Despite a lively, albeit not particularly high quality, start to the match where three tries were scored inside the opening 20 minutes and another two occurred in the first half to give the Force a 17-14 half-time lead, the match rapidly descended in the second half as the rain picked up.

Twenty-nine penalties were blown (15 Force, 14 Waratahs), both teams conceded 15 turnovers, the lineout and scrum became a lottery on either side and both sides lost a man to the sin bin.

Fergus Lee-Warner throws a punch at Western Force hooker Nic Dolly late in the first half in Perth. (Photo by Travis Hayto/Getty Images)

Eventually it was left to replacement playmaker Jack Bowen to land a penalty in the 74th minute to level up the score, before both sides missed shots at goal in extra time to win the game.

But the Waratahs got another chance following Bowen’s missed shot, with the Force failing to find touch and the visitors countered through Jamie Adamson.

One phase later the Waratahs had their match-winner as the visitors slung the ball wide through Bowen, who found Lancaster and the former Australian Sevens star managed to touch down out wide centimeters inside the field of play.

“Absolutely stoked,” Lancaster said. “That was a helluva grind.”

Asked how the Waratahs somehow closed it out, Lancaster praised his Eastern Suburbs teammate.

“Jack Bowen took over there,” Lancaster said. “He showed great leadership. He’s really coming into his footy and it’s a pleasure to be playing behind him.”