In front of their largest crowd of the season, and under the threat of axing from the competition, the Western Force provided stiff opposition but ultimately came up short as the powerful Chiefs did enough to claim a 16-7 win.

The Force were playing their first game since news broke that they are the Melbourne Force are facing the axe as the Super Rugby competition is reduced to 15 teams in 2018.

Rugby WA has stood firm in fighting for the Force's survival.

The Perth public turned out to show their support with 14,089 fans attending in the best crowd figure of the season at nib Stadium.

The Force's favourite son Matt Hodgson scored a trademark bullocking try in the first half to bring scores level to the crowd's delight.

It was a well-worked lineout play by the Force who then got going in a rolling maul, before Hodgson broke away to score the five-pointer.

However, the Kiwi powerhouse Chiefs scored the only points in the second half - with three penalty conversions to Aaron Cruden.

The Chiefs' only try came courtesy of Liam Messam in the eighth minute and they remain in third spot behind the Hurricanes in the New Zealand conference after seven wins from eight games.

The Force remain in third position behind the Brumbies and the Reds in the Australian conference.

Their cause wasn't helped with Wallabies back Dane Haylett-Petty leaving the field after 21 minutes with a suspected injury.

David Rennie's Chiefs might have won but the coach was far from happy.

"We got a win so maybe in a couple of days' time reflecting and the four points might please us; but it was a pretty frustrating game from our point of view," Rennie said.

"There was just a real reluctance to hold on to the ball for multi phases and build pressure. We just turned the ball over too often.

"You have to give them credit, they were desperate and certainly played with a lot of character."

Despite the fighting effort from the Force, coach Dave Wessels was less than satisfied as well.

"I'm definitely proud of the effort but there's two sides to that coin," Wessels said.

"We were unbelievably pleased to see the support again from the crowd, that's pretty special and the boys have played all season like they have wanted to make the people of WA proud.

"They did that in some ways but we've got to stop being the club that are always the unlucky losers, particularly when we're losing in the same way."