A commanding display has seen the Chiefs get past the Force 35-27 in an entertaining Anzac weekend encounter at Waikato Stadium.

On a weekend where New Zealanders and Australians remember the fallen, the Chiefs fought back after conceding an early try to storm back and punish the Western Australian outfit.

Chiefs midfield Sonny Bill Williams offloads to fullback Tom Marshall. Photo: File.

With the emotion of the Anzac commemorations pre-match, the Chiefs showed their intent with ball in hand as they constructed some well-worked play upfield allowing first five Marty McKenzie to nail the opening penalty.

The Force were swift to reply and were reverting to previous tactics using the rolling maul which was successful in their previous encounter last season.

It resulted in points for the visitors with a penalty kick to second five-eighth Luke Burton allowing the Force to draw even.

The men from Perth weren't done and soon grabbed the lead after some solid build up by both forwards and backs deep in Chiefs territory seeing loose forward Angus Cottrell crash over.

McKenzie soon knocked over his second penalty to claw back a few points for the Chiefs.

But just as the Force took the lead, the Chiefs wrestled it right back when All Blacks lock Brodie Retallick wriggled out of a tackle to link up with Brad Weber who in turn gave the final pass to a supporting Charlie Ngatai who found his way to the try line.

Ill-discipline was beginning to hamper the Force's efforts as they conceded further points to the boot of McKenzie to make it 16-8 after 24 minutes.

A pivotal moment in the contest came when Force halfback Ian Prior was red-carded for a dangerous and reckless tackle on Chiefs winger Tim Nanai-Williams.

Forced to play the remainder of the match with 14 men, the pressure eventually took a toll on the Force defence as the Chiefs piled on the pressure at set piece down in the opposition 22.

On the stroke of halftime the Chiefs converted the pressure into points when a rolling maul was used against the Force which saw hooker Hika Elliot drop in under the posts for a five pointer.

Leading 23-8 at the start of the second stanza, the Chiefs showed no mercy at scrum time with a collective forward effort seeing referee Angus Gardner award the home side with a penalty try.

It looked as if the flood gates were beginning to open with the Chiefs starting to run rampant but only for some desperate Force defence denying more points as well as the hosts missing a couple of opportunities to finish off movements.

Against the run of play the Force battled away and were able to break out from within their own half and gave winger Luke Morahan a clear run as he raced in for the try.

Buoyed by their efforts the Force cashed in minutes later when captain Matt Hodgson rewarded with a try after an unstoppable driving maul close to the line.

However, before the Force could muster any hopes of an unlikely comeback Chiefs winger Nanai-Williams quashed that with an electric individual effort.

The crowd favourite displayed his deft footwork to brush aside four defenders on his way to the try line where he claimed the bonus point try for his team.

As the game wore on both teams were guilty of throwing loose passes but it was the Force who managed to gain the composure in their play.

The Force's replacement hooker Heath Tessmann capped off a spirited display diving over in the corner for a late consolation try to round up the match.

Chiefs fullback Tom Marshall is pleased with the result and bagging five competition points but pointed out there is room for improvements after letting the Force back into the game.

"I guess the result was what we were after - five [competition] points, which is pretty pleasing.

"But probably the way we went about it wasn't so great. We got put under a little bit of pressure in that second half just not being clinical enough, so I'm sure we'll get a bit out of that game in the review and hopefully improve moving forward."

Marshall praises his teammates in the forward pack for setting the tone especially in the scrum and helped with their play out in the backs.

"The forwards are always great up front. When you got a good, dominant set piece like our scrum was tonight, it helps with our backs strike so that's pretty pleasing."

The Chiefs will travel across the Tasman to Melbourne next week where they will face a tough Rebels outfit at AAMI Park.

Score Summary.

Chiefs: 35 (Charlie Ngatai, Hika Elliot, Tim Nanai-Williams tries, Penalty Try; Marty McKenzie 3 pen, 3 con)

Force: 27 (Angus Cottrell, Luke Morahan, Matt Hodgson, Heath Tessmann tries; Luke Burton pen, 2 con)