They had plenty to say on the field but Stephen Moore and Matt Hodgson were happy to leave their fierce exchanges in the middle in Perth on Friday night.
Hodgson and Moore were seen on numerous occasions exchanging words in the Force-Brumbies clash as well as a few pushes and shoves at the breakdown.
At one stage referee Andrew Lees had to speak to the captains to cool their tempers.
A bruised and battered Hodgson said he was happy to leave things on the pitch.
“He said some things on the field and I’ll leave it on the field," Hodgson said.
“It’s a battle in the heat of the moment, he said some stuff and I didn’t agree with it so we tried to get the boys up.”
Moore was similarly happy to leave the details in the game.
“It was just hotly contested and Hodgo’s a great leader for them," he said.
"Those things happen often on the field but it’s all good.”
Force coach Michael Foley praised his team’s spirit after the match, pleased with their attacking endeavour despite the result.
“At the end of the day if you were to compare the two teams they did some of the basics better than us,” he said.
“What I was pleased with was after a difficult start, we got into our rhythm.
"I thought in the middle part of the game for about 40 or 50 minutes we played the way we wanted to play.”
The Western Force scored two tries on the night, with the second coming from a Peter Grant chip and chase to set up Ben Tapuai.
“The tries that we scored were good tries and perhaps tries we wouldn’t have scored before," Foley said.
“We have to understand that we’re going in the right direction.”
The Force now have a handful of injury concerns heading into their three-week New Zealand tour, starting with the Hurricanes next Friday.
Fly half Jono Lance suffered a head knock and will be monitored over the weekend, while Adam Coleman was replaced in the Steve Mafi in the second half due to injury.
“It will come down to what the medicals say,” Foley said.
“If he’s (Lance) not quite right in the first two weeks he might stay home and just recover and then come over.
"He’s so well prepared, he’s been with us for a number of months now.”
