Reds: Hang to beat Hurricanes
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The Reds held off a late Hurricanes onslaught to prevail 18-12 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Friday.
The Queenslanders outscored their trans-Tasman rivals two tries to nill, but it was the hosts' courageous work in defence at the death that saw them hang on for their second win of the tournament.
The big moment in the match came four minutes from time when the Hurricanes thought they had scored the winning try through skipper Conrad Smith after Quade Cooper's pass went astray over his try-line.
But the TMO found a knock-on from replacement scrum-half Chris Smylie in the lead-up and the try was disallowed to the Hurricanes' astonishment.
Wallabies duo Digby Ioane and lock Rob Simmons scored the Reds' tries, with Cooper landing a conversion and two penalties, while fly-half Beauden Barrett kicked all of the Hurricanes' points with four penalties.
Ioane dived over in the corner in the 23rd minute and Simmons scored his first Super Rugby try nine minutes after the resumption.
"Man, in some ways that is one of the strangest games I've played," All Black centre Smith said after the match.
"I don't really know what to make of it at the moment, but there were some things going on that I didn't understand. The boys tried hard and it's just frustrating."
Reds skipper James Slipper said his team had been "lucky" to win and praised his side's defence.
"We were playing in our own half and against a quality side like the Hurricanes you can't do that," he said.
"It's a credit to the squad as to how hard we worked for each other and the defence we put up was phenomenal.
"Through good defence we were lucky to come away with a good win."
The scorers:
For Reds:
Tries: Ioane, Simmons
Con: Cooper
Pens: Cooper 2
For Hurricanes:
Pens: Barrett 4
Reds: 15 Aidan Toua, 14 Dom Shipperley, 13 Chris Feauai-Sautia, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Ben Lucas, 8 Jake Schatz, 7 Liam Gill, 6 Eddie Quirk, 5 Ed O'Donoghue, 4 Rob Simmons, 3 James Slipper (c), 2 Saia Faingaa, 1 Greg Holmes.
Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Albert Anae, 18 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 19 Radike Samo, 20 Nick Frisby, 21 Mike Harris, 22 Luke Morahan.
Hurricanes: 15 Andre Taylor, 14 Alapati Leiua, 13 Conrad Smith (c), 12 Tim Bateman, 11 Julian Savea, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Brad Shields, 7 Karl Lowe, 6 Victor Vito, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Ben Franks.
Replacements: 16 Motu Matu'u, 17 Reggie Goodes, 18 James Broadhurst, 19 Faifili Levave, 20 Chris Smylie, 21 James Marshall, 22 Reynold Lee-Lo.
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Comments
isthatrightref says...
Could've gone to this but turned down the freebie tickets in favour of watching Crusdaers v Blues at my local... managed to catch bits & pieces of this which seemed to mostly be the Horrorcanes dropping the ball (100% humidity will do that, apparently) & generally doing their best to lose the game & the Rids playing mostly at the same end but doing just enough to not lose...
Couldn't believe Savea chipped esp as I'd just told the cousin-in-law to watch him trample Morahan & haven't seen a decent replay of the Smylie knock-on but regardless the less-bad team won on the night.
Posted 22:12 01st March 2013
7ton says...
Armchairgeneral
Lol! No doubt you have had enough of the ref bashing over on the 6N pages. HaHa!
Posted 21:52 01st March 2013
2eyedkiwi says...
Well said Capt Slipper
Posted 19:44 01st March 2013
NHsaints says...
The reds were very boring and unimpressive and as slipper said after the game, they played too much in their own half...the Hurricanes were unlucky to lose but would have been lucky to win, definitely a side in development.
Posted 18:10 01st March 2013
tha_mai says...
Quade-baiting - good pic of him being tackled - note he made 2 (two) forward metres running with ball in this match, so chances are he was running either cross-field, or backwards, when this pic taken.
Shows the nature of the game - 589m forward metres all up; compare with Highlanders-Chiefs a week ago 1294m. Two teams with limited attack, and good defence esp from Reds last 15min.
Posted 15:54 01st March 2013
tha_mai says...
Diabolical. Suggest we saw two teams due to finish between 8th and 12th tonight, what a poor advertisement for rugby from teams that in the past were known for some style and flair. Put in perspective, Reds had been cleaned out by Brumbies. Hurricanes by Blues (at home) so shouldn't have expected much; I'd picked Reds by 20 given their strong record of home advantage, but not to be. Steve Walsh added to the mix, hope he too has to watch the match in review. Erratic! doesn't even come close. Reds deserved to win as much as Hurricanes deserved to lose, I thought the match before, Waratahs v Rebels was bad, and it was, but expected a lot more from this one. 5/10 for Reds, 4/10 for Hurricanes, and condemn them to this year's also-rans (or has-beens and never-weres).
Posted 15:31 01st March 2013
melkdave says...
Although i didnt watch the match.Had to go out lol.I,it looks like the REDS where very lucky to get the win today,hope theres highlights ,so i can mae my own mind up lol.
Posted 13:48 01st March 2013
ArmchairGeneral says...
What an absolute travesty from the officials!... Oh hang on, I didn't watch the game. Thought I would set the tone for comments to come.
Posted 13:31 01st March 2013
Trader2 says...
Good effort from Queensland at fortress Suncorp a 6 point win against most probably the worst team in the NZ conference.
Posted 12:59 01st March 2013
philipjfry says...
I'm not sure why Savea chipped, he should have backed himself against Morahan. Kudos to the 'canes they kept trying, did their supporters proud. The Reds did little more that hold on in the end.
Posted 12:53 01st March 2013