The Queensland Reds flipped their game plan to a kick-based strategy in this one. It wasn’t pretty, it was only occasionally effective but the home side played the final few minutes with the game still on the line.
The Chiefs won a tight tussle 27-25. There were highlights, there was hum-drum too and there was the whistle of referee Paul Williams.
So what did we learn?
1 NO TUPOU, NO SCRUM
The Reds scrum was in all sorts of trouble as soon as rock Taniela Tupou limped off on half-time with a calf injury.
He looked uncomfortable physically even before that but a Tupou, at 70 per cent, is still gold.
He was in the scrum where the Reds won a tighthead at the 30-minute mark which they turned into the Harry Wilson try.
When Tupou went off, fellow props Harry Hoopert and Dane Zander were both penalised and the Chiefs clearly had dominance at scrum after scrum.
2 CHANGE OF TACTICS
The Reds ran it from everywhere against the Fijian Drua and buzzed around on attack against the Hurricanes.
There was a completely different script last night based on kicking.
The Reds kicked 32 times, twice as often as a week earlier (15) against the Hurricanes.
The Reds kicked and tried to pressure with the follow-up defence. It was just a shame the Reds didn’t have a kicker with the distance of a Reece Hodge because it was rarely as effective as it could have been.
Jock Campbell and Lawson Creighton kicking out on the full didn’t help either although one 50-22 kick from Campbell that flew 60m was the kick of the night.
Reds made a huge number of tackles by backing the strength of their tackling and they did a fine job of restricting the dangerous Chiefs.
3 HOME FINAL SLIP-UP
The Chiefs leapfrog the Reds into fourth spot on the Super Rugby Pacific ladder with this win.
All staying equal, the Reds will struggle to force a top four spot for a home final at Suncorp Stadium from here.
The Reds are still certain of finishing top eight but the match-up in the finals may now be a tricky away game in New Zealand.
4 JOC NOT JOCK
The Reds desperately need James O’Connor back running the show at flyhalf. Replacement Creighton is doing his best.
The good news from O’Connor is that he feels his knee is healing ahead of schedule. He may be a chance to be back as early as the May 14 clash against the Blues. If not, it will be against Moana Pasifika in Brisbane on May 20.
At fullback, Jock Campbell wasn’t the factor he was before his hand injury. He spilt the ball and didn’t have the zing to break a stiff Chiefs defence.
5 TURNING POINT
You’d have to call it the huge tackle by Chiefs winger Quinn Tupaea which flattened Fraser McReight and forced a knock-on.
McReight looked certain of a try when he collected a deft kick ahead by Creighton. If he had scored the Reds would have been full of confidence with a 25-18 lead nearing the hour mark.
Instead, the Chiefs were next to score and inflating that delicate 20-18 scoreline the wrong way to 27-18.
