Seventh heaven: Quade Cooper celebrates after scoring his try
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The Reds made it a record seven wins on the trot after edging past the Waratahs 19-15 in Brisbane on Saturday.
It was the Queenslanders first win over their Australian rivals in seven years, with Reds pivot Quade Cooper providing a full house of points for his team.
Opposite number Kurtley Beale also contributed all of his team's points courtesy of five penalties, but in the end it wasn't enough as the men from Sydney slumped to back-to-back defeats.
More bad news for Waratahs fans, was the serious injury picked up by Australia wing Drew Mitchell. The 27-year-old fell awkwardly on his ankle after just 19 minutes and is now doubtful to make the World Cup.
The boot of Beale saw the Waratahs into a 9-3 lead early on, but Cooper cut the deficit with a penalty on the half-hour mark and seized control thereafter.
The Wallabies fly-half danced through the defence with a blistering break for the game's only try before adding the conversion and a drop-goal to leave it 16-9 at the break.
The second period proved a cagey affair, and committed Waratahs work at the breakdown earned a pair of penalties for Beale to bring his side to within a point.
However, as they became desperate in the closing stages Cooper punished an infringement close to half-way with a colossal kick to seal victory.
The scorers:
For Reds:
Try: Cooper
Con: Cooper
Pens: Cooper 3
Drop: Cooper
For Waratahs:
Pens: Beale 5
Reds: 15 Ben Lucas, 14 Luke Morahan, 13 Anthony Faingaa, 12 Mike Harris, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Scott Higginbotham, 7 Beau Robinson, 6 Radike Samo, 5 James Horwill (c), 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Guy Shepherdson, 2 Saia Faingaa, 1 Ben Daley.Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Greg Holmes, 18 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 19 Liam Gill, 20 Leroy Houston, 21 Dom Shipperley, 22 Will Chambers.
Waratahs: 15 Lachie Turner, 14 Tom Kingston, 13 Ryan Cross, 12 Tom Carter, 11 Drew Mitchell, 10 Kurtley Beale, 9 Luke Burgess, 8 Wycliff Palu, 7 Phil Waugh (c), 6 Ben Mowen, 5 Sitaleki Timani, 4 Dean Mumm, 3 Sekope Kepu, 2 Tatafu Polota-Nau, 1 Benn Robinson.
Replacements: 16 John Ulugia, 17 Al Baxter, 18 Kane Douglas, 19 Dave Dennis, 20 Pat McCutcheon, 21 Brendan McKibbin, 22 Daniel Halangahu.
Date: Saturday April 23
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick-off: 19:40 (09:40 GMT)
Referee: Steve Walsh (Australia)
Assistant referees: Ian Smith (Australia), Stephen Hill (Australia)
TMO: Steve Lesczcynski (Australia)
Comments
dylster says...
Trinats
looking ordinary? i might have to disagree with you there...sure my team (canes) is looking average but the blues, crusaders and highlanders will give the reds a run for their money...
also super 15 doesnt count for much when it comes to internationals, just ask the south africans how 2010 went...
you coming over for any the WC games? ready to watch the aussies choke? haha! pot, kettle...
Posted 21:33 27th April 2011
Kiwilad says...
Take another pill Trinats
Posted 21:15 27th April 2011
dylster says...
bit of a coincidence the Reds have a 7 game winning streak and havent played a kiwi team yet...
Posted 09:36 27th April 2011
pacfcrugby4eva says...
A good summary of the Reds performance from Courier mail:
Best of all, the Reds found another way to win when it was demanded of them.
They ran the Cheetahs and Bulls off their feet with six-try knockouts, tactically smothered the Stormers, won ugly against the Western Force and ground out history against ACT Brumbies in Canberra.
Now this. They absorbed a scrum battering led by Wallaby prop Benn Robinson and played 30 second-half minutes without the ball yet still had the defensive steel to prevail.
Posted 01:57 27th April 2011
trappa says...
Kiwilad...i dont disagree that coopers failure to gain any distance with the boot may have put the reds under all sorts of pressure. That however is purely speculation as to what might have been. My point was that the reds were the only side that looked like scoring . The boratahs would then have had to kick at least 2 more penalties maybe 3, and that wasnt gonna happen
Posted 13:39 26th April 2011
KiwiLad says...
Trinats, suffering that same old premature problem? Am sure there is a pill available..
Trappa, have to disagree, purely on the Cooper boot thing, If the Tahs were to have take the points available, kicked their way back downtown, Cooper would have failed to kick them out of trouble yet again, leading to more penalties, But yes Trinats, very impressive defence
Posted 06:55 26th April 2011
trappa says...
I disagree Kiwilad...Waugh did the right thing going for the try. That was one of the few times that the tahs were down that end of the park and 3 points mean nothing. the reds would simply restart at the 50 and again be in a position to add to the tally. The tahs only had 20 minutes of dominance because they took up most of that time resetting scrums where they were on top. The reds absorbed all that pressure and only remained in their 1/4 as cooper had a shocking night with his boot. The problem with waughs desision was the Tahs are so used to taking the soft option of kicking 3 points then boring the other team to death. They never really looked like scoring and were never in enough of a lead to rely on pick-drives to get them home. They lack any real imagination and would probably do well relocating to the NH
Posted 00:55 26th April 2011
KiwiLad says...
If Phil Waugh had not insisted on scrummaging and taken the points on offer during 25 minutes of Tah domination, he would not have been benched and the Tahs would have had a victory...IMHO
Posted 21:38 24th April 2011
runnrugby says...
Good win for the Reds. Bad news for Drew Mitchell and his world cup chances. Isnt it a bit strange that after 10 rounds the reds face their first kiwi opposition next weekend. Just happens to be the hurricanes too who are the bottom of the NZ conference
Posted 08:08 24th April 2011
pacfcrugby4eva says...
Wow! Right down to the wire! What a game!
Amazing resilience under immense pressure.
Well done the Reds! Next please.....lol
Posted 12:49 23rd April 2011