Hat-trick hero: Rod Davies
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Three tries from wing Rod Davies saw the Reds romp to a 30-13 win over the Blues in an action-packed Super Rugby semi-final in Brisbane on Saturday.
The result sees the Reds book a home final - their first ever decider - against either the Stormers or the Crusaders next weekend.
A jam-packed Suncorp Stadium was treated to a fabulous 80 minutes of rugby with home fly-half Quade Cooper starring once again.
The table-topping Reds have set the benchmark on attack this season but you don't get this far without a solid defence and Ewen McKenzie's men put on an impressive display, allowing the visitors just one try to their four.
The home side led from start to finish as two tries from long range helped them open up a 15-0 advantage, although the Blues struck back just before the break to leave the score at 15-7 when the teams swapped ends.
The Reds drew first blood early on with an 80m intercept try by Davies, who latched onto an ambitious pass out wide by Lachie Munro. No one was going to catch the fastest man on the pitch and Davies could touch down under the posts to set up and easy conversion for Cooper in the 13th minute.
The hosts' second try was right out of the top draw. Cooper produced a moment of pure magic to dance his away down the touchline, leaving four defenders in his wake before off-loading inside to Ben Tapuai, who bisected two more blue jerseys in a clinical finish.
Cooper wasn't having a great night from the kicking tee and missed the conversion but was able to find the mark with a penalty five minutes later to extend the lead to 15 points.
The Reds looked set to maintain that advantage at the break but lock Chris Lowrey had other ideas, slaloming his way through heavy traffic to pull a try back after the half-time hooter to keep the visitors in contention.
The Blues made a strong start to the second half and further reduced the gap when Luke McAlister slammed over a 50m penalty.
But the Reds' reply was almost immediate as Davies scored his second try with a scintillating run, attacking the Blues' defence line with the perfect angle and using his pace to beat his defender on the outside.
Another long-range penalty from McAlister kept the Blues in touch at 20-13 but that man Davies provided the killer blow, shrugging off tackles from Stephen Brett and Keven Mealamu to score in the corner.
A late drop-goal from Cooper sealed a deserved win.
Man of the match: It was a bit of a debate but since Cooper missed four kicks, we'll go with Rod Davies for his hat-trick, the first in Reds history. Congratulations to those of you who followed our Tipster's advice - at 40/1 you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
Moment of the match: The crowd were on their feet when Cooper set up Ben Tapuai's try. It was a moment of attacking genius: a hand off, two outrageous dummies, a step, a jink and some gas followed by an accurate offload and a top-class finish to give the Reds a two-try lead. Bravo!
Villain of the match: No bad guys to be seen. What an advertisement for the game.
The scorers:
For the Reds:
Tries: Davies 3, Tapuai
Cons: Cooper 2
Pens: Cooper
Drop: Cooper
For the Blues:
Try: Lowrey
Con: Brett
Pens: McAlister 2
The teams:
Reds: 15 Jono Lance, 14 Rod Davies, 13 Anthony Faingaa, 12 Ben Tapuai, 11 Digby Ioane, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Radike Samo, 7 Beau Robinson, 6 Scott Higginbotham, 5 James Horwill (c), 4 Rob Simmons, 3 Greg Holmes, 2 Saia Faingaa, 1 Ben Daley.
Replacements: 16 James Hanson, 17 Guy Shepherdson, 18 Adam Wallace-Harrison, 19 Jake Schatz, 20 Liam Gill, 21 Ian Prior, 22 Will Chambers.
Blues: 15 Jared Payne, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Benson Stanley, 12 Luke McAlister, 11 Lachie Munro, 10 Stephen Brett, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Peter Saili, 7 Luke Braid, 6 Jerome Kaino, 5 Ali Williams , 4 Chris Lowrey, 3 John Afoa, 2 Keven Mealamu (c), 1 Charlie Faumuina.
Replacements: 16 Tom McCartney, 17 Tevita Mailau , 18 James King, 19 Daniel Braid, 20 Chris Smylie, 21 Rene Ranger, 22 Sherwin Stowers.
Venue: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Referee: Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
Comments
Ramage says...
I am extremely worried about the health and well being of our good friend Trinats. I was sure we would have heard his pearls of wisdom this weekend. Please Trinats let us know you are well and not in hospital or the morgue. On second thoughts if you are in the latter please dont contact me. However no doubt you are just savouring your team's win and recovering from one almighty hangover and no doubt having sobered up on Monday will be back in full flight. Cheers.
Posted 15:04 03rd July 2011
Ramage says...
@genghis_j just goes to show your predictions are just a bit off target 1 you backed the Stormers to be playing the Reds. Sorry wrong. 2 You say the Waratahs would have bee better opponents for the Reds. Sorry wrong again they were eliminated by the Blues the week before so could not be better opponents. Once again the Waratahs took the proverbial flower girl prize they win in every Super Rugby Competition.
@rohan 1992 I totally disagree I believe Kaplan let the game flow and only drew it up when he needed to. Did you hear him warn the Blues in the 1st half and the Reds in the 2nd about their tactics. he could, like Barnes does, come in all officious and issue yellow cards. No he didn;t he kept the game flowing, men on the field and let the teams know he had been lenient and stop the nonsense, which they did. That to me is a ref on top of his game. We dont want it spoiled by officious over the top refereeing and using yellow cards.
@mikeyj9 I dont think the kiwi fans have been moaning just pointing out they were disappointed the Blues were inept. It seems its ok for a Red's supporter to state how good the Reds backs were but whilst playing well and having an inventive Cooper and Davies with pace they were gifted this game by a team who played poorly. Good luck to the Reds by playing a much better game they won and won it convincingly. Those who know the Blues scratch their heads at such ineptitude not just in this game but many others over the past few years. Only Waratah supporters would truly understand such inept play. As for Brett being pencilled in as Carter's deputy you must be joking or taking the mickey. Only a Wallaby supporter would think he is up to it. If he is, and players have been spoken to by the AllBlack selectors, why is he heading to Japan. After all we all know what happened to the last player with the name of Stephen who occupied that position.
Posted 10:33 03rd July 2011
SmokeStack says...
Well done Reds, to the other kiwis bleating about the ref, sure there were some calls that went against us, but the blues made more bad decisions than the ref. Brett kicking repeatedly down the throat of Cooper was asking for trouble. Payne blew what until then had been a great season, who chips out of their 22, and then drops a sitter in the oponents 22. The reds defence was outstanding, but a rush defense against the likes of McAlister and Stanley is one thing, it will be interesting to see how it goes against SBW and Fruen who have a far greater ability to offload in the tackle. The reds showed that sheer speed and agility can be as effective as strength though. So..well done again Reds...take a bow Ewen.. and buckle up everybody for what should be a fantastic final.
Posted 02:39 03rd July 2011
StunTheMullet says...
Jared Payne the Stephen Donald of fullbacks!
Posted 22:25 02nd July 2011
SBWAllblack says...
Payne had a shocker! He has been so safe the whole season and had a couple of brain explosions last night. Reds played really well - Congrats.
I still wonder about the coaching set up at the Blues and the strategies they employ.
Posted 22:05 02nd July 2011
kpe12 says...
Reds played with great front foot ball, passes crisp and in front of the player, Blues were ordinary at best in the back line, "lets shuffle the pass to the next player in the line".
Crusaders played much like the Reds tonight too, will be an interesting match up because the Crusaders will dominate at scrum time and make the bigger tackles, but the Reds are very mobile and will win a lot of penalties and pinch a lot of ball. Crusaders won't put up with Coopers dancing on the spot trick either, Aplon tried it a few times and found himself 5 meters back from where he started the dance.
Big questions: will the travel finally catch up with the Crusaders? Will experience pay off when closing out the final? Can the Reds sneak attack the Crusaders and get up early? I certainly wouldn't put money against this very motivated Crusaders team, normally people wouldn't support them cause they've dominated the competition for so many years, but it seams being a nomadic team of Canterbury refugees they have plucked at our heart strings and turned us all into fans.
Posted 17:55 02nd July 2011
Centre12 says...
Wow the Reds were fantastic and the halfbacks in particular, over the moon to see the Reds doing so well these days after quite a few poor seasons in the last 10 years or so. O'Connor must be thinking "ahhhhh did i make the right decision choosing the Reds rather than the Rebels" The prospect of Genia, Cooper, and O'Connor is mouthwatering stuff, not only for the Reds but also for the Walibies. Shame it isn't to be, come on you Reds, you deserve to go all the way.
Posted 15:54 02nd July 2011
davodiablo says...
How does Pat Lam put out a side with no structure , no set piece moves and no passion . This is not a bad squad .but I'm afraid they looked very second place against the Reds who had all of the above . McKenzie should take a lot of credit .
Posted 15:38 02nd July 2011
mikeyj9 says...
Would just like for all the sore loser kiwi fans to just accept the reds are the better team. Blues had no answer for QC or Genia, Quade looked like he was playing against a club team and just having fun. Auckland just didnt have the pace or creativity of the Queensland backs. (although brett should be looked at as a back-up for carter, why is he never mentioned?) even with the unpredictable boot of cooper it was pretty obvious who were the better team.
Just hope our half combination stays healthy for the big dance later in the year.
Now stop your crying and enjoy the most entertaining club in the super rugby competition!
Posted 15:35 02nd July 2011
rohan1992 says...
Great game! Kaplan was the only let down, as a Reds fan I was happy to see some of his calls, but as a fan of good fair flowing rugby he made the game far to stop and start and definately didn't give the blues much time to release the ball and I didn't understand the obstruction call when the blues had the ball!? Still he didn't effect the outcome just the quality my dad who is a mad blues fan and came with me to the game was able to admit that...eventualy!
Posted 15:33 02nd July 2011
Smash40 says...
@ rugby_lord
I don't really agree. The Blues qualified as fourth on the table fair and square. They just didn't really turn up to play this game...and probably would have been outplayed anyway.
Posted 14:51 02nd July 2011
Ramage says...
Whilst I wanted the Blues to win you can't win when you play like that. Poor judgement poor kicks poor tackling poor control of the ball in the backline and in rucks and mauls. Congratulations to the Reds some very good defence but I dont believe you were really tested. However some absolute brilliance from Cooper and the Reds capitalised on some shoddy play by the Blues.
@ yelloj321 What planet are you on Kaplan did not lose the gamefor the Blues. The Blues did that for themselves and they made a magnificent job in doing so. So stop ref bashing as you give no reasons just a bald statement and make NZers seem like idiots with that kind of statement.
@rugbylord what nonsense of course the Blues should have been there they, unless you have forgotten, thrashed the Waratahs and once again the Waratahs were the proverbial flower girls. I repeat once again. That the Blues would have been better defies belief as they werent there they were beaten and ELIMINATED. It shows how the arrogance of the Waratahs supporters who believe they have a divine right to win and is believed only by those in NSW. I repeat they never do when it comes to semis and finalsas they are regular LOSERS.
Posted 14:31 02nd July 2011
adamk says...
Wow... Bit of a let down of a match. Blues didn't turn up at all did they?
Posted 14:26 02nd July 2011
staph_glorious says...
The game was only a one-score affair for the most part; how Payne knocked-on with numbers in the Reds 22 ought remain an infuriation for hopeful Blues fans. I'd still have had the Reds to win as the superior outfit, but without the listless fight at the end for the Auckland side.
Here's hoping for a Reds-Crusaders replay in Brisbane. I wouldn't call a winner on that.
Posted 13:56 02nd July 2011
yelloj321 says...
Kaplan lost us the game.
Posted 13:11 02nd July 2011
rugby_lord says...
Blues should not have been in the playoffs. Pathetic is an understatement. Reds - Tahs game would have been much better. All too easy indeed.
Posted 13:01 02nd July 2011
Smash40 says...
All too easy
Posted 12:53 02nd July 2011
pacfcrugby4eva says...
No comment, just savoring the win. tired of all the crap cynics. Lol.
Posted 12:40 02nd July 2011
SACanuck says...
Well played Reds. Next week will be a cracker.
Posted 12:37 02nd July 2011
startledwombat says...
From the internet radio it sounded like a wonderful game, marred only by the lunatic who gained access to the public address system and for 80 minutes never had the microphone wrestled off him. In the game itself, intercepted passes and the dire consequences of Not Finding Touch are lessons that, surprisingly, continue to need to be learned. Should be a cracker game next week!
Posted 12:32 02nd July 2011