Teams know how to shutdown Reds stars Quade Cooper and Will Genia, as evidenced by the Blues

BLUES coach Sir John Kirwan said his side’s plans to shut down the influence of Reds stars Quade Cooper and Will Genia worked perfectly on Friday.

OUTMUSCLED, over-run and out of attacking ammunition. The double whammy of their two losses in New Zealand has lit up in neon lights that the Reds have been superseded.

Blues coach Sir John Kirwan said that their plans to shut down the influence of Quade Cooper and Will Genia had worked perfectly.

Unfortunately, teams across the 15-team competition are all using such plans in variation to strangle the Reds at their core because there are too few attacking threats elsewhere across the park. The elusive genius of the duo in their 2011 title-year is now being caged.

“For us it was all about our linespeed in defence early on to get the Reds forwards running backwards to rucks so Cooper and Genia were going backwards plus closing down the blindside where Genia has five eyes sometimes,” Kirwan said.

“It was a tough night for the Reds. You can be maybe five per cent off the pace and this competition is very hard indeed.”

The Reds may just be a few per cent off the pace but it is telling.

The ritual booing that Quade Cooper copped at Auckland’s Eden Park throughout the 2011 World Cup actually abated on Friday night and there was some genuine appreciation of his 100th Reds game from the 14,050 Blues fans when he led the team out.

Lolagi Visinia scored the Blues’ second try on Friday.

Post-match he was holding a family block of chocolate gifted to him by a spectator.

Deciphering the crowd noise was the least of his concerns.

“It all sounds the same. It’s very hard to come away empty-handed as a team,” flyhalf Cooper lamented.

“We are not hiding from the fact we were outmuscled and outplayed. At the end of the day the Blues were better but we are going to stick together and keep fighting to the end of the season.

“We are not just playing for ourselves and our season but everyone who has stuck by us and they deserve a big one back at Suncorp Stadium (against the Crusaders tomorrow week).”

Winning the three games the Reds now have back home at Suncorp Stadium night once have been considered a springboard towards the finals. Now, it is a game-by-game fight to win back some credibility by pumping some wins into a lame 3-7 record.

They are deserving of 13th place until they do something about it.