It’s official: Reds are in crisis after being put to the sword by Crusaders

WHEN coach Richard Graham was quizzed last week about whether there’d been a crisis meeting over the Reds’ misfires, he didn’t blink.

James Horwill and Richard Graham discuss the heavy defeat at the hands of the Crusaders.

WHEN coach Richard Graham was quizzed last week about whether there’d been a crisis meeting over the Reds’ misfires, he didn’t blink: “We have team meetings ... there’s been no crisis meeting.”

Well, first order of business this week must now be just that ... a crisis meeting.

The Reds are officially in crisis and any Reds player or Queensland rugby official who says otherwise should switch to dressing up as a bobble-head team mascot at the team’s next match against the Melbourne Rebels at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.

When devastated skipper James Horwill was asked “What’s going wrong?” at the post-match media conference following yesterday’s 57-29 embarrassment at Suncorp Stadium, he paused for what seemed like 20 seconds.

News_Image_File: Johnny McNicholl scores a try for the Crusaders despite the best intentions of Quade Cooper.

He probably had 20 half-answers in his mind before saying “Um ... I feel like I’m repeating myself ... soft moments.”

“Wyatt Crockett (quick tap) try ... soft moment. Not chasing a kick ... soft moment (in the Johnny McNicholl try).”

Both happened minutes after half-time, the game was lost and the Reds perhaps rushed into catch-up mode and paid the penalty entering into the fractured play that the Crusaders love.

Too little big-bodied punch out wide, switching on-and-off mentally to allow Crusaders prop Crockett to skip over for a quick tap try, not following the team's own game plans, a poor kick chase generally, conceding 16 tries in three games ... the list goes on.

News_Rich_Media: Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder fronts the media after victory over the Reds.

Too often the Reds look like a team that has been coached in segments and they don't have steady plays to regroup and go again. There are good segments linked with dross in between or not at all.

If that is an issue with the coaching of Graham, Nick Stiles and Steve Meehan, they have to look in the mirror.

Long before Quade Cooper threw a forward pass for an intercept for the Crusaders’ sixth try, the Reds were ruins.

That the first half could throw up so many good points is the frustration of this team.

News_Image_File: Nemani Nadolo is congratulated by his Crusaders teammates after scoring one of his two tries.

“We asked questions of the Crusaders by putting the ball into the corners, applied physical and mental pressure and got the balance right with our running to lead at half-time,” Graham said.

“That 40 minutes was 17-16 our way. The 40 minutes where we went out and did things individually got us to a point where it was 40-odd points to 12 the other way.”

To rub it in, the biggest smile on the field belonged to a guy who loves Queensland. Giant 122kg winger Nemani Nadolo scored twice for the most important people in the crowd, mum Bale and father Isei, the former Queensland winger.

The battering ram type the Reds need was playing for the Crusaders.