Queensland Reds dominate Brumbies in fourth straight Brisbane win

There was no question the Queensland Reds dominated the Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.

The Reds’ Moses Sorovi breaks away from the defence during the round 10 Super Rugby AU against the Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday. Picture: Getty Images

Whether this was a changing of the guard or simply an off night, the Brumbies won’t be evident until their likely meeting in the Super Rugby AU grand final in a fortnight. But there was no question the Queensland Reds dominated the premier Australian side at Suncorp Stadium tonight.

This was the Reds’ fourth straight win over the Brumbies in Brisbane and in the end they did it easily, winning 26-7, while holding their Canberra rivals scoreless throughout the second half.

In their last two meetings, both in Canberra, the Reds had threatened to score a major upset losing 27-24 and 22-20, the last result achieved after the bell when the Brumbies’ Mack Hansen landed a pressure goal. So the result tonight, while significant, looked to have been building for some time.

There was no question that the Brumbies were slightly off their game tonight but it would have to be said that much of their uncharacteristic ineptitude was of the Reds making. The contest at the breakdown was grimly ferocious, with the Queensland flanker Fraser McReight and Liam Wright ever-present over the ball, but all the Reds seemed intent on making a statement with their tackling.

Case in point: replacement Hunter Paisami who came off the bench and smashed Solomone Kata into touch with a try-saving tackle and then lined up Brumbies fullback Tom Banks and then launched himself at him.

Filipo Daugunu offloads mid tackle on Saturday. Picture: Getty Images

It was a night when the Reds had many heroes but arguably it was their least-likely player who outshone them all. Jock Campbell simply doesn’t look like a game breaker. As a fullback, he cuts a relatively slender figure and physically he just doesn’t impose himself on a match. Yet he threw the final pass for the Reds’ opening two tries in the first half, critical passes delivered under pressure. And he was riding shotgun on halfback Tate McDermott as he pounced on a dropped high ball from Bayley Kuenzle and raced away to score the match-sealing try in the 76th minute.

Statistically, he was credited with three try assists in a match in which the Reds scored three tries and while he is never going to smash through a well-set defensive line, give him half a break and he is gone before the defence has even a clue.

“I don’t think we weren’t on (our game),” said Brumbies coach Dan McKellar. “I thought our physicality was good for the most past. But we turned over way too much ball. That’s the reality. We conceded 23 turnovers, which is a lot. We played a lot of footy and there was a lot of space out there that we created. We just weren’t good enough to capitalize. And they defended well on their goal line.”

The Brumbies did, however, complain yet again about the scrummaging of Taniela Tupou, the Reds’ weapon at tighthead. “I felt we were harshly done by,” said ACT captain and tighthead Allan Alaalatoa, who effectively accused Tupou of illegally binding on Scott Sio, the Brumbies loosehead. McKellar echoed the complaint.

Reds coach Brad Thorn was having none of it. “Same old, same old,” he said. Certainly the Queenslanders believed Sio’s elbow was pointed at the ground all night and were hardly surprised referee Nic Berry awarded the Reds at least two scrum penalties because he viewed Tupou as being in the superior position.

The Brumbies Bayley Kuenzle breaks past the defence. Picture: Getty Images

Even though McKellar insisted that it was not difficult to lift for a game which mattered not at all in the overall scheme – the Brumbies finished number one in the competition and will host the grand final on September 19 in Canberra, while the Reds were always going to finish second and will not play the Melbourne Rebels at Suncorp next Saturday. Still, it cannot have been easy making a flight to Brisbane and playing the Reds at home, especially in front of a crowd of 9922, Suncorp’s biggest post-Covid crowd.

The real test will come if they meet the Reds in the grand final although Liam Wright insisted that was not a scenario the Queenslanders were in any way anticipating. “We’re not thinking about Canberra. All we wanted to do was get some momentum going.”

From the outset, that was precisely what the Reds achieved.

Take away the final minute before halftime and it would have been an almost perfect first half from the Queensland Reds. To that point they have scored two outstanding tries – one to Wright off the pass Campbell unloaded in the tackle of Adam Muirhead, the other to winger Chris Feauai-Sautia, and though Campbell threw the final pass it was the brilliant hands of unsung inside centre Hamish Stewart which made the score possible.

Sensibly, too, they had taken the penalty goal points easily on offer. Twice Berry had signalled penalties in the midfield and Wright wasted not a second in pointing to the posts.

But if there is a criticism that can be made of the Reds this year, it is their poor game management around the interval and so it was this time. The Queenslanders got fancy, lost the ball, then conceded a penalty as Angus Blyth scurried to clean up the mess. The Brumbies needed no invitation, kicking for the sideline and swinging the play out to their right wing before Tom Wright strung the Reds defence along with an angled run, finally unloading the ball to number eight Pete Samu for a switch, the Wallabies backrower powering through the wrong footed cover to score.

With Kuenzle landing the relatively easy conversion, the Brumbies headed to the break in far better shape than they had looked throughout most of the half, trailing 7-18. Yes, they did have a Tevita Kuridrani try disallowed when he lost the ball over the line in the tackle of Tate McDermott – who moments earlier had held rival halfback Nic White up over the line with the aid of prop Harry Hoopert – but elsewhere the Brumbies were unaccountably sloppy.

The ferocious Reds defence forced Kuenzle to stand deeper and deeper in attack, giving the Queenslanders the luxury of watching the Brumbies work their plays behind the advantage line and then picking them off at their leisure.

Still, they clearly addressed this problem at halftime and began playing more directly. The opened up a lot of space but, unusually, they weren’t able to score a single point in the second stanza.