Queensland Reds find complete game to smash Western Force

All season long the Reds have been searching for a complete 80-minute performance and they found it against the Western Force.

Reds prop Taniela Tupou was damaging in open play as Queensland piled on a record score against the Force on the Gold Coast. Picture: Getty Images

All season long the Queensland Reds have been searching for a complete 80-minute performance and they found it last night in an away match – on the Gold Coast – against the Western Force.

Such have been the quirks of this COVID-19 affected season that a match just an hour down the M1 from Brisbane, at Cbus Super Stadium, counted as a home match for the team from Perth but the Reds still took full advantage of playing on Queensland soil as they ran in eight tries to one. In the process, they racked up their biggest win over the Force, 57-5.

Last week it was their epic defence against Melbourne Rebels which brought credit to Queensland and their defence coach, Michael Todd. This week, attack coach Jim McKay strode to the front as the Reds unleashed their sensational offloading game to leave the Force defence, gallant though it was, grasping at thin air.

Watch every game of Super Rugby AU Live & On-Demand on Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly

“Yeah, it was polar opposites,” Queensland captain Liam Wright said of the two matches. “We have so many X-factor players in the team, guys running the support lines but it all comes from the first 40-50 minutes during the game when we grind them out. You’ve got to carry it to them to earn the right to play like that.”

He admitted that the offload game, which has fired in patches for Queensland throughout this season but never consistently, finally came together. “It is something they (the Reds coaches Brad Thorn and McKay) promote.”

It was no way for Ian Prior, the Force’s halfback and captain, to celebrate his 30th birthday, but he recognised that his side – which has been on the road for seven weeks – were run off their feet.

“Credit to the Reds, they played really well. You can’t question the effort but it was a tough day. The Reds are playing well, they’re confident and they made the most of their opportunities,” he said.

Halfback Tate McDermott, the hero of the Rebels match with his three try-saving tackles, showed the other side of his game with two astonishing individual tries, the first when he tiptoed down the blindside of a ruck in the 59th minute, the second five minutes later when he took a quick tap and beat four defenders on a mesmerising run to the line.

Winger Filipo Daugunu also grabbed two, flanker Fraser McReight was denied a double when he was ruled to have crawled along the ground after being tackled – one of four Reds tries disallowed – while centre James O’Connor, replacement five-eighth Bryce Hegarty and replacement lock Tuaina Taii Tualima all crossed in the second half, Tualima after the full-time whistle.

Yet arguably the Reds man of the match was tighthead prop Taniela Tupou, who carried the ball for an astonishing 71m, most of them in open-field running.

It seemed, indeed, that the Gold Coast crowd was to be treated to the sight of a runaway Tupou try just on the stroke of halftime when the 135kg Wallabies prop ran a delightful line to split the Force defence. Even though two defenders, Brad Lacey and Kyle Godwin, blocked his path, it seemed nothing could prevent him from scoring between the posts but, to the groans of spectators, he was ankle tapped just short of the line and dropped the ball.

But he did everything right in the 70th minute when he followed up a midfield break by Daugunu, before sending out a very slick, non-prop-like pass to McReight running – as he did all night – in the outside channels. He was brought to ground but the Force had no one left to defend as replacement halfback Moses Sorovi put O’Connor away for yet another try.

O’Connor finished the night with eight goals out of nine attempts and in the process became the first player ever to score 100 Super Rugby points for three separate clubs. He stood tall, unloading three times in tackles for tries.

The Reds may have paid a high price for their victory with Hamish Stewart and Josh Flook both sustaining what appeared to be serious injuries but they go to the bye knowing that they have hit the top of the Super Rugby AU table, although perhaps only until Saturday night’s match between the Brumbies and the Waratahs in Canberra.

The Force weren’t helped with the late switch of playmaker, with Jack McGregor coming in at five-eighth in place of Jono Lance, who went back to the bench to give the gashed face he suffered in last week’s game against the Tahs a little more protection. But really, any change coach Tim Sampson made would have been simply shuffling the deckchairs.