Resurgent Reds scalp the Chiefs

Will Chambers © Gallo Images

The resurgent Reds overturned a 0-15 deficit to pull off yet another giant slaying act by beating the Chiefs 23-18 in their Super 14 rugby match played in Hamilton on Friday.

Blow-by-blow scoring

Superbly marshalled by skipper and scrumhalf Will Genia the Reds defied the odds and a horror start to add the Chiefs scalp to their totem pole and confirm that their shock 41-20 victory over the Crusaders in Week Two was no flash in the pan.

Coming into the match sans four of their top players, James Horwill, Peter Hynes, Digby Ioane and Rod Davies (the latter trio being their first-choice back three), the men from Brisbane were not given much chance of impeding the high-flying Chiefs and the early exchanges confirmed this impression.

Sitivini Sivivatu scored a dead easy try in the third minute, Lelia Masaga was over in the opposite corner in the 9th minute and loosehead prop Sona Taumalolo put the finishing touches to a Stephen Donald break and a strong ruck to touch down the home-side’s third try in the 22nd minute.

All three scores were wide out and Donald missed all three of the conversions but at 15-0 and with the bonus point the next beacon hardly anyone would have been willing to lay a bet that the Chiefs would not go on to score an emphatic victory and top the log in the absence of the Bulls during their bye weekend.

The Reds however confirmed the view that something good’s a’brewing in Australian rugby in general and the new hard edge instilled by Ewen McKenzie in their own play as they set about the hard graft of getting back into the game.

Genia, upon whom the mantle of George Gregan now sits most comfortably, was the conductor, Quade Cooper the soloist and the forwards, with Saia Faingaa, Van Humphries, Scott Higginbotham, Leroy Houston and, especially, Daniel Braid the massed ensemble as the Reds began to play in tune.

Whereas the Chiefs, as is their wont, seldom deviated from their high-risk/high-reward game plan the Reds started to hold the ball and build the phases to force Mils Muliaina’s men into energy-sapping tackles while also maintaining field position.

The plan started to pay off when Cooper brought Will Chambers sniping in from the blindside to score at the posts which with Cooper’s conversion made it 15-7.

A Donald penalty took it to 18-7 but before the change around the much-improved Cooper had kicked two more penalties as the Chiefs started to feel the effects of their inter-continental travels while also failing to eradicate their high error rate.

And who would have said the Chiefs would not score again?

But that is exactly what transpired in the final 40. Cooper pulled the Queenslanders up to 18-16 with his third penalty and then the Chiefs paid the ultimate price for yet again coughing up the ball.

Hard on attack in front of the Reds’ posts the Chiefs knocked on, Daniel Braid lashed the ball forward to get it away from the danger zone and then watched in approval as fullback Luke Monahan outstripped the lazy Chiefs cover runners to gather the ball and score at the posts.

Cooper’s conversion made it a five-point lead and the Reds, concentrating on maintaining the ball through multiple phases, held on from there to frustrate the increasingly frantic Chiefs and send them plummeting to their first defeat of the season.

Scorers were:

Chiefs (18) 18: Tries by Sitiveni Sivivatu (3 min), Lelia Masaga (9 min), Sona Taumalolo (21 min). Stephen Donald kicked a penalty.

Reds (13) 23: Tries by Will Chambers (26 min), Luke Monahan (62 min). Quade Cooper kicked two conversions and three penalties.

Read more on the Super 14 page.

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