St.George Queensland Reds lose to Melbourne Rebels in opening Vodafone Super Rugby match

Feb 23 • General News, Super Rugby, Super Rugby News • 1456 Views • Comments Off on St.George Queensland Reds lose to Melbourne Rebels in opening Vodafone Super Rugby match

The St.George Queensland Reds have gone down to the Melbourne Rebels 45-19 in their opening match of the 2018 Vodafone Super Rugby season.

The home-side outscored the Reds seven tries to three, after Queensland was forced to play most of the match shorthanded, following a red card to captain Scott Higginbotham for a dangerous tackle in the ninth minute and a yellow card to Lukhan Tui for a similar offence shortly afterwards.

While disappointed with the result, Reds head coach Brad Thorn said he was pleased with the fight shown by his side.

“It sucks that we lost. I’m not going to gloss over that,” he said.

“We worked really hard in defence but it’s tough when you’re short like that.

“We probably lacked a bit of composure. It’s a young group and they had a lot thrown at them tonight. I thought they handled it as well as they could.

“We had five guys make their debut for Queensland tonight and while it was tough for them, it was great to see them out there after working so hard in the pre-season. It was a cauldron, but it’s a good initiation and I thought they responded well.”

The Reds opened the scoring, despite being down a man, with Duncan Paia’aua crossing for the first try in the 20^th minute. James Tuttle slotted the conversion and the Reds led 7-0.

The Rebels hit back shortly after Tui’s yellow card, crossing for their first try through Sefa Naivalu. Jack Debreczeni slotted the conversion, levelling the score at 7-all.

Despite a two-man disadvantage, the Reds worked their way into the Rebels’ half and the backline combined to put Samu Kerevi over for the team’s second try. Tuttle slotted the conversion, giving the Reds a 14-7 lead.

The Rebels controlled possession for the remainder of the half, and crossed for three tries in quick succession through Tom English, Naivalu and Dane Haylett-Petty to take a 26-14 lead into half-time.

The Rebels started the second half in similar fashion, with Debreczeni and Haylett-Petty crossing in the opening six minutes to extend the home-side’s lead to 38-14.

Debreczeni crossed for his second try in the 54^th minute, slotting the conversion from the sideline to extend the Rebels lead to 45-14.

Chris Feauai-Sautia crossed for the Reds’ third try in the 67^th minute after some solid lead up work from Aidan Toua, taking the score to 45-19.

The Reds’ will play their first home match of the 2018 season next week, when they host the Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium on Friday 2 March.

St.George Queensland Reds 19 (Duncan Paia’aua, Samu Kerevi, Chris Feauai-Sautia tries; James Tuttle 2 con) defeated by Melbourne Rebels 45 (Sefa Naivalu 2, Dane Haylett-Petty 2, Jack Debreczeni 2, Tom English tries; Jack Debreczeni 5 con) at AAMI Park, Melbourne on Friday 23 February 2018.