St.George Queensland Reds fall in Brisbane Global Rugby Tens quarter-finals
The St.George Queensland Reds have exited the inaugural Brisbane Global Rugby Tens following a spirited 12-10 loss to the Chiefs in the quarter-finals.
Earlier in the day, the Reds booked their place in the quarters with a 12-5 win over Samoa.
Reds head coach Nick Stiles said he was pleased with what he saw from his team over the course of the tournament, as they build toward the Super Rugby season.
“I think we demonstrated how much we’ve grown in the last four months. The players have pushed themselves incredibly hard throughout the pre-season and we saw some of the benefit of that over the weekend,” Stiles said.
“It was an outstanding effort from the boys to be down to eight players at one point in that quarter and defend as well as they did. I said to the team after the game they showed a lot of heart and character.
“I hope they take a lot from today’s performances. We are looking forward to taking that spirit into our first match of Super Rugby here at Suncorp Stadium in two weeks’ time.”
The Reds’ next outing is a pre-season match against the Melbourne Rebels at Ballymore Stadium on Tuesday 14 February.
Their Super Rugby season starts in two weeks when they host the Sharks at Suncorp Stadium on Friday 24 February.
Match summaries
Pool match – St.George Queensland Reds v Samoa
The Reds collected their first win of the tournament with an entertaining 12-5 win over Samoa.
After finishing Day 1 with a draw and a loss, the Reds finally clinched a result much of their play had warranted from the first day.
The home side opened the scoring with the contender for try of the tournament after Eto Nabuli made a break, beating three defenders, before linking with Karmichael Hunt who passed back inside to young half back Moses Sorovi to score under the posts.
Samoa finally got on the board in the second half after dominating much of the possession and territory, but the Reds snuffed out any chance of a comeback when Hunt put Andrew Ready through a hole to score and wrap up the win.
St.George Queensland Reds 12 (Moses Sorovi, Andrew Ready tries; Duncan Paia’aua con) def. Samoa 5 (Tila Mealoi try).
Quarterfinal – St.George Queensland Reds v Chiefs
The Reds narrowly missed out on a spot in the final four of the tournament, after suffering a 12-10 loss to the Chiefs in the first quarter-final of the day.
Queensland started strongly with a try to damaging centre Samu Kerevi.
Shaun Stevenson responded for the Chiefs, but the Reds kept their noses in front with a spectacular try to Kerevi on half time.
Ill-discipline cost the Reds in the second half with yellow cards to Taniela Tupou and Leroy Houston, and the extra man advantage helped the Chiefs find the match winner as Stevenson bagged his second under posts.
St.George Queensland Reds 10 (Samu Kerevi 2 tries) def. by Chiefs 12 (Shaun Stevenson 2 tries, 1 con).
Related Posts
« Basson joins DHL Stormers for 2017 New Zealand Rugby saddened by Sione Lauaki passing »
