St.George Queensland Reds lose to NSW Waratahs at Suncorp Stadium
The St.George Queensland Reds have lost 29-26 to the NSW Waratahs in Round 10 of Vodafone Super Rugby at Suncorp Stadium.
The Reds, wearing a maroon strip for the first time since 2009, ran in four tries to the Waratahs two but Bernard Foley kicked the visitors to victory, nailing five penalty goals in front of 18,781 spectators.
The Reds led 19-17 at halftime and scored the only try of the second half but were penalised nine times in the second half.
Head coach Nick Stiles said: “We’re just gutted with that result. I thought we played some really good Rugby, but in the second half we couldn’t get any momentum, we couldn’t get out of our half.
“We were good once we got in the 22, our strike rate down there was pretty good but in the second half we only got down there for the maul try and then we didn’t get back there till after full time.”
The home side opened the scoring when Scott Higginbotham picked the ball up off the back of a ruck, delivered a deft offload to Karmichael Hunt who raced away to score under the uprights.
The Waratahs levelled the scores as Nick Phipps burrowed his way and Foley kicked the conversion.
The 7-all scoreline was short lived because flyhalf Quade Cooper hit Hunt with an inside ball to put the fullback through a hole before Hunt offloaded to Lukhan Tui for his first Super Rugby try.
As the clock ticked past the 30-minute mark, the Reds were pinned deep inside their own half but Cooper plucked an intercept, ran 70 meters and grubber to the corner for Izaia Perese to pounce and score.
Off the restart the Waratahs earned a penalty and Foley nailed the 40m effort to reduce the Reds’ lead to nine points.
With a minute and a half left in the first half, Michael Hooper sliced through to score making it a two-point ball game as the teams went down the tunnel for half-time.
After the break, Foley slotted a penalty goal to put the Waratahs ahead for the first time in the match.
The Reds responded soon after, showing good intent to turn down a kickable penalty back their lineout and maul the ball forward for Stephen Moore to score.
Foley reduced the Reds lead to three points in the 63rd minute with a long-range penalty goal before levelling the scores in the 72nd.
The Waratahs flyhalf hit his fifth and final penalty in the 79th minute to give the Waratahs the lead.
The Reds head to New Plymouth next weekend to play the Chiefs on Saturday 6 May 5:35 PM AEST.
St.George Queensland Reds 26 (Karmichael Hunt, Lukhan Tui, Izaia Perese, Stephen Moore tries; Cooper 3 cons) defeated by Waratahs 29 (Nick Phipps, Michael Hooper tries; Bernard Foley 2 cons; Foley 5 pen goal) at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday 29 April 2017.
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