The Queensland Reds have fallen 47-19 to the NSW Waratahs in a disappointing loss tonight at the Santos Festival of Rugby in Narrabri.<\/p>\n
The match was still in the balance at 26-19 midway through the second half before three converted tries by the Waratahs earned them the victory in Round Two of Super Rugby AUS.<\/p>\n
Waratahs fullback James Hendren ran in his fourth try in the final minutes to complete the scoring.<\/p>\n
The Reds trailed 21-12 at half-time but began the second term exactly as they wanted when Wallabies hooker Matt Faessler speared over in the corner. He completed an attack started by a fine Dre Pakeho run and the final pass from Seru Uru.<\/p>\n
“It was an extremely disappointing performance. We were very wasteful,” Reds Head Coach Les Kiss said.<\/p>\n
“We didn’t apply pressure. We allowed the Waratahs to find traction and they got the momentum.<\/p>\n
“We now have a week to work on ourselves and go to Perth next weekend and produce a much better performance.”<\/p>\n
A panoramic view of the Santos Festival of Rugby site at Narrabri’s Dangar Park. Photo: Erick Lucero<\/p>\n
Kiss was full of praise for the rugby vibe in Narrabri and the crowd turnout for seven hours of rugby with men’s, women’s, sevens and a Classic Wallabies clinic for kids on the menu.<\/p>\n
“What the Santos Festival of Rugby does for a regional centre like Narrabri is fantastic. We’ve felt the feeling for rugby in the town and in the crowd,” Kiss said.<\/p>\n
The Reds lost prop Massimo De Lutiis before half-time with a foot injury. Captain and flyhalf Jock Campbell left the field at the 51-minute mark when he strained a hamstring when chasing winger Sid Harvey.<\/p>\n
Centre Dre Pakeho slipped into No.10 for the remainder of the game.<\/p>\n
Young flanker Tom Robinson again impressed with his workrate. Backrow partner Brial also had strong impacts. Winger Tim Ryan was also busy.<\/p>\n
The Waratahs opened the game at pace with fullback James Hendren completing a 60m team attack with a chip-and-regather for a try after just two minutes.<\/p>\n
The Reds quickly levelled with an excellent try. Well-rehearsed play put the halfback Kalani Thomas in position to deal an inside ball to backrower Joe Brial for the try.<\/p>\n
It was a popular try for local fans considering the Brial family’s Narrabri heritage. Brial’s father Michael was in the crowd watching at the ground where he began his journey to becoming a Wallaby in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
The Reds found themselves down again at 14-7 but again had a quick response.<\/p>\n
This time it was winger Lachie Anderson dotting down out wide after Brial and Thomas had been instrumental in the lead-up.<\/p>\n
Anderson was replaced midway through the first half after reeling out of a tackle made on a NSW player.<\/p>\n
Hendren’s second try put the Waratahs up 21-12, a score carried into half-time.<\/p>\n
Just before half-time, a superb try-saving tackle by Reds fullback Heremaia Murray cut down Waratahs winger Leo Jaques just metres from scoring in the corner.<\/p>\n
NSW Waratahs 47\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tries: James Hendren 4, Jamie Adamson, Jackson Ropata, Clem Haloholo<\/p>\n
Conversions: Sid Harvey 6<\/p>\n
Defeated\u00a0<\/p>\n
Queensland Reds 19<\/p>\n
Tries: Joe Brial, Lachie Anderson, Matt Faessler<\/p>\n
Conversions: Jock Campbell 2<\/p>\n
Half-time: Waratahs 21-Reds 12<\/p>\n
Venue: Dangar Park, Narrabri<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queensland Reds have fallen 47-19 to the NSW Waratahs in a disappointing loss tonight at the Santos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,12061,760,85],"class_list":["post-156398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-queensland-reds","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}