The Queensland Reds celebrated with the Super Rugby Next Gen trophy in Perth today after a comprehensive 57-17 victory.<\/p>\n
Slow starts had been a curse in their previous two games so a switched-on 21-0 jump in the opening 11 minutes against the Western Force showed the Reds\u2019 intent.<\/p>\n
The Force were on the back foot from the outset against the power, speed and precision that the young Queenslanders brought to the west.<\/p>\n
The start was telling because the match was over at half-time (33-0) before the Force\u2019s admirable fightback.<\/p>\n
There were heroes aplenty for the Reds who scored 21 tries in all during their rollicking unbeaten run past the ACT Brumbies (47-31), NSW Waratahs (33-26) and the Force in this showcase of the country\u2019s best young rugby talent.<\/p>\n
The spin-off will be a big chunk of selections when the Australia Under-20s squad is named.<\/p>\n
The match was less than two minutes old when the Reds got to work.<\/p>\n
A strong run from lock Charlie Brosnan and another from centre Frankie Goldsbrough, who latched onto a flick pass from hooker John Grenfell, had the Force defence scrambling. A cutout pass from cool flyhalf Finn Mackay put winger Nic Lynagh over untouched to capitalise.<\/p>\n
Reds prop Kingsley Uys charges for the tryline in Perth<\/p>\n
It was 14-0 on five minutes when Grenfell\u2019s strength at the back of a maul set up a chance for prop Levi Slater to surge over on a pick-and-go.<\/p>\n
Mackay may still be just 18 but he\u2019s already one of the best general play kickers in Australian rugby.<\/p>\n
A week after his Super Rugby Pacific debut off the bench for the Reds, he clinically lasered a 25m cross-kick over a Force winger into the arms of flanker Tom Robinson for the Reds\u2019 third try.<\/p>\n
Prop Kingsley Uys\u2019 hunger for work generated two tries close to the line.<\/p>\n
As the second half unfolded, there were fine strikes. Winger Taione Taka shed three defenders for his strong finish to his try.<\/p>\n
He accepted the final pass from centre Dre Pakeho, who threw the final ball to replacement hooker Isaac Rauluni for another after a strong 25m gallop in broken play.<\/p>\n
Flanker Ilan Cloete impressed again. He seized an early turnover. Late in the game, he sliced through, grubber kicked ahead and regained to set up Uys\u2019 second try.<\/p>\n
Grenfell, Uys, lock Kenny Harris, flanker Robinson, Mackay, Pakeho and Taka all had excellent games while others did their jobs superbly.<\/p>\n
Reds centre Dre Pakeho gets away a sharp pass in the Super Rugby Next Gen match in Perth<\/p>\n
Angus Kelly cleanouts, a big Trevor King tackle, replacement prop Jonah Rangiwai\u2019s big tighthead scrum shunt to open the second half and centre Goldsbrough\u2019s 80-minute workrate were other features.<\/p>\n
QUEENSLAND REDS NEXT GEN 57<\/p>\n
Tries: Kingsley Uys 2, Levi Slater, Nic Lynagh, Tom Robinson, Josh Takai, Alfie Bowman,<\/p>\n
Taione Taka, Isaac Rauluni<\/p>\n
Conversions: Nic Lynagh 6\n<\/p>\n
Def<\/p>\n
WESTERN FORCE NEXT GEN 17<\/p>\n
Tries: Migael De Lange 2, Boston Fakafanua<\/p>\n
Conversion: Evan Hooper<\/p>\n
Half-time: Reds 33-Force 0<\/p>\n
Venue: Wanneroo Rugby Club, Perth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Queensland Reds celebrated with the Super Rugby Next Gen trophy in Perth today after a comprehensive 57-17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,12061,760,85],"class_list":["post-494224","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\/494224","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=494224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}