The Western Force have trounced the Queensland Reds, defying the last-minute scratching of NRL recruit Zac Lomax to notch a much-needed Super Rugby Pacific bonus-point win.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s 42-19 result at Suncorp Stadium came after convert Lomax was ruled out less than an hour before kick-off due to hamstring tightness.<\/p>\n
That mattered little to the visitors, who finally converted a good start into victory after four losses this season despite leading at halftime.<\/p>\n
They improved to 2-5 while the Reds fell to 4-3, their second-straight loss dropping them to sixth when victory could have shot them into third place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Force had lost 11 of their last 12 games and 22 of their last 24 on the road, while the Reds had won nine of their last 11 encounters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Force flyhalf Ben Donaldson excelled up against Reds No.10 and Wallabies rival Carter Gordon, running incisive lines and kicking potently both in-play and off the tee.<\/p>\n
Argentinian lock Franco Molina, in for injured Force skipper Jeremy Williams, had a night out with a first-half double and several clutch lineout plays before rolling over for his third try after the final hooter.<\/p>\n
Force fullback Mac Grealy also impressed against his former side, scoring a try after terrific build-up, while his opposite Jock Campbell was one of many Reds who struggled.<\/p>\n
Teenage Reds winger Treyvon Pritchard lasted less than 10 minutes into his starting debut, failing his Head Injury Assessment after copping a knock when making a cover tackle.<\/p>\n
Force prop Tom Robertson followed him soon after when he was caught out of position tackling Tim Ryan.<\/p>\n
And Force winger Darby Lancaster limped off with a lower leg injury after leaping over Campbell to catch a Donaldson bomb and put his side ahead 28-12.<\/p>\n
A late 80-metre effort, finished by Reds winger Filipo Daugunu, looked likely to deny the Force their first bonus-point win over the Reds since 2012 before Molina’s third after the siren.<\/p>\n
Lomax watched it all from the sidelines after pulling up sore following Thursday’s main session in the latest twist to the winger’s rollercoaster year.<\/p>\n
Western Force 42\u00a0(Tries: Molina 3, Grealy, Paenga-Amosa, Lancaster; Cons: Donaldson 6)\u00a0def Queensland Reds 19\u00a0(Tries:\u00a0Ryan, Brial, Daugunu; Cons: Campbell 2)<\/p>\n
Teams:<\/p>\n
Reds:\u00a015 Jock Campbell, 14 Filipo Daugunu, 13 Josh Flook, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Treyvon Pritchard, 10 Carter Gordon, 9 Kalani Thomas, 8 Harry Wilson, 7 Fraser McReight (captain), 6 Joe Brial, 5 Lukhan Salakaia-Loto, 4 Seru Uru, 3 Nick Bloomfield, 2 Josh Nasser, 1 Aidan Ross.
\n\tReplacements: 16 Matt Faessler, 17 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 18 Zane Nonggorr, 19 Hamish Muller, 20 Vaiuta Latu, 21 Louis Werchon, 22 Harry McLaughlin-Phillips, 23 Tim Ryan.<\/p>\n
Force:\u00a015 Mac Grealy, 13 George Bridge, 12 Bayley Kuenzle, 11 Darby Lancaster, 10 Ben Donaldson, 9 Henry Robertson, 8 Vaiolini Ekuasi, 7 Jack Daly, 6 Nick Champion de Crespigny (captain), 5 Darcy Swain, 4 Franco Molina, 3 Misinale Epenisa, 2 Brandon Paenga-Amosa, 1 Tom Robertson.
\n\tReplacements:\u00a016 Nic Dolly, 17 Sef Fa\u2019agase, 18 Harry Johnson-Holmes, 19 Lopeti Faifua, 20 Will Harris, 21 Agustin Moyano, 22 Kurtley Beale, 23 Hamish Stewart<\/p>\n
Referee:\u00a0Ben O\u2019Keeffe
\n\tAssistant referees:\u00a0Todd Petrie, Warwick Lahmert
\n\tTMO:\u00a0Richard Kelly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Western Force have trounced the Queensland Reds, defying the last-minute scratching of NRL recruit Zac Lomax to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-364734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}