Reds can learn from NSW about hard yards

Wayne Smith | March 30, 2009

Article from: The Australian

THE Reds might have scoffed at the "boring" Waratahs a few weeks ago but now injured winger Peter Hynes is calling on his Queensland teammates to emulate NSW's "whatever it takes" approach when they play the Force in Perth on Friday night.

Hynes has been one of the key contributors not just to the Reds' revival this season but also to their surprising emergence as one of the most entertaining sides in the Super 14.

But on Saturday night, still recovering from minor knee surgery the previous day, he was one of 21,041 spectators squirming in their seats at Suncorp Stadium as the Reds forgot the basics, recklessly tried to beat the Chiefs at their own expansive game and lost 50-26. They might have scored four tries but the Chiefs scored six.
The Reds, brilliant last-start winners over competition leaders the Sharks, had gone into the match hoping to break a three-year drought during which they have not once won successive victories. But until they embrace the concept of always putting in the hard yards, they will be doomed to continue in their role as flashy losers.

"I think it comes down to mental toughness," said Hynes, who gives himself no chance of playing against the Force. "The Waratahs are very good in that respect. They do the job week in, week out," he said. "They have the willingness to do the hard yards and play the 'shitty' rugby if that's what is required. We want to play the pretty game but we don't want to do the hard work."

The game was as good as gone when the Chiefs led 19-0 after just 13 minutes. And the two staggering aspects of that scoreline is that for the first six minutes and 19 seconds the Reds were in absolute command, and that during the next 6min41sec the visitors not only scored three tries but had another incorrectly disallowed.

During Queensland's brief opening onslaught, five-eighth Quade Cooper was held up over the line, winger Blair Connor was stopped 10cm short and goalkicker Berrick Barnes ricocheted a penalty goal attempt off the right-hand upright and back into the field of play. There was a swagger about the Reds that bordered on, no, crossed the line into arrogance. Such was their dominance, that when a ball spilled loose, Cooper, rather than dive on it, audaciously kicked it, soccer-style, to Barnes who instantly passed it straight through his legs to winger Rod Davies.

The crowd oohed and aahed but soon after fell silent as Chiefs flanker Tanerau Latimer pinched possession out of the arms of number eight Leroy Houston to trigger a breakout that ended with five-eighth Stephen Donald scoring a 75m runaway try.

The sheer injustice of it all was too much for the young Reds team to comprehend and by the time they had wrapped their heads around what had happened, the Chiefs were in hot pursuit of a bonus point-clinching fourth try. That duly arrived four minutes before half-time when Donald, having noted Connor's earlier willingness to let a garryowen bounce, launched another cross kick in his direction for Muliaina to chase after and touch down.

So now comes the repercussions. Connor or his fellow rookie winger Rod Davies is likely to be dropped to allow Wallabies flyer Digby Ioane to strengthen the back three, although coach Phil Mooney admits he is loath to move Ioane from outside centre where his power and speed could cause the Force midfield of Junior Pelesasa and Ryan Cross real grief.

"The ideal would be to clone Digby but I'm not sure that's legal," Mooney quipped.
"I'm comfortable that the two kids (Connor, 20, and Davies, 19) played. They were on a steep learning curve and I'm sure Blair learned more out there in 40 minutes than he would have in three years of club rugby."

Almost certainly Scott Higginbotham will be reinstated at blindside flanker, pushing Hugh McMeniman back into the second row in place of Van Humphries.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html