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On Saturday night, the Reds went down to a spirited Sharks 17-30 at Suncorp Stadium in a chaotic final that resembled a war zone as much as it did a football pitch.
Both teams came into this game touted by the experts as real chances to win the competition.
From the kick off, the game was played at a frenetic pace. Neither the Sharks nor the Reds know how to play conservative, Test-match style rugby and this was very evident last night.
Forget structured footy, it was like thirty positively charged magnets running about with some repellent force preventing them from coming into contact with each other for pretty much the entire duration of the game.
The Reds had the worst of it. For some reason, a decision was made from the kickoff that a defensive wall was not required.
I am not sure if this direction came down from the coaching staff, however I suspect it hadn’t. From a distance, Ewen McKenzie doesn’t appear to be a madman.
The Reds played the entire game as though they were four points down with only two minutes left on the clock. Genia, Higginbotham and Gill were keeping the Reds’ title ambitions alive in the first half, with Genia’s sharp flat passes, vision and direct hard running tearing the Sharks’ defence apart.
The Sharks remembered to bring their shoulders with them in the second half, however with the amount of errors made by Genia, defence really wasn’t necessary.
Genia spent the second half rupturing any prospect of the Reds had of accumulating more points than their rivals.
These errors included low-percentage kicks to team-mates, the opposition, and to nobody.
In fact the Reds were determined to kick away any ball they had, spurning the thing as though it reminded them of a bad time in their lives.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fancy footy. The Reds are the team to watch in Australian rugby because they play exciting, enterprising rugby, but there’s a time and a place for it, and the second half of that game was neither.
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.