It took a two-man advantage for Queensland and even then it was sketchy on a night that saw five yellow cards, one red and the Sunwolves enter the closing stages of a bizarre contest with just 12 men on the field.
But the Reds (5-5) will take their 32-26 defeat of the Tokyo side as they stumble within two points of their Super Rugby conference leaders Melbourne.
Fourteen played 12 in the final 10 minutes on Friday as both sides saw red and yellow in farcical Suncorp Stadium scenes while the depleted visitors tried to jag what would have been an incredible match-winner.
The hosts hung on but would have infuriated coach Brad Thorn with their decision making and execution given the head start handed to them by the Sunwolves, who pushed the boundaries with 18 penalties throughout the evening.
“Man, wow … people keep telling me it’s four points,” Thorn said, shrugging his shoulders as he almost took pity on the officials.
“A lot of infringements, not what I’d call attractive rugby and I was disappointed with how we handled that.
“We made hard work of it … but it’s better than losing ugly.”
Queensland butchered ample chances after both Semisi Masirewa and Masataka Mikami were yellow carded trying to illegally slow the Reds’ charge.
Refusing to probe the edges and exploit the overlap, the Reds instead turned the ball over in two scrums and a driving maul when in perfect field position to trail 13-8 at halftime.
But Masirewa’s second yellow for a marginal high tackle was a gift that left the Sunwolves a man down for the last 30 minutes.
Bryce Hegarty’s calm cross-field kick found Sefa Naivalua for the go-ahead try but that only provided brief respite.
Leading 25-19, a horror pass from an unaware Hamish Stewart found Gerhard van den Heever’s waiting arms to see them go ahead by one.
That still wasn’t the end of it though, with another Reds surge leading to another yellow card for Yu Tamura.
Down to 13 men they couldn’t stop Brandon Paenga-Amosa from burrowing over, after he had been denied on review from doing similar minutes earlier.
The final chapter of a shambolic evening played out when young Reds forward Harry Hockings was red carded for a boot to the head and Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco was shown yellow for clinging to his leg in the first place.
Tamura returned for the final seconds of the match as the Reds scraped through to shoot to second on the live conference standings ahead of games against Melbourne and the Waratahs in the next fortnight.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Agree it was tough. I could be wrong in this but my understanding of the way head contact is reffed nowadays there is a heavy onus on the tackler to stay away from the head. The tackle was high enough and from the sort of angle that head contact was almost inevitable - the tackled player didn’t duck it. But then in the NRL it would probably go by unnoticed.
Short Arm
Roar Rookie
The 2nd YC turning into a RC was very harsh on Semisi ??. His arm was always below the shoulder & his shoulder to the head was accidental. So, the ref I think has the discretion to go to a penalty only. But Agnes being Agnes did what he did...I bet if he was in Tokyo he would've kept his card in his pocket.
Short Arm
Roar Rookie
Yes, I agree T22. As I've said in posts in other articles, Agnes is a home ground ref. Hasn't got the balls to upset the home crowd too much & loves the attention on himself. Unfortunately, Nic Berry fell into this category yesterday over in Wellington, too scared to pull a YC on the Canes for repeated infringements even after warning them twice.
Tycoch22
Roar Rookie
Angus Gardner was truly awful. He was pedantic, officious and whistle/card happy. When he was lecturing players he was condescending and he clearly had lost control of his emotions. He also got an awful lot wrong. First Sunwolves yellow card supposedly for entering a ruck from the side, but Kerevi at bottom of ruck clutching ball to his chest with two arms. Shortly afterwards he gave a penalty to Reds for Sunwolves scrum wheeling/not pushing straight but Reds #6 had broken off his side of scrum and crashed into the side of the Sunwolves pack. Then we have the yellow for holding with the red for stamping. Holding is endemic in rugby and needs to be stamped out but it is a penalty not a yellow card. Gardner also awarded the "burrowing" try but the TMO/touchie stepped in. Lastly the 2nd yellow/red was a marginal high tackle - even the biased Reds Comms thought so, A ref with any empathy for the game would have stopped at a penalty, but not Gardner.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
I was referring to the amount of cards handed out, Agent, as SOME, IMO, were not warranted. I actually thought Gardener over reacted is SOME cases. No doubt, there could be, another call for Neutral ref's if these sort of issues carry on.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
I don’t think they played like they deserved a 20 point win. The way I saw it, they won largely due to the SW’s poor discipline.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Yeah that was a shocker! But he’s better (or does less harm) at 15 than 10. Maybe he’s a 12, though.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
I agree he is a bit of a drama queen and also overdoes the lecturing. But I agreed with all but one of the cards (for holding). The red card was a little tough but not much choice, there was head contact and he was basically cornered into by the TMO, he let it slide when it happened in real time.
Highlander
Guest
True Peter, Sunwolves brought a lot on themselves. But the game critical decision to hand out another yellow in the 69th minute looks to be marginal at best, and just plain wrong at worst. See https://imgur.com/gallery/dHomzfI The yellow carded player is the third defender from the ruck at the top of the picture- will overlay the offside line on this image tomorrow if I get time but at first glance looks like he may have not even been offside at all, Gardner is certainly in no position to watch the ball lifted and the defender movement at the same time. The halfbacks delivery is so slow Kerevi gets hit miles behind the adline which make it look way worse.
Danny
Roar Pro
And threw an appalling intercept lest we forget. Maybe he’s really a 10. I don’t think he was very good at 15 last night.
Tycoch22
Guest
You can blame Gardner for a very pedantic, opimiomated display where he was determined to be the centre of attraction
Double Agent
Guest
So if he ignored infringements that would make him a better ref?
Cantab
Guest
Was at the game. Frustrating stuff but the reds nearly won that by a lot, so many close chances. In particular the ‘14 point turn around’ from that no try leading the intercept alone would have made it a 20 point win.
HookerHarry
Roar Rookie
I'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day. Go the reds!
Tooly
Roar Rookie
Angus Gardiner is the worst Referee we have . They should call him Flasher ; he’s always pulling something out.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Agree, we’re still mostly clueless in attack. A good side would have put on 10 tries against the SW with the amount of time they had in the bin. The plan is mostly “chuck it to Samu”.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Yes generally he’s fairly solid there, not dangerous but usually tidies up and carts it up strongly. Would be good to see him and Sefa link up more often.
Muzzo
Roar Rookie
Hahaha The way Gardiner was handing out the cards, it looked lichee had a bad night, the night before playing Poker, or what ever. Lol. How he got the nod, for the upcoming RWC, ahead of Glenn Jackson, makes one wonder. But then look at whose the CEO at World Rugby!!!.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Yes SWs can’t really complain. But I don’t agree with the YC for holding, it’s a blight on the game for sure but it’s not even penalised most times. For eg BPA blatantly pulls down a SW off the ball (at 72:50) and nothing happens.
ethan
Guest
Jim McKay is a well credentialed attack coach. At the start of the season it looked like Thorn had got the right assistants to make up for his weaknesses, so wheres it going wrong?